November 22, 2009

Starting with a pile..

Starting with a pile..

It slowly comes together...

It slowly comes together...

and somehow turned in to this.

and somehow turned in to this.

and this (Yes I know it needs sandign)

and this (Yes I know it needs sandign)

Neat!

Neat!

Look at this! Made from a pile of solidworks files and 150 lbs of MDF, this proof of concept model is ready to go. Machined on the router using a 1/4” carbide cutter….eventually…after a string of cutting failures (and temper-tantrums) that was traced back to a loose motor wire. Sometimes I is smart like that. As many people know, MDF is an evil but very cheap and homogeneous material. I hate it, and it clogs up my dust collector and my lungs, but like I said… it’s cheap and easy to get, and if you have really sharp tools, it cuts relatively well.

The final products, from artist Peter Coffin (yes there will be a series of a LOT of different patterns) will be in real wood, likely from MANY more pieces than shown here. Plus, Peter will be adding about 10 times as many cool things in addition to just having awesome wooden roller coasters. I guess you’ll just have to go to see his show. Anybody wanna be an intern when this job comes through?

November 21, 2009
Plastic things! These little buggers were CNC milled out of HDPE plastic (same as milk jugs) using a high speed spindle (24,000 RPM) with a single flute, 1/8” diameter soft plastic cutting bit - Just that one single tool. They were fixtured to a scrap of solid surface counter top with double sided tape and cut from a sheet in 8 pieces at a time. As I said before, this type of soft plastic along with polypropylene are actually pretty difficult to machine because of their low melting temperatures.

Plastic things!

These little buggers were CNC milled out of HDPE plastic (same as milk jugs) using a high speed spindle (24,000 RPM) with a single flute, 1/8” diameter soft plastic cutting bit - Just that one single tool. They were fixtured to a scrap of solid surface counter top with double sided tape and cut from a sheet in 8 pieces at a time. As I said before, this type of soft plastic along with polypropylene are actually pretty difficult to machine because of their low melting temperatures.

November 19, 2009
Piles and Piles of Solidworks Files A project for Peter Coffin Studios

Piles and Piles of Solidworks Files

A project for Peter Coffin Studios

November 16, 2009
Kaleidoscopic Copper Awesomeness. Jon Pettingill is working on a lamp here at the shop. This is a copper pipe with a CNC drilled copper disk at the end.

Kaleidoscopic Copper Awesomeness.

Jon Pettingill is working on a lamp here at the shop. This is a copper pipe with a CNC drilled copper disk at the end.

117 pieces of 1/16” aluminum, CNC engraved and routed out to become awesome Wintercheck Factory goodies. The engraving looks really nice, but it could use some optimization. It took almost 3 hours just for the text. This was obviously a programming issue, which will be addressed in later runs.

117 pieces of 1/16” aluminum, CNC engraved and routed out to become awesome Wintercheck Factory goodies. The engraving looks really nice, but it could use some optimization. It took almost 3 hours just for the text. This was obviously a programming issue, which will be addressed in later runs.

Finalized Wintercheck Factory engraving on the aluminum plate - Note the generous slathering of cinnamon scented kerosene keeping the cutting action smooth.

Finalized Wintercheck Factory engraving on the aluminum plate - Note the generous slathering of cinnamon scented kerosene keeping the cutting action smooth.

“F” is the “Factory” in the Wintercheck Factory. Here’s the start of an engraving pass on a series of fancy-pants money holders that are another piece in the long line of awesome goodies by Kristen and company. This job is being run on the CNC router, material is 1/16” aluminum, alloy 6061.

“F” is the “Factory” in the Wintercheck Factory. Here’s the start of an engraving pass on a series of fancy-pants money holders that are another piece in the long line of awesome goodies by Kristen and company. This job is being run on the CNC router, material is 1/16” aluminum, alloy 6061.

November 13, 2009
A pile of plastic parts - Machined on the mill with the high speed spindle. Material is HDPE, or high density polyethylene - Pretty much the same thing as plastic milk jugs. It’s not a very fun material to work with since it’s quite soft and likes to melt and re-weld when you cut it. The trick? Single flute cutters with polished gullets, and moving the bit through the material MORE aggressively, not less. Strange, you’d think that being more gentle would be the answer to generating less heat, but in this case, it’ just the opposite. In milling, heat is always generated in three places - the part, the tool, and the chips (sawdust, shavings, etc) If you’re doing it right, 5% of the heat goes in to the cutting tool, 5% goes in to the part that you’re cutting, and the remaining 90% goes away in the chips.  If the chips are too fine, they’re not massive enough to carry away enough heat, and stuff gets hot…. and that’s when all hell breaks loose. Like most things, this process and this job works its best at a point that’s just shy of where it breaks.

