- What’s Happening Now: February 2021
- Updated the sign! Everything Happens So Much.
- Working on the clock. It’s actually moving and telling time, and sometimes it really screws up. Quite maxing out the Arduino CPU running it. Working on cleaning up things so it looks nicer.
- The LEDs in the Nazca cat are burning out for some reason. Maybe I got the voltage wrong. Or, maybe they were cheap eBay LEDs!
- Working on a new video about the CNC Router upgrades we just completed.
- Upgrading the DRO’s on our Aciera F5 mill.
- Thinking about welding something.
- DRO has been upgraded on the Aciera F5 to a 3 axis unit from DROPROS.com. Very happy with the upgrade.
- Switching the clock over to Teensy 4.1 device – has a much more powerful CPU and a lot of nice capabilities. This is done now, and things are much improved.
- Written 10 rendering routines for time, selectable by a pot, so you can set the clock to be quiet, or more rambunctious.
- Released video for CNC Router upgrade
- Continuing to improve the CNC Router – stiffening the rack and pinion gear system. Done!
- Working on a small end-table for a couch
- Updated the sign! I am not a cat – maybe.
- Cleaning out the rubbish in the storage area. Old stuff from my childhood, micro-boards I’ll never use, old books and CD’s.
- Updated the sign again! First I was afraid, I was petrified.
- What’s Happening Now: January 2021
- For the Chain Drive Clock – the numbers we had cut on our laser were too brittle. We needed to switch to Polycarbonate (Lexan), but we can’t cut this on our laser as it gives off chlorine gas, which will kill us. We had numbers cut at Carleton University on their waterjet cutter – and this worked great, with fast turn-around, and excellent accuracy. I’ve also ordered components to do a 1:3 reduction on the gearing for the stepper motors so that they’ll be able to handle longer chain lengths and heavier numbers. I ordered teeny tiny drive chains for this and they are impossibly cute. I wanted to stick with chain, obviously.
- The CNC router rebuild is coming along nicely. I ordered a bunch of parts from AvidCNC for the Z axis and a new spindle – 8.7HP!! I built an adapter plate out of 3/4″ aluminum, machining it on the F5 mill. Just lovely to use that machine. The CNC Router is back up and running, and I’ll be working on the dust collection next.
- The wine racks for dfwine.ca are about done – just getting their last coat or two of finish. I tried to cut corners and put on a heavier coat of finish – which just ended up dripping and running and looking horrible. So, now I get to sand it back to flat, and then do more finish coats. Gotta learn to avoid shortcuts, and just do things right.
- The Nazca cat in the window of our studio is getting dimmer, which is annoying. The fake neon LED strips seem to fade out after a month of continuous illumination. It’s a pain to have to replace all these LED strips. And where the heck can I find better quality lighting for this?
- Another big-ish project this month was drilling out all the holes on our welding table to 5/8″. We had originally cut them on the CNC Plasma a bit small, with the intention of drilling them out. Well, Reg got into it, and spent a couple of days drilling holes. Thankful we had the mag drill for this.
- I came into the shop on the weekend just to play around with the CNC. I used the Stipplegen2 program to process some images and then cut them on the CNC Router. I did things like Einstein, The mona Lisa, a big banana, a fingerprint and my logo. It’s interesting to see how stipplegen2 works and how to best process images for it, and how to CAM the output so it looks decent.
- i found out that the rack and pinion drive system was causing me some issues on the CNC. I can actually see the rack gear flexing enough to make the whole CNC Gantry move by up to 1/8″ when it reverses direction. I’ve ordered some more rack clips to see if I can stiffen the system. And then I’ll finish the fine tuning by relaxing the motor acceleration parameters a bit.
- Back to the Chain Drive Clock – assembling with the waterjet cut digits and a much longer chain. I’ll have to revamp the code to deal with the longer, heavier chain. I have also ordered the parts for a 3:1 reduction in case needed. My feeling now is that it won’t be needed.
- I played around with box making software like https://en.makercase.com/ and the built-in Vectric box gadget just to try to get a recipe together for fast boxes. Every solution has issues, but I made a bunch of useful boxes and parts trays for projects on the go! I also wasted quite a bit of plywood. It’s odd that the Vectric box gadget doesn’t save some of the important settings – but the code for the widget is available and pretty easy to modify, so I’ll just do that. I found another box gadget on the Vectric forums – but the code was a nightmare. Impossible to fix it’s issues.
- What’s Happening Now: December 2020
- Still working on the Chain Drive Clock. There’s a lot of electronics, software, mechanicals and other processes in this project.
- Video out about the Supply boxes around the studio
- Working on a video about our new Aciera F5 mill. We are very happy with this machine!
- Working on cutting a lot of numbers out of Lexan. It’s not laser friendly, and the CNC is not excited about cutting it either…
- Designing a faster way to make the Wine Display project – a whole lotta CNCing. Build time should be reduced to an hour or two. Down from a few days.
- Working on the design for a cool, small table.
- Working on the display frame for the Chain Drive Clock.
- A whole lot of rocket launches this week. We put them up on the huge screen in the gallery. SpaceX’s SN8 was awesome.
- Set up the Electronics workbench with a nice tool chest, etc. It’s nice to have a dedicated workspace for this stuff.
- Going through the storage area and labeling things. Sorting things. Organizing things.
- Started a project to beef up the main CNC router. Ordered parts to stiffen the gantry, and improve the spindle. 9 horsepower, 3 phase spindle!!!
- Installed components to stiffen the CNC Router Gantry. Much better.
- Reg is back! Building a bunch of Wine Racks for David at dfwine.ca. The CNC Router has been very busy cutting all the parts for the wine racks. We are using a new design that is more CNC friendly – but a bit less sexy than the last iteration.
- Repaired a chair! It’s nice to be able to weld stuff whenever you want.
- What’s Happening Now: November 2020
- Welcoming Nicholas to the shop! He’s working on some cool stuff with Google Quickdraw and Python
- Finishing edits on the Wine display video with Gisela
- Working on the Chain drive clock – having fun calibrating Teknic motors, and working on some Arduino code
- Wine display video released to great reception!
- Working on the Nazca Cat video
- Our new sign was installed outside our studio! It has a large banana.
- Updated sign words to “A Banana!”
- Nazca cat video released! https://youtu.be/6xYFYJ-v6sY
- Built an interface board for the Chain drive clock. Also, have all the numbers cut out, and motors mounted.
- The drive belt on the Aciera F5 mill broke! Ordered in belt pieces and made a new one using alligator clamp.
- Updated sign words to “You made me miss the slick rick gig”
- Snow!!
- Broke down and made a facebook page.
- And now, programming for the chain drive clock.
- What’s Happening Now: October 2020
- Finishing a dining table
- Getting the Aciera F5 up and running
- Working on a wine display for dfwine.ca
- Rewired all the gallery lights
- Welcomed our new studio manager/videographer Gisela!
- Portrait of Rich using TSP pointillism algorithm using StippleGen 2
- Building a rack for Cat40 holders on the plasma cutter
- Making @DougDougTheWelder a Guitar pick guard
- Setting up Car storage
- Working on CAD for an improved wine display
- Starting on a Chain drive clock project
- Building a Cat40 drawbar for the F5
- Learning how to use a ginormous lathe
- Working on an illuminated “neon” sign of the new Inca Cat in Peru
- Filmed a quick shop tour for Makers Mob
- Made a quick stand/base for the Inca Cat sign – and we’re displaying it in the window of the studio!