Hackaday Links: May 29, 2012

Teensy CNC mill

The guys at Inventables put together a neat CNC router kit that looks very interesting. It uses Makerslide linear bearings and CNC’d parts to make a surprisingly cheap frame for something that can engrave wood and metal. Inventables is running a Kickstarter-esque preorder to fund this production run but right now they’re 30 orders short. We’d like to see how these routers turn out in the real world, so if you’re on the fence (or just want a CNC router), this might be the time to buy.

DIY solder fume extractor

[Jared] sent in a fume extractor he put together. It’s a small PC case fan with a carbon filter sandwiched between a pair of grilles. Not much, but if should keep those wonderful flux fumes away from your face.

A million fake Internet points to the first person to come up with a DIY clone

[filespace] shared an awesome Electrofishing video with us. Electrofishing pulses a DC current through two electrodes attached to a boat. This current causes galvanotaxis in fish, causing them to swim towards the anode. The fish can be caught with a net and released afterwards; there’s no damage to the fish at all. We’d love to see a DIY solution, but throwing M-80s into a lake doesn’t count.

Improving GSM reception with a bit of metal

[Raivis] lives in the country, so even his voice reception on GSM is terrible, let alone data. Inspired by an earlier post, [Raivis] built a discone antenna to improve his cell signal. Now everything is crystal clear and his Huawei E1752 USB/GSM modem improved from 3 mbps down to 5 mbps down.

CNC halftone photos

[Dana] sent in a few pics of a project he’s working on. He’s making halftone prints with a CNC and metal. We’ve seen this before, but we’re really loving [Dana]’s take on it. He’s using two-layer engraving plastic with a .005” engraving tool on his CNC. There’s a gallery of his work after the break; [Dana]’s portrait is 14000+ dots and took 6 hours, his bosses kids are 16000+ dots and took 4 hours, and [Dana]’s niece is 5500 dots and took 35 minutes. Very awesome work, and now [Dana] has fulfilled a lifelong dream of machining his face.

25 thoughts on “Hackaday Links: May 29, 2012

  1. the fume extractor filters are not just “sandwiched between a pair of grilles”
    They are hot glued inside the frame of a $2 fan who is bolted to an usb fan.
    It seems to improve the efficiency.

    1. I like the method they worked out for a filter housing – I think I might copy that for the PC fan I mounted to a lamp arm. (Lets me position the fan around big chassis soldering jobs)

  2. i really hope the 100 limit for the shapeOKO cnc is reached in time !
    i already ordered mine !
    thanks for the post , let s hope that the 30 last buyers are HackADay reader !

  3. Impressive work Dana! Could you post some tips like: processing program, settings, etc?
    It looks like you’re just using a center drill.
    TIA!
    Frito

    PS. Have you thought about some way covers before the plastic gets up in your screws?

  4. Fritoeata- I used DXFhalftone2.1 to generate the pattern. Then I imported the DXF into Mastercam. I used a pocketing tool path to generate each dot. The tool is an actual engraving tool with a .005″ flat on the end. A center drill would work, you would just need to change the step over in the pocketing OP. The program had to be DNC fed as it was over 200,000 lines long. It was made on a Haas TM-1. 80ipm feed. I use 3m .003″ thick double sided tape to hold it down (I use this for all thin aluminium jobs as well)

    1. Thanks Dana! I have a Haas VF-1 and I use gibbscam + Solidworks. I imported the dxf in and it crashed gibbs and locked SW. Granted, I turned the res way up, but I want to make a decent picture of my son. I think I’ll grind up a 4sider and engrave something here in the next few weeks.
      Have you tried the generated toolpath within halftone 2.1? I’m scared of using it just because I don’t have the time to sit around for 6 hrs watching it…
      Thanks alot for the reply Dana.
      Frito

      1. I have not tried the Gcode generated from DXFhalftone. Im pretty sure that only works for a 45 degree countersink going to various depths to get the different diameter holes. I only go .005″ deep so my holes are all flat bottom. This can only be done with a pocketing Op. It took a huge amount of time for Mastercam to generate the toolpath and it did crash a few times. I had to scale down the DXF after I imported it into Mastercam down like 80-90%.

      2. We use the gcode output at our makerspace for doing these. We use pieces of white plastic/ black painted aluminium sandwich. Not sure where they came from, but think corrugated cardboard, but metal outside and creamy filling on the inside. =)

        Anyway, the gcode is actually there due to our request. The developer was really cool about it and put in the function in for us in within a week.

        Can’t say enough nice about him.

        The gcode still needs a bit of hand tweaking sometimes, but that may be specific to our setup.

        It doesn’t do the pocketing, instead using a v shaped bit, but the bit angle can be changed. Use a very wide angle to get shallow drill operations.

        must get back to my “job”

  5. This should lead you on your path to performing your own scientific research of fish populations, that’s it officer I’m doing scientific research. There are some of these magnets in my mom’s garage I should dig them out and take them to the mag shop and get them recharged.

    1. Sure, just show them your scientific collector’s permit.

      Electrofishing is much more fun and easier than most collection methods, but I still prefer participating in angling effort studies best.

  6. DIY electrofishing (along with exploso-fishing) is widely practiced in Vietnam (and most likely elsewhere in the developing world). Though, in this instance I’m not sure if they rely on galvanotaxis or simply stunning the fish and waiting for it to float to the surface.

    1. $400 is a bit pricey for just the mechanical stuff in that system. I’ve looked at the Hadron and Quantum before and what bothers me is that Makerslide has stopped selling them and put the last ones up on eBay a few weeks ago (they all went for over 400-500 a piece). Why didn’t he just sell them on the site? Does he not want to offer support, are there any known design issues?

      I posed the questions asking why eBay and if there are any known issues with the system that I will have to work out. I mentioned asking Ben Heck to assist me in building the thing so if there were issues, we definitely could improve the design to fix them (he’s built a few printers already). Didn’t hear a peep back. That does not give me confidence.

  7. Scientist (and certified electro-fisher) here… electro-fishing can actually be EXTREMELY hazardous to fish. Especially larger fish, which have increased susceptibility to injury or death as a result of this method.

    If you don’t know what your doing, you could easily devastate an aquatic ecosystem. PLEASE leave this to the professionals.

    Of course laws vary by region, but using this method for recreational purposes (see: non scientific) is most certainly illegal.

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