Author: Maker Block

Have you ever tried to microwave a printed part?

I’m very curious what would happen, but don’t want to try this with my home kitchen microwave.  If you have tried it, what did you discover?  What do you think would happen?  Is it a bad idea?  I haven’t tried it in part because I think it sounds like a bad idea…  What would happen with ABS?  With PLA?

Skeinosaur – I choose you!

A printable knitting machine?!  Awesome.  Everything about this is just plain awesome.

3/9/2008:  “Homemade knitting machine using old printer parts, two servos and a Picaxe-18x microcontroller”

2/7/2009: “Faster machine with new carriage, needle and wool drive designs.”

4/30/2009: “Semi automatic machine where the needles are fixed.”

11/7/2009:  “Simple to construct and use knitting gadget”

Dang.  I have zero desire to knit – but I really kinda want to build these…

Also, obligatory reference to evidence of my evil lazzor dinosaur army defeating Team Buser.  Also, thanks to one Tony Buser for the above info and links!

Your mamma was so rusty

I recently watched this bit from Doctor Who.  Cybermen and Daleks insulting one another?  Heck yes!

  • Our species are similar, though your design is inelegant.
  • Daleks have no concept of eh-leh-gance.
  • This is obvious.  But, consider – our technologies are compatible.  Cybermen plus Daleks.  Together we could upgrade the universe.
  • Request denied.
  • Hostile elements will be deleted.
  • Exterminate.
  • Open visual link.  Daleks be warned.  You have declared war upon the Cybermen.
  • This is not war.  This is pest control.
  • We have five million Cybermen.  How many are you?
  • Four.
  • You would destroy the Cybermen with four Daleks?
  • We would destroy the Cybermen with one Dalek.  You are superior in only one respect.
  • What is that?
  • You are better at dying.

Men just don’t understand…

So, let’s say I was a tinkerer1 and you told me that you could show me a robot that could make things out of plastic that I would normally have to cobble together out of junk.  I would say that is awesome.

During the most recent Ask An Engineer Woz was2 talking about her knitting machine.  LIGHT BULB.

Honey!  Honey!  Guess what?!   Did you know there are such things as KNITTING MACHINES!?!  I mean, ROBOTS that would do all that tedious knitting FOR you!  We could just program it and it would just make stuff for us!  Isn’t this awesome?!  <Wait for squeals of glee>

.

..

…

Apparently there’s something about the act of knitting that is considered productive.  I don’t know.  I’m not convinced.

Isn’t humankind just all leading up to the point that we’re all like the Jetsons and I have a robot at work that pushes the single button for me.3 And jetpacks.  Can’t forget the jetpacks.

Where was I?

Oh, knitting robots.  Okay, here’s the thing – I may not be interested in knitting, but a knitting robot interests me. 4 5  I am not interested in knitting something myself any more than I am interested in actually building something layer by layer with a hot glue gun that shoots molten ABS. 6  But, I am interested in having plastic stuff just as I’m interested in having clothing.

Heck, if I had a super big and super fast knitting robot, I’d probably try to weave paper or cardboard into clothing and then wear it and then try to recycle it into something else. 789 1011

Also, this is what I believe a knitting robot would look like:

  1. which I am [↩]
  2. Was she? [↩]
  3. Reminds me of an old joke about a man and a dog and a data center.  Supposedly you only need one of each to run a data center.  The man to feed the dog and the dog to make sure the man doesn’t touch any buttons. [↩]
  4. Then again, a robot anything interest me. [↩]
  5. A robot carrot, you say?  Tell me more! [↩]
  6. I take that back.  Now that I think about it, a molten plastic gun might be kinda cool.  Bad analogy.  That’s not the point. [↩]
  7. And, I’d be all, *clap* *clap* Knitting Robot!  OoooooooooHHHhhhhhh Knitting Roooooobot!  Knit me a pony Knitting Robot. [↩]
  8. That pony doesn’t look happy enough.  Destroy that pony Knitting Robot.  Make me a HAPPY pony! [↩]
  9. Oh, this one is too happy.  Destroy this pony Knitting Robot.  Knitting Robot…  destroy all ponies. [↩]
  10. Knitting Robot, are you crying? [↩]
  11. Thanks to Dna for the link! [↩]

I had a dream last night…

And, it isn’t the first time.  I was going into excruciating detail about calculating and calibrating a good Skeinforge profile.  Well, we can use a thread thickness of such-and-such, a layer height of such and such, oh, and what plastic are you using?

Admittedly, just before bed I had chatted with several MakerBot/RepRap guys and was tinkering with ProfileMaker v3.0, so math and SCIENCE must have been dominating my thoughts.

Love the smell of burning wood in the morning…

I just added a Relay Board Mounting Kit to my Cupcake.  It’s been a few months since I’ve assembled something from a laser cut kit, so having that now-familiar smell of burnt wood, ash, and singed adhesive…  Ah!  That takes me back to when I first assembled my Cupcake!

Anyhow, up until this morning1 my Relay Board was hanging off the side of my Cupcake by the very wires it was connected to.  In order to prevent it from shorting anything I had wrapped it in the anti-static plastic my circuit boards came in and then used electrical tape to seal it all up.  Not the best way to do things and certainly enough to prove the world at large that I’m NOT an electrical engineer…2

  1. It’s very very early or very very late, depending upon your perspective [↩]
  2. Like I had trouble convincing people before… [↩]

ProfileMaker v3.0

It’s online and ready for testing.  I would appreciate the help of any beta testers.  Here’s what you need to play:

  • A Thing-O-Matic with a MK6 Stepstruder
  • Ideally you have filament in 1.75mm and 3mm diameters and in both ABS and PLA
  • A fair amount of patience, a willingness to print off some test objects with a variety of profiles, and the ability to summarize your findings for me

To entice you, here’s what v3.0 can do right now:

  • Provide good settings for your Thing-O-Matic MK6 Stepstruder for ABS or PLA in 1.75mm or 3mm diameters running a Heated Build Platform or Automated Build Platform
  • Allow you to specify the gear diameter, gear swell, and feed rate
  • Allow you to generate a full profile based on any stock Thing-O-Matic profile – along with the solidity/fill ratio
  • E-mail you the finished profile as a zip file

I’m still struggling with the math required for a DC motor extruder.  However, as soon as I get that sorted out, I look forward to updating this web app to provide Cupcake and Thing-O-Matic MK5 DC motor calculations and profiles as well.

So!  Do you have what it takes?