Digital fabrication tools have revolutionized the way designers, engineers, and artisans express their creativity. With the right resources, you can learn to use these powerful instruments in no time! Whether it’s 3D printing or laser cutting that interests you, these articles will provide useful tutorials and inspiration for makers of all levels. Discover how digital fabrication can open up new possibilities so that your craftsmanship is truly extraordinary!
Rob over at MachinistBlog.com has been in contact with Dutchman Jeroen Jonkman, who has generously agreed to make the plans for his Stirling ’60’ gamma-configuration Stirling-cycle engine freely available for download there.
Using a retractable-chain key ring to keep your chuck key close at hand.
A Spanish craftsman named Patelo skillfully designed and fabricated this tiny working V-12 motor from stock stainless steel, aluminum, and bronze for his grandchildren Sara, Carmen, Jose and Pablo. It took more than 1200 hours of work. Not counting the 222 screws, he machined all 261 pieces himself. The engine operates via compressed-air injection, has 12cm3 total displacement, 11.3mm cylinder heads, and a 10mm stroke on each piston.
This is the second installment of my series on building Rick and Karen Pollack’s MakerGear Mosaic 3D printer. This part covers assembly of the robot’s first of three Cartesian axes. One of the nice features of the Mosaic kit is that several of the more complex subassemblies are supplied pre-built, greatly simplifying construction. This stage of the build consists essentially of…
A full-size turret mill is, of necessity, a heavy, expensive piece of equipment, impractical for most individual owners due to space and/or monetary constraints. For hobby work, however, a so-called “mini mill” can perform very well. The chief limitation of a mini-mill is not so much the quality of the work it can produce, but the size of the work it can handle.
Making is as much about exploring as it is about building. Exploring new ways of problem-solving, understanding how things are made, how machine components fit together. And this week, for me, about exploring new tools.
Chicago’s American Machine Tools Corporation buys, sells, ships, and repairs heavy machine tools all over the world. They also maintain a curriculum of free, online, non-brand-specific operator education materials, including the best general How to Use a Milling Machine page I’ve seen. There are no videos, but personally I prefer old-fashioned text and diagrams for this purpose. If you are interested in movies, however, check out MIT’s Introduction to the Mill.
