3D Printer Enclosure Is Pleasant On The Eyes And Ears

August 2, 2016 by Bryan Cockfield 37 Comments

There’s a lot going on in the 3D printing world. Huge printing beds, unique materials like concrete, and more accessible, inexpensive printers for us regular folk. The only thing that’s often overlooked with these smaller printers is the ruckus that they can make. The sounds of all those motors can get tiresome after a while, which was likely the inspiration for [Fabien]’s home 3D printer workstation. (Google Translate from French)

After acquiring a new printer, [Fabien] needed a place to put it and created his own piece of furniture for it. The stand is made out of spruce and is lined with insulation. He uses a combination of cork, foam, and recycled rubber tile to help with heat, sound, and vibration respectively. Don’t worry, though, he did install a ventilation system for the fumes! After the printer housing is squared away, he place a webcam inside so that the user can monitor the print without disturbing it. Everything, including the current print, is managed with a computer on the top of the cabinet.

Having a good workspace is just as important as having a quality tool, and [Fabien] has certainly accomplished that for his new 3D printer. There have been a lot of good workspace builds over the years, too, including electronics labs in a portable box and this masterpiece workbench. If you’ve ever experienced the frustration of working in an area that wasn’t designed for the task at hand, you’ll easily be able to appreciate any of these custom solutions.

Lighting Up A Workspace Twofer

March 14, 2013 by Brian Benchoff 14 Comments

desks

Sometimes a pair of extremely similar builds hit the Hackaday tip line within hours of each other. We’re not one to play favorites, so here’s two projects that put RGB LED strips in a desk and workbench.

[Charles] over at The Makers Workbench has long needed a lighting solution for his workspace. Flourescent lights are alright, but for real geek cred nothing but LED strips will do. He picked up an RGB strip on Amazon for $20 and now has a lighting solution that’s able to change colors above his workstation. Check out the video of his RGB workbench rave.

A computer desk is a workbench too, right? [Will] had the idea of letting people on the Internet control the lighting color of his desk. He’s asking people to head over to this site and asking people to schedule the color of his desk for an entire day. A Raspi pulls each day’s color off the server. With a few transistors, an RGB strip, a custom shield, and faking three PWM channels, [Will] has a new color at his desk every day.

Updating Your Workspace For More Organized And Efficient Hacking

April 1, 2012 by Mike Nathan 18 Comments

workspace-upgrade

If you’ve ever looked at one of [Todd Harrison’s] teardown or how-to videos closely, you would likely notice that his work bench looks like a standard hacker workspace. While we all try to keep our work areas clear of clutter, it’s not uncommon for components to pile up, cords to tangle, and things to get messy. [Todd] decided it was time to get a bit more organized, so he recorded a video showing how he went about the process.

Part of [Todd’s] work revolved around adding shelves to his bench so that he didn’t have measurement equipment stacked on top of one another. He also spent a good amount of time adding 30 additional plug sockets to his work space, replacing the single socket he had been struggling with for years.

Obviously this is not really a hack in and of itself, though this sort of reorganization is an important to efficient hacking all the same. We like the fact that [Todd] took the time to explain his process and materials in great detail – it will no doubt be helpful to those new to hacking.

Continue reading to see [Todd’s] video in its entirety, or swing by his blog for more pictures and details.

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The Integrated Desk

May 27, 2008 by Sean Percival 22 Comments

Since it happens to be the day after a nice holiday break, many of us are finding ourselves back in front of our desk once again. Perhaps some of you never left it the entire weekend. In any case, it seems fitting to take a look at a few interesting integrated desks we’ve come across lately. Follow through after the break to see our favorites.