CncMachine
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Shaper's AR-equipped Origin power cutter is going on sale for $2,500
If you've been itching to add AR to your DIY with a handheld CNC, you'll be happy to know that Shaper's Origin augmented reality power cutter will once again be available for purchase. Originally launched in 2016, Origin scans visual markers and then displays a guide on the device's screen to direct where you cut. If you get too far off your design, the blade will retract.
The best way to draw a self-portrait is with your blood and a CNC machine
Snapping a selfie with your phone is easy enough these days, but in order to create a self-portrait, a Brooklyn-based artist chose a slightly different route. 44-year-old Ted Lawson hooked himself up to a CNC machine (which he refers to as a "robot") intravenously so that the device could draw a life-sized nude self-portrait with his blood. For the "Ghost in the Machine" work, Lawson had to remain connected to the output device while it plotted its marks to compose the sketch. "I'm generally not into doing selfies, particularly nude ones, but when I came up with the idea to connect my blood directly to the robot (CNC machine), it just made too much sense to not try one as a full nude self-portrait," he said. Lawson goes on to say that folks that may criticize his use of the machine for the piece, but leveraging the tool for drawing takes "just as much skill and practice to use as a pen." For a look at the process (obviously, not for the squeamish), head on past the break.
We carved a custom bottle opener with the free Easel web app
Inventables' Shapeoko 2 desktop computer controlled (CNC) milling machine just got a whole lot more attractive. The company's new Easel tool is a free design and fabrication web app designed for the $650 open-source kit, which launched last October. The new duo will enable you to design objects in 2D with a real-time 3D preview, then "print" your creation using a USB-equipped CNC milling machine (such as the Shapeoko) with wood, plastic or soft metal. Best of all, Inventables has whipped up an interface so straightforward even an Engadget editor could figure it out. Creating designs, such as the bottle opener we tossed together is a simple drag and drop affair, and requires no prior experience. While you should be able to design basic objects in less than five minutes, assembling a Shapeoko can take considerably more time. Fortunately, Zach Kaplan happened to have one ready to go, so we caught up with the Inventables CEO to try out the new cloud-based design tool here at SXSW.
3Doodler pen gets safety feature, attaches to CNC arms to fulfill its 3D printing potential
When we ran into the WobbleWorks team on our recent Berlin trip, they were kindly enough to show off the shipping version of their crowdoverfunded 3D Doodler handheld 3D Printer. Though, when cofounder Max Bogue hinted that the company still had some surprises up its sleeve, he wasn't kidding. Perhaps most interesting is the inclusion of a mounting dock on the pen, which allows you to attach it a CNC machine, fulfilling the pen's 3D printing ambitions. Once attached, you can utilize another port to control the speed buttons remotely, so you can manipulate extrusion without actually touching the device. Also of note is the addition of a silicone tip cover, which serves to protect fingers from the heated metal extruder.
CNC machine carves dot drawing portraits for your living room walls
Fancy seeing your mug enlarged to halftone-processed heights? You're in luck, because Finnish modder Metalfusion has a homebrew solution for those Wall Street Journal-style hedcut delusions. Using a specially designed image conversion program, the DIY hobbyist tranforms .jpg, .gif or .png files into DXF-formatted dot patterns of varying density. The resulting images are then fed directly into a CNC machine where a drill is left to make the wood-carved magic happen. Need some visual confirmation of this awesome feat, then head past the break for a video demo of this old-timey optical illusion.
MTM Snap project lets you build your own CNC machine so you can build more stuff
It may not be quite capable enough to let you build your own Weighted Companion Cube, but those looking to try their hand at a DIY CNC milling machine won't likely find many more straightforward options than the MTM Snap. Built by Jonathan Ward of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms, the machine itself is constructed from some high-density polyethylene parts milled on a ShopBot (which simply snap together as the name suggests), and it's controlled by an Arduino board that lets you operate it from any Mac, Windows or Linux computer. Unfortunately, you can't simply buy a kit and piece it all together, but Jonathan's made all of the plans for building your own available, and says it shouldn't cost you any more than $700 from start to finish. Head on past the break for a video of the finished product in action.
CNC mill and Sixaxis controller make beautiful DIY music together (video)
Have you ever thought to yourself, "my CNC mill is pretty cool, but I really want to make it more awesomer"? Well, first, "awesomer" totally isn't word, and second, have we got a hack for you! A reader wrote in to the DIY hub Adafruit to show off his CNC being operated by a PS3 Sixaxis controller -- mimicking features found on high-end machines that allow you to trigger jobs from a distance and manually control the mill. Best of all, it's a pretty simple mod that uses a program called QtsixA to map the gamepad as a keyboard and mouse, allowing you to interact with a Linux box running EMC2, which is used for controlling the mill, lathe, plasma torch, or a number of other fun and dangerous tools. Check out the video after the break.
How-To: Build your own CNC machine (Part 3)
Back in Part 1, we introduced the basics and started building the electronics. In Part 2, we finished up the controller and started building our machine. Today we complete our unholy marriage of cutting boards and dot matrix printers in Part 3 of How-To: Build your own CNC machine. Good luck.
How-To: Build your own CNC machine (Part 2)
In today's How-To, we're still pimping out our dremel tool with parts from old printers. In Part 1 we got started with the controller and covered all the basics. Today we'll get into the details and get busy with the power tools. And that, of course, is always the best part.
How-To: Build your own CNC machine (Part 1)
Ready for some hard core gadget creation? If you thought your dremel tool was handy before, in today's How-To we'll start building our own CNC machine. Aside from the geek factor, it can be handy for making things like PC boards without chemicals or maybe some little styrofoam voodoo heads of all your enemies, uh friends.Gentlemen, start your soldering irons.
