Ok, I am getting a bit carried away now! I am going to start thinking I am Santa Clause or Geppetto in a bit. Last one is a glider based on a Spitfire from 2.6mm balsa wood with a 5mm clear acrylic nose and 3mm dowel pins holding it together - no glue this time. As it has a 350mm wingspan I can see this one trashing quite a bit of the house on christmas day! I apologise to my wife in advance. Flight was about 15ft before it was stopped by a digital printing press. Oops. I will stick the plans on thingiverse when I get a chance.
Edit: Thingiverse link - http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:14928
Today I have been making last minute christmas presents for my sons including this train. It is 3mm ply with narrow dowel for the axels and fixing pins. It will be waxed and polished tomorrow ready for christmas. When I have finished it I will put the plans on thingiverse.
Edit: Finished the train and carriages.
We do a lot of work for braunston.ltd.uk and they are offering products we make as part of a promotion in January. They are giving away elephant kits with all orders over £30 and a chance to win a big wooden version on their facebook page.
We may start retailing the kits when the offer finishes and will keep you updated.
We have been messing about with a ChipKit and stepper motors from floppy drives and it has been very interesting. Only problem is we cannot find a project for them. The torque generated is very low so they cant really do any work. The best idea so far has been to stick a Christmas decoration on top but that seems a little, er, unimaginative! Any suggestions would be great.
If you are interested you may want to have a look at these resources:
http://www.stepperworld.com/Tutorials/pgUnipolarTutorial.htm
http://www.rapidonline.com/pdf/82-0192.pdf - for home built motor controllers
http://www.horrorseek.com/home/halloween/wolfstone/Motors/stpint_StepperMotorIntro.html
http://www.solarbotics.net/library/pieces/parts_mech_steppers.html
We built an ugly as sin home built motor controller shield with a L293 chip which works ok but gets really hot after a while. If we find a project for this we may utilise something a little more elegant. Either that or a bunch of equally poorly soldered transistors!
Post one - proof that fire is a real issue with a laser cutter! Cause - not paying enough attention and using acrylic risers with a sheet that requires a low speed and high power. One was right below a technical section on the evil snowman and whoomph - FIRE! lesson learnt.
Incidentally, Pulp Horror - don't worry, your order will be in on time! eBay
