Modular Modular Synth Table

I designed and built a small table and set of accessories to hold my synthesizer modules and manage their cables.

Changes to Fusion 360's Personal Use License

In September 2020 Autodesk announced some changes to their Fusion 360 license for Personal Use that may have some makers confused or disappointed.

Autodesk posted details about these changes on their blog: Changes to Fusion 360 for Personal Use

I teach several classes at Chimera Arts Makerspace in Fusion 360. The introductory class in the series: "Introduction to Fusion 360 for Makers" helps makers evaluate whether Fusion 360 is a good choice for their projects and a safe investment of their time.

My initial reaction to Autodesk’s changes is that the move is unsettling and confusing, but, on closer examination of the details of the changes, it may be for the best in clarifying the uses of the software, something many beginners stumble over when trying to come to terms with the huge feature set of the program.

Microcarpentry.com has a new home

Microcarpentry.com now hosts my catalog of handcrafted items. 

The posts on this blog can now be found at https://microcarpentry.blogspot.com/

Fusion 360 Classes

I am teaching classes in Fusion 360 at Chimera Arts and Makerspace in Sebastopol.

There is a sequence of two classes -- one is for beginners and the second is intermediate-level.

The beginner class is Introduction to Fusion 360 for Makers; it is a 2 hour class taught on the first Wednesday of the month at 7pm.

The intermediate-level class is Fusion 360 Techniques for Laser Cutting and CNC Routing. This class assumes you have mastered the material from the beginner class and goes on to explore specific techniques suited to working with sheet materials for making multi-dimensional projects. This Fusion 360 Techniques class is taught on the third Wednesday of the month at 7pm.

Each class is $50 and open to the general public. Sign up for specific classes through www.chimeraarts.org.

A box of eggs

Alternative Joints

corner snap-fit tenon pieces wrap the circumference of this box

These boxes are experiments with alternatives to the ubiquitous laser-cut box joints.

Postcard Box

This box was created to hold information postcards on an outdoor sign. It is designed to keep the contents dry in the rain. It is made from acrylic and features a reinforced hinge.

Railroad Clock

This railroad platform-style clock was made of parts from a clock that had broken. The clock mechanism, the printed face with the numerals and the bezel glass were reused in this design.

Draft Box with Double-Hinged Lid

This box design used Direct Modeling techniques in Fusion 360 and two drop-in hinge widget components which I had previously designed. The links to the original hinge components were broken, and the hinges were then customized for the application. 

Small Tansu

The small tansu was inspired by a mizuya-style kitchen tansu (see below). Fusion 360 was used to design the model at 1/5th the scale of the original tansu. The tansu model was designed for and constructed with laser cutting techniques. There are 187 parts in the assembly - 22 independently moving parts.

Ultimately, this small tansu is intended to be a desktop secretary.

The Voccell DLS Laser Cutter

The Voccell DLS 50 Laser Cutter

In December 2016, after 14 months of delays I canceled my Glowforge order and ordered a Voccell DLS 50W laser cutter. I received my DLS 5 months later in May 2017. The Voccell DLS 50 was $3500 at the time including the water chiller and shipping. Today Voccell lists the price at $5000.

The Glowforge

Glowforge describes their product as a "3D laser printer," but it is the same class of device as what the rest of the world refers to as a CO2 laser cutter and engraver. The Glowforge originally went on sale as a pseudo-crowdsourced project by soliciting pre-orders in Sept. and Oct. of 2015 with an "expected delivery" by Dec 2015. They received $28M in fully-paid pre-orders during the phase.

Many delays and feature-changes ensued, and the first finished units were not shipped until July 2017. Most of the backlog was fulfilled over the following year, but some international orders still lingered.

IMPROVED: Fume Coffin Pre-Filter

I developed and built the Fume Coffin - Laser Cutter Exhaust Vent Filter to assist with filtering the exhaust vented from my 50 Watt CO2 laser cutter.

But it's not easy to service the Pre-Filter.

In the original Fume Coffin design the Pre-Filter lines the interior of the cylindrical HEPA filter. And accessing it requires opening the Fume Coffin and disassembling the HEPA filter assembly.

This project replaces (or supplements) the original Fume Coffin's Pre-Filter with an inline Pre-Filter that's designed to be easily monitored (it's see-through) and easily serviced.

https://www.instructables.com/Fume-Coffin-Pre-Filter/

This new Instructable is an optional add-on for the Fume Coffin project.

Fume Coffin Instructable - Laser Cutter Exhaust Filter

So I designed and built this.

It's called the Fume Coffin, and it's a laser cutter exhaust ventilation filter for my 50W CO2 laser cutter.

Design documentation, build instructions and analysis are all here:
https://www.instructables.com/Fume-Coffin-Laser-Cutter-Exhaust-Vent-Filter/

Microwave-bent Plywood

I'm interested in bent plywood techniques.

ZenziWerken uses an intriguing technique to craft this bowl. 6mm birch plywood is cut (a CNC router was used here). Then the cut-out was rinsed with water and microwaved at 600W for 1 minute. The bowl is then shaped in a form (another bowl in this case) with lead weights and clamps. The bowl was allowed to dry and harden. Finally, some wood glue was applied at the tops of the spiral arms.

https://www.zenziwerken.de/en/Haushaltsgegenstaende/Dekoschalen

The project files
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2171550

Box Generators

A storage box with a matching lid.
(Error: The lower box height was
the height I had intended for both
the box and the lid. Also, tabs on
lid could fit more tightly.)

I have built a handful of laser-cut projects based on boxes generated by www.makercase.com. Starting with generic box designs generated to my size specifications by the webapp, I modify and customize the box designs in Illustrator to create matching nesting boxes, lids, additional supports, ornamentation and other variations.

Box generators are an effective way to make easily laserable box designs with pre-layed-out joints. (I find box joints, sometimes called finger joints, work well for most of my designs.) There are many box generators. Many are webapps, some are Python scripts, one is a plug- in for Inkscape. This Instructables article provides an excellent survey: The Ultimate Guide to Laser-cut Box Generators.

The major problem I have been encountering with the box-generator-Illustrator scheme is that it puts too much design complexity downstream from the box generation for anything but the most trivial projects. The scheme relies heavily on your wits and planning to get everything to line up and fit.