Last night I made LVL1′s hackerspace passport using our Full Spectrum Engineering laser. It really was not that difficult. I used Chris Cprek’s LVL1 logo image for the stamp. It is the Plenary Gear logo at the top left of this page.
I used laserable rubber for this project. Even though it is low-odor you can still smell it. It smells like burning rubber from a car.
To laser the image, I took the original image and made it black and white. I removed the blue background and cleaned it up a bit using Gimp. I then imported it into Inkscape where I mirrored the image. The letters have to be in mirror image or it will not stamp correctly. Next, I ‘printed’ to the laser cutter. The Full Spectrum Engineering interface to driving the laser is pretty darned good. If you are reading this post and do not have a laser, check out Full Spectrum, they are a real good value for your money and highly recommended.
For the laser settings, I raster printed the image using 50% speed and 100% power. I tried to cut the rubber around the image, but the rubber does not cut well at all. I tried multiple passes and everything. I ended up using an exact knife.
I also cut a wooden back for the rubber out of some 1/8″ baltic birch plywood scrap I had laying around. I used double stick tape to tape the rubber onto the plywood backing. Easy. Finally I hot melt glued a handle onto the stamp. Interestingly, the handle came from the Louisville Slugger Museum and it is a scrap from when a baseball bat is cut out on their lathe.
I used a stamp pad from office depot which worked well and Jon was able to stamp his passport for the first time! I also made another stamp with the Lady Ada graphic from Adafruit. That also came out well.
Introducing a useful SOPA- The Stop Online Productivity Avoidance box.
After having an extremely productive day on January 18th, I had a thought: What if every day were January 18th? Well, at the push of a button, now it can!
The button, switch, and display are wired to an Arduino. The Arduino communicates with a python script running on the router, which controls a Squid3 proxy blacklist. In SOPA mode, the whole of the internet is my oyster. In NOPA mode, however, distracting websites like reddit, hacker news, and hackaday are blocked. This isn’t very useful without a great deal of self control, however. In weaker instances, nuclear mode must be employed. Turn the key switch and press the button and all distracting sites are blocked for one hour. The only recourse is to restart the router, but the router requires 15 minutes to restart, blocking the entirety of the web for the duration. Overriding nuclear mode is not appealing.
I just finished programming my gearclock that I showed off last week. I added a Chronodot real time clock so it keeps perfect time! I also wrote up an instructable here: http://www.instructables.com/id/Laser-cut-gear-clock-with-Chronodot/ so you can build your own. I also have some stepper motors if you want to buy them from me (cheap!). Put your Arduino to work! Learn how to use the lasercutter! Brian
Admit it, you have always wanted to build a penny sized dinosaur
Well here is your chance! LVL1 is raising money to buy a laser cutter for the space. With a laser cutter you can do all sorts of neato things like this…
Scroll thought the link and think about what you want to make. Then donate to the laser cutter fund. The sooner we make it to $2500, the sooner we can get a laser cutter for all to share. IT IS GONNA BE SO AWESOME!
As you can see, you want to give to this fund! Watch the progress bar on the right side of this blog to see how much further we have to go!
By using the donate button below you will be taken to Paypal to make a donation to the laser cutter fund. When you use this button the donation is earmarked for the laser cutter fund, not the general fund.
By using the donate button below you will be taken to Paypal to make a donation to the laser cutter fund. When you use this button the donation is earmarked for the laser cutter fund, not the general fund.
Help LVL1 with a small monthly recurring donation of $13.37!
LVL1 Makership
We’re raising money for a Makership fund. A makership is similar to a scholarship, but the focus is on a creating something. We are using this fund to support an aspiring maker in financial need. The fund includes all LVL1 membership dues for 1 year, plus $400 to fund their proposed makership project.
