Laser Cutter

Friggin Lasers!

Most hackspaces have a laser cutter and they are considered invaluable by most members. Lots of people join a hackspace for access to a laser cutter and then stay when they realise what else is on offer. So we need one partly to attract new members but also because we really ant to play with one.

What to buy

There are lots of options when it comes to makes & models of cutter. As you would expect if you go high end you have to pay a lot of money. For example a Epilog Zing 16 30 Watt Laser is £9600 to purchase and the replacement laser tubes come close to a grand each. You do get...

Posted in Laser cutter on Jul 26, 2016

Car Speedo

How to upgrade an old mechanical speedo with GPS and Ardunio
Posted on May 31, 2016

Beginners Welding course

Learning to Weld

I have been self teaching myself welding for a year or so. I picked up the cheapest entry level MIG (Clarke Pro 90 MIG Welder) off ebay and just went at it. Some other kind folks at Hackspace (Steve and Neil) showed me some arc (MMA = manual metal arc) and gave me some time on a proper MIG setup which made be realise how "Pro" has no place in the name of my Clarke Pro 90. So when another member (Barny) posted a Beginners and Improvers Welding course at Easton college I thought it would be a good idea to get some proper training and fun too. So this is what we learnt. Barny

What is ...

Posted on May 06, 2016

Digital Sundial

How would you make a sundial that displays the time with digits? No power required and is even adjustable for British summer time.
Posted in Projects on Feb 12, 2016

3D-Printed Prosthetic hand

3D-Printed Prosthetic hand

The Raptor hand is a design of prosthetic hand that can be printed on consumer grade 3d printers like the Ultimaker 2. Anyone can get the files from Thingiverse and make one. We didand were amazed by the reactions from kids and parents

The designer Jacky Wan explains the hand project to Norm from tested. Also shows a new design that has a cooler steampunk feel as well as some cool modifications like 3d printed temsioners that replace those pesky screws.

This is the difference a hand can make to a child

Posted in 3d printing on Feb 12, 2016

TextStar Serial LCD Display

TextStar is a small LCD (liquid crystal display) that is easily controlled using basic serial command from and Arduino or similar. Great for debugging and has a some nice bar graph features built in. Not very cheap tho.
Posted in Product review on Jan 18, 2016

Shapeoko CNC router update #5

Configuring GRBL
Posted in Projects on Jan 02, 2016

Shapeoko CNC router update #4

End stops, calibration cut and a new box for the control board
Posted in Projects on Nov 18, 2015

Shapeoko CNC router update #3

Confusing, frustration and then success.
Posted in Projects on Nov 12, 2015

Shapeoko CNC router update #2

We continue the project to refine the Shapeoko by replacing the RAMPS shield with a CNC shield.
Posted in Projects on Oct 21, 2015