After not a small amount of work I have managed to get the Y-Axis moving! The assembly that is moving will hold the router spindle..

And a few days later I had both X-Axis motors mounted. They need to be fine tuned as the rack and pinions are not quite meshing perpendicular. It’s a little noisy, but it is moving!!

Strolling down the street this afternoon I spied with my left eye’d something very very cool, then next to it was a twin! They were a pair of enourmous old trumpets..  I kept walking about 10 paces, turned around went into the shop asked how much they were, ignored the answer whipped out the plastic and bought them. Basking in my post purchase glow I asked they guys if they knew much about them. It turns out they are a pair of old PA (public announcement) speakers / horns from a Japanese ship which was scuttled in Morocco.. I’ll be looking very closely at them for any manufacturers stamps..

They are made from cast aluminium, and I’m sure there is a little copper wire in there, so I should get a few bucks from the scrap yard for that.. In the meantime I might see if I can get them to speak and store them in my living room..

No idea what I’ll do with them, or where they will live but they are very big, very unique, very antique, very cool, and very much soon to be in my possession!

Looking forward to getting them back to my lair when manipulating them into some sort of magnificence can begin. I have decided to call them ‘The Horns of Babylon’

Say hello to my little friends!

Twinkling LEDs do something to me bordering on the inappropriate, so when asked to make some signage with the a high level of twinkleation I was all over it like white on rice.

SuppleFox working with the Melbourne International Art Festival, contacted me for some urgent signage requirements for the MIAF Lounge, located in the Melbourne Art Centre Cafe.

After a meeting to discuss requirements and some ideas we settled on a lightbox for the Melbourne Festival logo, then some cursive lettering for the Lounge component with 300 LEDs glued through out. Rear painted clear acrylic in the Melb Fest colour resulted in a really nice channel lettering effect. Makes you wanna go up and touch it. Don’t touch it!

Due to an extremely tight deadline it didn’t occur to me to take many (read any) photos of the build process but this is how it ended up looking..

Installation day

If you want one… contact me;

I had the pleasure of working with Ms Simone Page Jones recently and her work “The Love Birds”. With a tight schedule and specific requirements she wisely sought the specialists: Fluffy Light Engineering.

I assembled two sheets of foamcore,

All the pieces were deftly excised by scalpel.

I didn’t expect I’d get a chance to re appropriate the custom ‘B’ I devised with Tracey for “Booze!” I still love its fast curves and lucious proportions.

Testing the ping pong balls with the LEDs.. This was the same thing I did with CubePuppy

A quick test drive on the wall.. and it was ready for delivery..

Having applied lessons learnt in the Booze! experience, 80 ping pong balls, fairy lights, a few layers of glitter and some finely crafted interlocking joinery the job was done. The result being a highly glitterous back drop for the debut of Simones most entertaining cabaret show for the Melbourne International Festival, THE LOVE BIRDS!!

After extensive research Fluffy Light Engineering Libation Division has set the bar of caffeinated cocktails with the following Espresso Martini recipe. Not only is it most toothsome, it’s dead easy to make! So, here is how you make an espresso martini;

Start with some freshly brewed espresso coffee, cooled to room temp if possible.

The following makes two..

Into a cocktail shaker add about a cup of ice, and;

2 Shots of Espresso

2 Shot Vodka

4 Shots Kahlua

Shake it like this, shake it like that..

Pour out through strainer into two chilled martini glasses. It should have a nice crema which will rise to the top like a pint of Guiness. Add some coffee beans to garnish if you have any, otherwise guzzle it down as you make yourself another.

Enjoy before hitting the town, or over a late breakfast the day after the night before..

Julian Dolman’s studio is on the second floor of a warehouse space. When I spoke with him to arrange a visit he schpeeld off what sounded like a well used description of the building, as it was hard to find the entrance.. He wanted clients to be able to find him without too much difficulty. Some signage was in order.

We decided that a bit of a spruce up was required for the entrance, so I replaced some brickwork, washed and freshly painted the glass, and entrance area a neutral grey.

Before.

I used a magnificent new font called Sign Painter for the sign, and put RoboTooth to work. We scaled the lettering and allowed room for other tentants of the warehouse to add their own names to the board.

Rear painting a clear sheet of Acrylic with the same paint used on the walls and windows, gave a nice high gloss sheet for the new cnc cut lettering to contrast off.

July 15th, 16th, 17th was spent cutting, welding, grinding the frame for RoboFang. A lot more work than I expected. I got out my trusty webcam and set it to take images at 10 second intervals. Below is 3 days simmered down to 3 minutes.

I started thinking about RoboFang a few years ago.. a CNC router able to handle a full sheet of material. 1200 x 2400. After a lot of thinking and rethinking head scratching.. reading and more head scratching a design has come together..

My Z-Axis is still a little unknown. I’ll install aluminium side plates once the gantry height has been determined.

All the major parts are here for the chassis. 100×100 legs and side aprons. 40×120 extrusion for the 20mm HiWin linear slide bearings to attach to. 80×160 aluminium gantry. 50×50 tubing for table supports and leg braces.

With all the parts roughly assembled it is quite a massive beast! Next I need to deburr the steel and start welding it up.

After a little bit of use I noticed that the cut path wasn’t always as expected. Circles were oval and plunge cuts left a ovoid slots. I have already reinforced the X carriage and the Y carriage was sloppy. I could see that it was becuase I only had two linear bearings instead of four. This caused racking both in the Z axis and Y axis. I used the existing setup to machine some replacement parts. Once it was pulled apart that option was lost.

So I modelled a new router holder while I was at it and centre marked the holes for the bearing housing through holes.

Here is a model of my holder.. I ended up loosing the top bracket, which was an error!!

This is how it ended up looking;

Here is a pic of RoboTooth before hand. I have now spun the z drive actuator around too.

With the Y carriage disassembled I added two extra linear bearing housings and screwed them onto the new support board. I used the bearing rails to make sure the bearings were aligned as well as parallel.

It fits!! Next I just attach the router holder

This router holder isn’t going to last long.. its pretty flimsy, so I now need to make a holder thats stronger..

I saw an animated gif of a mechanical oddity called a “Trammel of Archimedes” A.K.A. a Bullshit Grinder. It had me hyptotised!

And so I made my own version..

I started by modelling my concept in SolidWorks.. Here are some renders..

This was the first real job for RoboTooth, which I used to cut the gears.