Category: Projects

My son had a Kindergarten assignment–to bring in 100 of something, for a celebration of 100 days of school.

He decided he’d make a puzzle. I took him to my workshop to laser-cut a 100 piece puzzle out of 1/8th inch Baltic birch.

He was incredibly patient and simply delighted by how awesome laser cutting is.

We used an online jigsaw puzzle generator to make the design. It worked well enough, but the pieces weren’t really distinct enough with the settings that I used.

Next time, I would tape the puzzle together after it had been cut. Solving a blank two-sided puzzle of “wood grain” was not fast!

After we solved it, my son colored it with markers. It turned out great!

(This (1, 2) is on Instagram, too, if that’s your thing.)

Have you seen Magic Tracks? It’s a relatively inexpensive little electric car and a serpentine track.

My folks got some for my kids during the holidays, and my son wanted some extras. What else am I to do except design and 3D print some?

I uploaded an Overpass for Magic Tracks onto Thingiverse a bit ago.

Have fun!

I wanted to transplant my baby snake plants into some tea tins I had around, but the tins weren’t waterproof. I designed a little planter in Fusion 360.
It fits inside of the tins, has some holes from drainage, and a lip to hold some water in. I 3D printed a few in this beautiful blue filament Matthew picked up from matterhackers. It’s actually pretty enough I’m not certain I want to put them in the tins now!

(If you make some, remember to put a little gravel in the bottom to help the drainage situation.)

I uploaded the Tea Tin Planter files over at Thingiverse.

One of the key insights I think I’ve had is the importance of being able to work a medium that you keep around.

If the majority of the things around you are made of metal and plastic, either know how to work finished metal or plastic, or keep other materials around.

Case in point: Cardboard!

I had an Anker 5 port USB charger on my desk to charge some of my geegaw. It was always in a big nest of cables, even when I bought short cables for it. After a year of being irritated at the messiness, I grabbed a cardboard box that I bought to hold filled breadboards, took out my multitool, and cut some holes. There’s plenty of space inside, it doesn’t get too hot, and the cleanliness pleases me everyday.

I’m really glad I finally took the ten minutes to do this!

I like to design symbols from things I read in CAD software. (Wow, that sounds nerdy even for me!)

I designed a few different “Five-Fingered Hand of Eris” symbols from Principia Discordia, one with a longer middle than the other. Both have a hole for a chain.

I posted the Five-Fingered Hand of Eris files over at Thingiverse.

Hail Eris. The Goddess Prevails!

I published the design files for the Esperanto Jubilee cookie cutters I talked about earlier in the Esperanto Lives! post.

Let me know what you think!

I bought a pretty nice three string guitar before the holidays this year. It’s made by a company called Loog. They were a Kickstarter, actually filled their orders, and are now a pretty cool business. (Also, folks, I am not affiliated with Loog beyond being a happy customer!)

I wanted to show my toddler, Henry, someone working hard to pick up a new skill (and I wanted to learn how to play the guitar!)

Henry fell in love with it, and we realized we needed to put the guitar out of his reach when we weren’t playing with it. The neck is pretty small, so I didn’t know if it would fit in traditional wall hooks.

I downloaded Fusion 360, spent a few hours learning and prototyping, and designed this small guitar hook. It works like a dream.

My main goal was to make a wall hook for my guitar that would keep all parts of the guitar from rubbing against the wall, while being strong enough for me to trust it. I didn’t want “explosive delamination” to send my guitar to the floor. I used a static load of 3 times the weight of my guitar hanging from the hook to test the strength, and it lasted more than a week without any visible deformation.

I took a few CAD classes in college, but all my 3D printing experience before this had been with OpenSCAD. This was my first project using Fusion 360. I wish it was open source, but it certainly got the job done.

The hook has been used daily for more than six months, with no visible signs of wear.

If you make one of these, please be cautious! Increase your infill, and do testing before you hang your wonderful guitar using this! The last thing I want to see is a person’s guitar in pieces because they downloaded my hook and it didn’t work for them.

I posted the files for the small guitar hook up at Thingiverse–go take a look!

Sterlite makes a plastic box that is pretty great for storing spools of 3D printer filament. There’s a gasket to make it air tight, which should help keep your filament fresh and dry longer.

I can store about four 1 kg spools, with some extra space.

I found mine at Target for $6.99 each!