I was able to photograph this scientific/engineering item. I’d love to have your guesses on what this part/machine does. Maybe I’ll reveal the answer on Twitter @JeremySCook. In the mean time, take the poll after the “more” thing to see what the consensus opinion is.
Guess what This Scientific/Engineering/Other item is
Posted by Admiral Noosenbaum
on May 17, 2012
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Simplest Shop-Vac Muffler Yet
Posted by Jeremy Cook
on May 15, 2012
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After several revisions of the Shop-Vac muffler, this is about as cheap and simple as I could get it. After some work, I’ve been able to achieve a noise reduction of around 3 decibels with it. According to the first chart that I found when searching, 5dB is a “clearly noticeable change.” 3dB isn’t too bad either. When combined with some “acoustic panelling” made out of packing material (see this post), maybe I’m getting close to this. At least I’m under the OSHA 8 hour exposure limit.
As seen in the sketch to the right, the final version of this muffler was made by cutting seven layers of foam into baffles and spacers. These spacers (as seen in the gallery after the “read more” Read more »
A CNC-Made 3D Topo Map
Posted by Jeremy Cook
on May 13, 2012
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Topo maps are great for figuring out how the elevation changes in certain geographic areas, however, they may be difficult for some (most?) to visualize. I recently had an idea that if you could get a topo map in a vector graphics format (.svg), this could easily be converted into tool paths to make a 3D topo map with my CNC router. Each step could then be scaled depending on the elevation change and a realistic model of an area could then be cut in three dimensions.
The first topo map that I found on Wikimedia was of Ross Island off of Antartica. It’s a relatively small island, but is the 6th tallest in the world, giving it some interesting topography. I used a combination of “profile” and “pocket” commands to achieve the effect I wanted. In the end “pocket” was used much too liberally, causing this operation to take FOREVER (like 5 hours or so). Fortunately, Read more »
Pausing A CNC Machining Operation With Mach3
Posted by Jeremy Cook
on May 10, 2012
1 comment
Gcode step and coordinates marked
Mach3, which I use to run my CNC router, is a great program. Even better now that I’ve figured out how to pause a program and come back to it later. This came in especially handy when making a model based on a topo map of Ross Island off of Antartica (post on this soon). It was almost 200,000 lines of Gcode, so I had to pause and come back a couple of times. Here’s how I did it:
Prepare to Shutdown
- Press the spacebar to pause your machining. Preferably in an area where you’re not cutting anything at the moment. Do not jog anything
- Record your X, Y, and Z coordinates as well as the Gcode line that you’re currently on
- Shut down Mach3, go away, and do whatever you have to do
Restore Your Machining Operation Read more »
How to Make LED Throwies!
Posted by Jeremy Cook
on May 8, 2012
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If you’ve ever seen something metal and thought that there should be a small light on it, then the LED throwie is for you! Here’s a video of one I made in action:
In order to make one of these simple devices, you’ll need the following:
- A 3 VDC (or 2 1.5VDC) coin cell batteries – here’s some cheapies.
- An LED light – like this variety pack.
- Tape, duct tape seems to work best.
- 1 or more rare-earth magnets, like these Neodymium magnets.
In it’s most basic form, all you have to do to make one of these is touch the long lead from the LED light to the positive side of the 3VDC coin cell battery, place the rare-earth magnet on top of one lead, and tape everything securely. The LED will turn on and you’ll have a long time until your throwie burns out. Although they will grow dim Read more »
Create A Multiple Exposure Shot with GIMP
Posted by Jeremy Cook
on May 6, 2012
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Multiple exposure, or “double exposure” shots may not be possible with most digital cameras, however, they are easy to do after the fact using the GIMP photo editing tool! It is really simple, and I’ve used it to do some cool light painting combinations that I’ll display after the “read more” button.
The process for doing this is pretty easy, you’ll just need a camera and a (free) copy of GIMP. If you have a Canon DSLR, I would highly recommend a remote trigger, as the one linked is dirt cheap, and will allow you to take shots without actually touching the camera. Important for light painting, but especially if you’re going to combine photos like the one (from this radial-engine model light painting article) above. In this case the camera was held still while the vise was rotated, making a painting of the rotary engine cycle at three points.
If the photos are aligned Read more »
A Purely Mechanical Useless Machine Prototype
Posted by Jeremy Cook
on May 3, 2012
1 comment
Many of the people that enjoy this site are probably people that have seen video of “The Most Useless Machine.” Pretty neat, of course, a switch is flipped, and a finger rises up to turn itself off. This generally uses a circuit that is reversed when the switch is flipped. Being a mechanical engineer, at some point I thought that this could be done without using any electronics. The video below is my prototype of this clockwork useless machine concept:
This is my first attempt at any sort of clockwork, and my Zen Toolworks CNC router was immensely helpful (here’s one of my latest posts on it). It’s really great to be able to design something on Draftsight (AutoCAD clone, see my review), and just feed it to my router through CAMBam. Getting this router has really opened up lots of possibilities for me.
The concept behind this machine is that a driving wheel, driven by a weight on a string, pushes and pulls a linkage that rotates the “finger” approximately 90 degrees up and then down. This finger then pushes the switch back into place, which mechanically pushes the middle linkage down, stopping the driving wheel each time when the “finger” is down.
As seen tin the video, the switch is stopped from rotating too far by nails in both the “on” and “off” state. This causes the middle linkage, reminiscent of an escapement in clock making, to stop the driving wheel when the finger is down.
The device isn’t really all that complicated, and Read more »
