Author: Chris Braunston

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my bloody valentines…. commission.

I am not very good at mushy, sentimental design so when commissioned to produce something for a valentines day promotion with the specification “something with hearts and cherubs and stuff, you know, like valentines cards” I was not thrilled. Below is what I came up with, which despite not being to my taste at all the client loves it. lol. I don’t think I am going to win any design awards with it though!



On a side note I have set up my old record player in my office and have been dusting off the old vinyl. There is something really pleasing about a record as opposed to digital media, I think it may become a permanent feature. Now I have to resist the urge to take it apart!

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Congratulations, Shelves and Ubuntu.

First up – Congratulations to msraynsford for making his 100th consecutive day of lasering something and blogging about it! I have managed about 10 in that time, and they were a lot less interesting! lol.


I decided today that I needed a shelf in my “office/workshop” (ie gap between the shelves). As I only have on actual wall I had to hang it from the back of the industrial racking with custom made shelf brackets – To the laser!.





Made from 4mm laser ply I am not sure how long they will last (4mm not enough, 8mm too much) but they are functional for the weight of stuff I need to add. I will re-cut them when I get something thicker to cut them out of.  For some reason I tried to make them look pretty with flowers on but I don’t think I will bother next time, I am not really a floral kind of guy.


On a side note I have set up an Ubuntu One account, dull in itself, but it has had an interesting side effect. I have installed the app on my android phone that automatically uploads photos when I take them and the software on my PC to sync the online folder. This means that I now have my photos from my phone on my PC in about one minute automatically. No more messing with cables etc and copying or setting up software to sync. It really has made writing a blog so much simpler – snap, insert, post – done! (FYI – I have been boring a lot of people about this recently and have been banned from talking about it, hence the post. lol)


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Dump Truck

Inspired by Martin’s Mini Digger I made a dump truck for my son. Taking a different approach to normal it is made from glued slices of 4mm Ply with 3mm steel axles. The wheels press fit on to the axles and the bucket is hinged on the rear axle. My son has now decided I have to make more construction vehicles, the first one being a tractor (more farm yard but never mind!). Will upload the files when I get a chance to thiniverse




UPDATE:
Here is the tractor – I will get these up on thingiverse soon.



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Trade work & cars

Luckily I have been producing a lot of trade and commission work recently which is great for me but means I haven’t been able to put anything up. Hopefully I will get more time to mess about soon!

For Christmas my wife very kindly got me an Acme Racing Raptor 1/10 Truggy radio controlled car kit which turned out had a load of bits missing, most of those have been sent by the manufacturer. Unfortunately I still don’t have the turn-buckles for the back wheels or body clips. After a number of frustrating emails I have decided to find a solution. The body clips were a £2 fix from The Model Shop Northampton (they are not on their online store unfortunately) but the turn-buckles have proved a little more tricky. Luckily I have discovered that M4 Threaded bar, at £1.45 for a metre from B&Q, is a perfect replacement! The only issue is that is not reverse threaded on one end so you have to undo one end to adjust it – not too much of a problem on an RC car.



Now to the laser part! There has to be one really. Within the first 5 minutes of testing the car I have managed to crash into an immovable object and snap the front right lower suspension arm, the front shock tower and bend the right shock. Oops. The shock has bent back in to shape so no problem there, and I have my eye on a set of aluminium arms. The shock tower however only comes as part of a set of parts I don’t need so its time to laser one! I took the very literal approach of scanning in the original and tracing the parts then checking the measurements. Surprisingly it worked first time! Its only 3mm acrylic so any weight saving cutouts were ignored and the other parts beefed up as I am not sure how well the acrylic will cope. As you can see I am waiting for the arms to arrive. As usual the files are available on Thingiverse. If anybody would like one please let me know.