Whatchya Workin' On, O Creatives?

Nice homebuilt rig. I was hoping to do some laser stuff this winter, but my motherboard crapped out and I’m waiting on a replacement from China. Could be weeks.

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If you have a diode based one, and is not a propietary system, you can try Bart Dring’s laser controler (mine is based on his designs):

(mine, by the way, looks like this)


Mine is three axis because I eventually want to try installing some kind of autofocus in my laser diode.

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Your laser engraver is so cool! What material do you plan to use? And could it also be used as a laser cutter?

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Mainly wood, paper and occasionally (probably only on summer, because of the noxious gases) black acrylate.

Sure it can, though until I get to build an air blower upgrade, cutting wood is slow and not good (plywood is horrible, MDF is impossible, and natural woods are expensive :smiley: )

But I can do things like this:



(:point_up: note the burn marks on this one. This would practically disappear with an air blower)

Black Acrylic can be cut and engraved:

All of these were made using the same laser head, but worse movement (it had a lot of slack and I had precision problems). Most of my efforts were making to make supports that better squared the gantry and kept the appropiate tension for longer.

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One of the things I want to make more with the new, hopefully more precise structure, is dice (yes, I appreciate the irony of having an ultralarge gantry, and wanting to use to engrave 20x20mm cubes :laughing: )

Hopefully I will be able to get a decent run made for March

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Amazingly, the new motherboard arrived today.

I’m going to blast out some ornaments tomorrow. It’s not too late!

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Really cool!

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Ornaments! Mini-maps of Missouri and Boone County, MO. Not to scale with each other, of course. I made 8 of each.

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Those are lovely!
Look like they’d make nice earrings, too.

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They are 3" and 4" tall, respectively, so perhaps a bit too large for earrings - but that’s a good idea if I decide to try to make some $$$ with this machine.

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I’d a worn them in the 1980s. We called them “shoulder dusters”.

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6227 (1)

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using the cardboard (which the handles shipped in) allowed me to do the layout once and apply it to all four sides. although I had to go back and apply the circle template to get the centers for the drill bit. I could have automated that part if I had anticipated it but oh well.

before I started, I looked and felt inside the cabinet through the bass port to make sure no circuits for e.g. the crossover weren’t attached to where I was drilling and sawing: nothing. so when I plugged them back into the amp and one cabinet was dead, I was like “oh, shit.” but I remembered that my bit had got stuck on the fiberglass insulation piece that dampens the vibration. when I pulled off the 12" driver to look inside, the whole insulation was balled up on itself and wound around all the wires so it pulled them all loose :upside_down_face:
sorted it out and everything works fine again.

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The next charcuterie board is finished and I need your help! Please give me feedback.

I need to decide which surface is the top. Both surfaces are really neat. This surface has a bit more of the flame-pattern chatoyance:
Side A

Detail:

The other side has the better live edge and the flame-pattern chatoyance leads towards and accentuates the live edge. The checking crack repair is also much better on this side.
Side B


Detail:

The photos just don’t capture the depth of the chatoyance of this board. It’s incredible. Somehow a board that’s less than an inch thick looks several inches deep, with lenticular patterns that move based on the angle of view, like tiger eye gemstone.

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wow!
I’d show off the live edge, personally

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Onkyo. Nice choice.

I hope the handles don’t affect the sound.

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I like both sides.

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nothing I can detect. they’re “good” speakers, and they can get very loud, but they’re not audiophile quality.
these speakers and another cheap home stereo set of cabinets (I think they were 10s) and an Onkyo home stereo amp for both powered the room of the club where I had my residency back when I was out there. had to point a fan at the amp but otherwise everything was rock solid

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B, i think, although both sides are lovely. I’m a sucker for a live edge.

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not to be contrary, but i thing side A is really beautiful.
just me, i reckon, but i kinda use both sides, if there are no feet on one.

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