A pile of plastic parts - Machined on the mill with the high speed spindle. Material is HDPE, or high density polyethylene - Pretty much the same thing as plastic milk jugs. It’s not a very fun material to work with since it’s quite soft and likes to melt and re-weld when you cut it. The trick? Single flute cutters with polished gullets, and moving the bit through the material MORE aggressively, not less. Strange, you’d think that being more gentle would be the answer to generating less heat, but in this case, it’ just the opposite. In milling, heat is always generated in three places - the part, the tool, and the chips (sawdust, shavings, etc) If you’re doing it right, 5% of the heat goes in to the cutting tool, 5% goes in to the part that you’re cutting, and the remaining 90% goes away in the chips.  If the chips are too fine, they’re not massive enough to carry away enough heat, and stuff gets hot…. and that’s when all hell breaks loose. Like most things, this process and this job works its best at a point that’s just shy of where it breaks.

November 11, 2009

All of the bits of the driver circuit

All of the bits of the driver circuit

Put together and ready to test

Put together and ready to test

It works!

It works!

I needed a new light for my microscope, and I was tired of the halogen lamps blowing out constantly in the old unit. LEDs were the answer. I ordered a driver and two 1-watt LEDs, and they arrived today. Over-all results are so-so.  Believe it or not, the main benefit to white LEDs is that they are durable and have a long life-span. Efficient they are not, at least not most of them.  Many of the early models are no better than a halogen lamp. White LEDs are actually tricky little buggers. There isn’t a semiconductor material that actually emits white.  A white LED is actually a blue/violet LED with a phosphor coating over the silicon chip inside. When the blue light strikes the phosphor, it fluoresces in other colors that blend together to make white, in much the same way as a regular fluorescent lamp works.  Colored LEDS are another story though, and they’re pretty good compared to conventional colored light sources. This is because generally we encounter white lights with filters over them, which means that in a traffic light, the filter blocks all of the light from the bulb EXCEPT for the green or red or whatever. The rest of that light turns in to heat. So however efficient that the lamp happens to be, it gets cut to 25% of that or whatever, and well… it all adds up to suck. Colored LEDs actually emit their designated color directly, so no conversion and filtering is needed, and efficiency is far, far higher than filtered incandescent.

A new tool at the Kontraptionist lab… It’s a soldering iron! This is one long over-due upgrade. Now I can finally fix my Roomba.

A new tool at the Kontraptionist lab… It’s a soldering iron! This is one long over-due upgrade. Now I can finally fix my Roomba.

November 9, 2009

So, this is the new high speed AC spindle actually using a little bit of it’s 1.3 horsepower.  Cuts processing time of each part from over an hour to just over 18 minutes.

November 5, 2009
I (heart) my intern.

I (heart) my intern.

November 4, 2009
White translucent acrylic being routed for the “Silk Road” exhibit at AMNH. Opens November 14th, 2009!

White translucent acrylic being routed for the “Silk Road” exhibit at AMNH. Opens November 14th, 2009!

Re-creation of an Islamic Astrolabe, Bagdhad c.1000AD Laser etching vs. Kontraptionist engraving In fairness, brass is NOT easy to engrave with a laser. Whoever did this did a good job to be certain… and it’s mostly readable, however that 6º mark is a pretty important one for this exhibit, which is interactive, and the laser etching was too distorted to be easily readable. The museum brought me this piece on Monday night, along with an Adobe Illustrator file. It was indexed and indicated on the CNC mill, the new, larger clean and crisp “6º” engraved, chemically darkened to match the laser etching, and ready for pickup before lunch on the very next day. Little challenging jobs like these are FUN, especially when they come out this good. ©2009 AMNH, Design by L. Patrick

Re-creation of an Islamic Astrolabe, Bagdhad c.1000AD

Laser etching vs. Kontraptionist engraving

In fairness, brass is NOT easy to engrave with a laser. Whoever did this did a good job to be certain… and it’s mostly readable, however that 6º mark is a pretty important one for this exhibit, which is interactive, and the laser etching was too distorted to be easily readable. The museum brought me this piece on Monday night, along with an Adobe Illustrator file. It was indexed and indicated on the CNC mill, the new, larger clean and crisp “6º” engraved, chemically darkened to match the laser etching, and ready for pickup before lunch on the very next day.

Little challenging jobs like these are FUN, especially when they come out this good.

©2009 AMNH, Design by L. Patrick

November 2, 2009

- Orphanage Mopeds -

The moped guys down the street.

Anyway, what we have here is a set of intake manifold spacers for a hop-op job they’re doing for a guy. Milled from 6061 plate aluminum, this will allow a new, bigger carburetor to be fitted to the engine without it smacking straight in to the gear box.

Done on the CNC mill.

Photo of Ryan STOLEN completely without permission from the Orphanage blog.