3D printing some sweet music

3d-printer-music

If you don't mind ending up with oddly shaped 3D printed parts you can get your printer to sing to you. The exhibit shown above is doing just that. The Lulzbot is being driven specifically to produce a certain frequency of sound with its stepper motors. The results of a few different songs are what's hanging on the wall to the right. You can hear it printing Bizet's Carmen in the clip after the … [Read more...]

Handwriting suck? Build a machine to do it for you

calligraphy-machine

Children of the information age are doomed to have the worst handwriting just for lack of use if nothing more. But some students at Olin College harnessed technology to find a solution to that problem. Meet Herald, a CNC machine that can produce beautiful calligraphy. The machine uses a gantry to move the writing tip along the X and Y axes. The flexible-nib calligraphy pen is mounted on a … [Read more...]

Freakin’ huge CNC router

router

[Tom] sent in a gigantic 3-axis router that he pieced together during a 2 week-long work experience placement. Looking at this picture showing a 12-inch ruler on the work area, we realized that this may be the largest CNC router we've seen on Hack A Day. [Tom]'s employer gave him some obsolete axes, so piecing the mechanical components together was very easy. The only real problem was … [Read more...]

Building a CNC Router to Call My Own

ztw_almost_done

As with most writers for [HAD], I enjoy doing projects as much as I like writing about them. As a mechanical Engineer that writes for a blog mostly about electronics, a CNC router seemed like something I needed in my garage. Building a router like this requires a bit of expertise in both electronics and mechanics, so it seemed like a good challenge. This router kit, made by Zen Toolworks, comes … [Read more...]

CNC hardware: stream g-code to an Arduino

arduino-cnc-gcode-receiver

[Reza Naima] has been using an Arduino as the center of his CNC setup for quite some time now. It handles three stepper motors, limiting switches, e-stop, and spindle control. The sketch he's using allows him to stream g-code to the popular prototyping platform, freeing him from needing a dedicated PC. It's worked so well that he's decided to clean up the code and develop a shield to help others … [Read more...]

ARM-based CNC mill needs no computer

arm-based-CNC-mill

[Fedeortiz12] and his team are nearing completion of their CNC mill (english translation). They set out to build a standalone machine that takes G-code in the RS274/NGC format from an SD card and machines parts accordingly. At the heart of the system is an ARM LPC2148 controller with a character LCD and control pad for operation. The guys have made a teaser video showing the project being tested … [Read more...]

Laser cutter plays Super Mario Bros. theme

[Jed] from Toronto's hackerspace HackLab.TO coded the theme from Super Mario Bros. for their laser cutter. He's posted the ruby code that generates the g-code from a simple tablature. Related: CNC music factory Still Alive [via Waxy] … [Read more...]