Category Archives: Workshop 88 Stuff

Red Nos Day

Posted on May 24, 2019 by Jim

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 →

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Drawbot stepper torque measurement

Posted on November 24, 2017 by Jim

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 →

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Drawbot string plotter

Posted on November 2, 2017 by Jim

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 →

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IR comms considerations (for penlift for the Drawbot)

Posted on March 23, 2017 by Jim

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 →

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Laser etched rubber stamp

Posted on March 23, 2016 by Jim

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 →

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W88 Laser Exhaust Fan Replacement

Posted on March 16, 2016 by Jim

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 →

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Observations on laser cutter kerfs

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Jim

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 →

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Shapeoko 2 calibration runs

Posted on September 11, 2015 by Jim

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 →

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Shapeoko 2 PCB drilling – and scale error

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Jim

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 →

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‘Fixed’ 5.5V USB supply

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Jim

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 →

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