Category Archives: Workshop 88 Stuff

Red Nos Day

I made this bad pun prototype at the space for Red Nose Day 5/23/19. The front was one coat of cheap black spray paint (two would have been better) on some 2mm clear acrylic, with the letters laser raster etched … Continue reading

Posted in Laser Cutter, Workshop 88 Stuff | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Drawbot stepper torque measurement

To measure holding torque on the old Science Center steppers, I attached an aluminum arm to one of the drums, keeping it as close to where the bobbin was epoxied to the shaft’s gear as I could.  I notched the … Continue reading

Posted in Drawbot | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Drawbot string plotter

The Drawbot, a ‘polargraph’ 2-string plotter inspired as a junkbox project by Bill Paulson at Workshop 88 in April of 2013, has been under on and off development and improvement ever since. While there are still a couple of upgrades … Continue reading

Posted in Drawbot | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

IR comms considerations (for penlift for the Drawbot)

Introduction I was planning to hold this to be part of a much larger writeup of the Drawbot, but while it started as part of that project, it sort of took on a life of its own as an IR … Continue reading

Posted in Drawbot, Tiny 85 stuff | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Laser etched rubber stamp

Ever since Mitch Altman presented the idea, I’ve thought hackerspace passports were pretty cool, if geeky.  (Thanks to Adafruit for the pic.)  I’ve also felt that Workshop 88 should be able to participate with a good stamp.  Of course we … Continue reading

Posted in Laser Cutter | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

W88 Laser Exhaust Fan Replacement

When we first got the W88 laser cutter up and running, we scavenged the ancient circulation blower from the old, gutted in-wall furnace, took advantage of the 8″ flue/fresh air hole in the wall, and hacked a mounting to provide … Continue reading

Posted in Laser Cutter | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Observations on laser cutter kerfs

I wanted to have the laser cut center holes in 3mm acrylic gears that would provide just enough clearance to use 4-40 screws as pivots while allowing the gears to spin freely.  I didn’t know exactly how much clearance that … Continue reading

Posted in Laser Cutter, Workshop 88 Stuff | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Shapeoko 2 calibration runs

Background After some issues with accuracy drilling holes in PCBs and concern about backlash with the GT2 belt drive that makes some real machinists roll their eyes, it was time to do some initial calibration investigation. Bill P brought in … Continue reading

Posted in Shapeoko, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Shapeoko 2 PCB drilling – and scale error

Thanks to some urging from Steve S, we finally got geared up to try PCB drilling on the Shapeoko 2 at the space last Thursday (8/13/15).  (We had planned to use it to drill badge boards last September, but during … Continue reading

Posted in Shapeoko | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

‘Fixed’ 5.5V USB supply

There was a nice little wall wart USB charger in the electronics lab at the space for general phone charging, running Arduinos, etc.  But when I tried to charge my new phone (Moto G) with it, it wouldn’t  charge.  Huh? … Continue reading

Posted in Workshop 88 Stuff | Tagged , , , , , , | 5 Comments