Laser engraving is cool, but it misses colors. How about a little touch of acrylic paint?
Result looks pretty cool!
This is Belarussian coat of arms “Pahonia”, which means “chase”, BTW.
Shall I do more of those types of projects?
Feb
02
Jan
31
Program STM32 via USB
STM32 is an awesome alternative to Arduino board. Unlike 328P, it has native (fast) USB support. It is cheaper than 32U4. And it faster, 32 bit and has 10x more RAM!
Also, unlike Atmel, counterfeits wannabes are clearly identifiable (look at the microcontroller on your board. If it is CH32 – throw it into a trash can. STM32 and CKS32 are good)
It is easy to make it work – just follow the instructions:
(you can also use ST-Link V2 and connect to the board via 4 wires. I have found this approach very reliable. You can both flash firmware and upload sketches from Arduino IDE. I set both boot header switches to “1″ when I do it. But programming via USB is more convenient, right?)
Ok, so you follow the instructions from Windows 10 PC and try to program your board via the USB and it cannot find the DFU.
Continue reading
Jan
27
4018 CNC upgrade to 4034
Here is my old good 4018:
The problem is – 180 mm in Y is sometimes limiting my project ideas. But how to upgrade it?
Jan
27
Tapping Aluminum
I needed to tap 6 mm thread in the 2040 (you can also tap it in 2020)
What can possibly go wrong? Aluminum is soft, right? I have tapped a lot of thread in all kind of steel parts and have a steady hand.
Well, I broke a tap.
Jan
27
Bitmap To Laser Cutout
Many years ago my daughter had a school project – making t-shirts
She came up with this design and made one t-shirt for me:
Jan
18
G-Code-Friendly Smooth Fractal
Hey, it looks like I invented a new flavor of fractals well suited for laser engraving! Here it is:
Dec
28
OpenSCad to FreeCad Path Lifehack
I am either missing something and re-inventing the wheel, or I invented a pretty clever lifehack.
Here is the problem:
you can design awesome things in OpenSCad, like this spinner (you need to glue 2 of them together with 4 ball bearings in between)
Then you can load the SCad file straight into FreeCad Path and create G-code. Then you just send that G-code to your CNC mill and cut it.
Awesome! But not so fast!
Dec
04
Is Inkscape good for Laser Cutting
I have got fascinated with those laser cut “abstract line pattern” designs with just random intersecting lines and rounded corners. Can I do one myself? How?
It is easy to make one with vertical and horizontal intersecting lines. I can make one in OpenSCad in a few minutes. I can also rotate lines randomly in OpenSCad. But rounded corners? I can round corners of an objects. How do I round object intersections? maybe there is a way.
In a meantime, I decided to look at Inkscape. I am completely new to it. I watched a quick educational video, and then in one hour I came up with this:
Nov
23
Suction Cup Holder
Is 3D printer a toy or is it useful?
Well, if you are building another 3D printer or something like that, you can print those parts.
But is it useful for anything in the “real world”? Cannot you just buy whatever you need off the shelf?
Most of the time you do. But sometimes 3D printer is really handy.
I had a shower shelf that did not stay in place – it travels left and right. There was 1 suction cup coming with it, but it was not enough to secure it in place.
Not just because 1 is not enough. Whoever designed it just did not think it through.
So I have bought more suction cups on Amazon. However, they did not fit.
I could of keep buying other ones hoping that I will eventually figure out how to use them to secure the shelf in place.
But why if I have a 3D printer?
I measured everything and drew this design in OpenSCad:
Nov
19
