LaserEtching
Latest
Makerarm wants to 3D print, plot, and carve its way into your heart
If you want to do 3D filament printing, resin printing, carving, plotting, laser etching, and fabrication all at once, that'd get pretty expensive. However, there's now a product called Makerarm that does all of that. It mounts on your desk to let you make nearly anything and will even assemble all the parts. At least, that's the theory, because as a Kickstarter campaign, it's not a real product yet. Still, it shows lots of promise. Unlike a similar product, the Flux 3D printer, it's a free-swinging arm, meaning it can build fairly large objects and has more functionality with all its interchangeable heads.
Gresso's Grand Premiere: an Avantgarde phone with a behind-the-times OS and a $50,000 price tag
Whenever Gresso's not crafting expensive new threads for iDevices, the company makes its own featurephones from the finest materials mother nature has to offer. The new Grand Premiere is the latest from the company's Avantgarde collection and carries on this incongruous tradition. Its frame and keys are made from more than five ounces of 18-carat gold, with numbers and letters laser-etched on its sapphire crystal skin. We don't know the internals of the 12mm-thin candybar, but we do know it's running Symbian S40 and is probably packing anemic hardware like other Gressos we've seen -- you're paying for exclusivity and the shiny stuff, not benchmarking abilities, after all. Only 30 Grand Premiere's will be made at $50,000 pop, so all you conspicuous consumers with money to burn better move fast. Wouldn't want to be the only luddite at the yacht club without luxury handset, would you?
Laser-etched Engadget keyboard combines narcissism with our unmatched touch typing abilities
What's better than wowing your friends with a triple digit WPM on a blank keyboard with your screen off? Why, the glorious Engadget logo shining forth from said blank keyboard. Our very own Yeager Yu over at Engadget Chinese took a murdered out Zippy "Dancing Light" backlit 'board and got it laser-etched with the Engadget logo -- a glorious sight to behold, if we do say so ourselves. Check out the etching in action after the break.
Design your own Kindle (and win it) with Engadget, Amazon, and Adafruit Industries!
Reading isn't just about the text that you're reading, it's an intimately personal experience in every sense of the word -- the way the book feels, the crease of the pages, the wear on the cover, it's all totally unique to your copy at the time that you're reading it. Put simply, it's an experience no one else will ever have. Between three models, dozens of accessories, and countless e-books, no two Kindles are alike, either -- but Engadget has partnered with Amazon and the DIY experts over at Adafruit Industries to hook up five extraordinarily lucky readers with truly unique reading devices. These guys are the laser etching experts -- see one of the Kindles they've done here!Here's the deal: we're asking you to think of a design that would look great on the Kindle's brushed metal back -- something that means a lot to you, something that'll make passers-by drool with envy when you casually hold up your new toy while reading The Economist from the comfort of your train, plane, or bus seat. Draft up that design (seriously, make sure it's awesome, because you'll be facing some stiff competition) and send it to us. We'll post some of our favorites as finalists and hand the reigns over to you -- our dear readers -- to select five winners who will each have their designs laser-etched into reality on the backs of their very own Kindles!The rules: Send your design to us by emailing it to contests [at] engadget [dawt] com with the subject "I want my custom Kindle!" (no quotes). Submissions must be in EPS or AI format, must be in black and white only, and must be composed strictly of vector graphics with all fonts converted to curves. We can scale your design as necessary, but keep in mind that you'll be dealing with an etchable area roughly five inches by seven inches. You can find a (very large) image of the back of the Kindle 2 here for your reference. We can't print anything you don't have the rights for, so to be safe, original work is the best! You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Five (5) winners will each receive one (1) Amazon Kindle 6" Wireless Reading Device customized by Adafruit Industries. Approximate retail value is $299.00. If you are chosen, you will be notified by email. Winners must respond within three days of the end of the contest. If you do not respond within that period, another winner will be chosen. Design entries can be submitted until Friday, July 24th, at 11:59PM ET. Good luck! Full rules can be found here.
Laser etching the iPhone
It takes a braver man than I to put a brand new iPhone directly in the beam of a powerful laser (Do you expect me to talk? No, Mr. iPhone, I expect you to die-cut), but that's exactly what the Make blog did. They etched some old school flying toasters right there on the back, and they ended up coming out pretty well.There are apparently a couple different engraving houses that can get this done, but according to Engadget, their buddy Phil Torrone (who did this cut) is more than happy to do it for you. So if you're in New York and want to put your iPhone under the lasery knife, give him a call.
Found Footage: Laser etching a PowerBook
Gina over at Lifehacker got her PowerBook etched with a Celtic knot, and she had the wherewithal to capture the process with her cameraphone. The video isn't that great, but head on over to Lifehacker to check out some photos of the finished product.
More laser etched Powerbooks
Philip Torrone is at it again. 3 more Powerbooks have received the laser etching treatment (read about the first one he did, or get yours done by ETCHamac). This time the Powerbooks get a NeXT logo, a bunny in a tsunami, and some tasteful blossom branches.I really want to get this done to my Powerbook, since new tops only cost $35 (for the 15 inchers). Would you do this to your precious Powerbook?[via O'Grady's PowerPage]
