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Showing posts from July 29, 2012

40 Rube Goldberg Triggers

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I've been working on a project for Derby Silk Mill   that they are calling the 'What if machine'. It's a Rube Goldberg machine with a twist, instead of assembling all of the machine in the museum over the course of a week, they're inviting teams of people to bring 'modules' for the machine along on the day. Each module is pre built and tested and will have a team of people responsible for resetting the module when it goes wrong. This should allow the entire machine to be reset and run again in super fast time.  So now imagine that you have 20 of these modules and you need a reliable way to connect between the two modules that both teams can practice with before the big day. That's why I created one of these triggers , by placing one at the start and end of the machine you know exactly how to connect to the machine next door. I laser cut 40 of these and assembled them by hand but I wanted to make sure it was all going to work before I sent them t

FACT Stamp

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Everybody knows somebody that needs a rubber stamp like this, that person who thinks everything they say is fact just because they said it. Based on a conversation from work (but not for my boss because he is awesome of course) 279/290

Half Twirls

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There was a brief discussion about making a globe at nottingham hackspace this week, got me thinking about ways to map a sphere and I came up with this interesting design. Have some more plans for this shortly. ( svg here )  278/289

Abalone

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Inspired by the 3D printed version of Abalone that appeared on thingiverse I laser cut my own board so I could see what it was like to play. Glass beads brought from ebay. ( svg here ) 277/288

Poplar Cottage

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The sign on my grandparents house is looking a bit dated so I made them a new one. It's actually Kims idea just made real by me.  276/287

15 Great Circles

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Last weeks Math Monday article showed the intersection of 4,5 and 6 great circles made using CDs and left the reader with a challenge to assemble a model of 15 intersecting great spheres, well challenge accepted. I used a 3D modelling program to subdivide a dodecahedron, which gave me points in the middle of each face and the middle of each edge. From there I reconstructed the basic triangular 'unit' and once I had the required angles I used inkscape to add the great circle outline to the model. Perhaps a complicated route but it works. ( svg here ) Oh yeah, and maths is beautiful  275/286

Witches heart

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A friend asked me if I could make some of these celtic type knots, known as witches hearts. Took quite a long time to get all the line in the right places but it was definitely worth it. The second one is half the size and more like the final version will be ( svg here ) 274/286