lasers

Spook Neighborhood Children with this Tombstone of Terror

Halloween Forum member Havok1919 built this Halloween gravestone he calls the Technological Tombstone of Terror. The tombstone itself is constructed from pink insulation foam, adorned with prop bones and pre-cut wood scrollwork. It was then was finished with acrylic paint applied using a paintbrush and an airbrush. For the flaming pentagram, he mounted an old LCD monitor inside the tombstone, which plays a video loop of flames. To achieve the laser effect behind the skull, he used a small mirror on a DC motor and pointed a green laser diode into it. A small fog machine and a few LEDs finish off the nice lighting effect. Luckily for us, he has documented his build in great detail.

Continue Reading Matt Richardson
Ring-shaped 3D Scanner

Ring-shaped 3D Scanner

MAKE subscriber Uros wrote to us to share the projects by some of the students in ENSCI, a product design school in Paris, France. I especially liked the design of the 3D scanner demonstrated in the video above. The scanner uses a laser pointer moving along a ring-shaped track around an object to find a […]

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Attaching Motors (and Attaching to Motors)

Recently, we’ve been messing about with motors and gears at Pemtech. Students in one of my classes are building an underwater ROV, and we don’t have any decent propellers. Rather than shop for them, we’re fabbing our own with the laser cutter and Makerbot. Earlier this week, Jett worked out the proper dimensions to fit a plate to a motor shaft. He did this by measuring out a range of holes and then cutting them in quarter inch acrlyic. Once they came out of the laser, he tried pushing the motor into each of the holes until he found the ‘goldilocks fit.’ Once we had a plate, he used the same process to cut a series of holes in the plate that could be threaded with M3 screws. This setup allows us to attach anything to a motor.

Continue Reading Chris Connors4
Laser Cut Celly Holders

Laser Cut Celly Holders

In one of my classes, we’re making cell phone pouches recently. On Monday, we looked at some fabric iPod cases on Flickr, and then they made sketch models with paper and tape. Sketch models are a very quick model that allows you to see about what the design will be before committing lots of time, expense and materials to the design. The sketch model allows you to hold the idea in your hand in the fastest turnaround possible. They had about 20 minutes to make theirs, which placed an emphases on speed over perfection, which could come later.

Students next transferred the measurements to the computer and cut the shapes with the laser. On Thursday, some started cutting t-shirt fabric on the laser. A couple of students are sewing with hand but fabric glue is faster. As a finished product, glue probably isn’t the best, but it allows very quick feedback on the design’s measurements. One student wanted to photo on to his design, so we managed to raster an image onto the fabric. This weekend I scored a free sewing machine and associated gear, which should open up some new possibilities.

Continue Reading Chris Connors14
DIY pillbox laser projector

DIY pillbox laser projector

What do you get when you combine a laser pointer, pillbox, and an Arduino? If you’re maker Raul Aguaviva, you’ll get an awesome DIY laser projector, of course. In addition to its relatively spartan design, the creative use of a heptagonal pillbox for a polygon greatly reduces the overall cost and complexity of the device.

Continue Reading Adam Flaherty4