Geodome Build

September 3, 2014

Recently I was contacted by a group to build something awesome... I'll keep that group of people secret for now. After much debate, we decided to build something out of PVC pipe. It's cheap, light, and when used right, very strong. This is the design we set about building: A Bucky Ball. (Two actually)

Two "Bucky Balls" connected by a tunnel, designed in Sketchup

It's definitely worth reading about Mr. Fuller. He invented all kinds of amazing structures and wrote many books. If you want to read up on him, this is a great place to start.

Here are all 76 pipes cut, and stored in my wagon.

After layout out all the pipes and the hubs, we set about building:

Stay tuned for more as I fabricate the second part of the structure.

Wikihouse Update: A real micro house

June 26, 2014

It's been a while since we've done an update. The WikiShed model is just about as done. The next step is to cut it full scale. If you want to get the latest files you can head over to GitHub to download them. Just click the "Download Zip" to the right to get all the files. For now though, we've moved on to designing real houses. In Massachusetts we're allowed to build 200 square foot or under structures that can be used as an accessory building without engineering certification. So things like shops, artist studios, etc are fair game. You can't use it as a residence however. We also have an opportunity to build one of these for someone to live in in Vermont. Vermont requires no codes or approvals.

In line with the micro home movement, the Vermont house will be small as well, around 200 square feet. To that end we've set about designing a modular home that could be repurposed for many different uses: (And build really fast)

This model isn't done yet, but you can get an idea of the shape and style. The colors are sheer panels that we are going to use called Zip System.

The structure is designed to be repurposed for many different uses. The modules (pictured below) can be swapped in and out depending on the options you're looking for. Each module is about 40 square feet in it's footprint so we can abide by Mass building code, and we can easily make it larger where code allows:

The structure is an exercise in symmetry. The temptation in designing a CNC cut structure like this is to solve problems by making a unique part to solve that problem. While that is viable because a CNC machine cuts pretty fast, in the field it can be hard to sort a pile of parts that are different, but look the same. To that end, if you explore the model you'll see that so many of the parts are symmetrical. That means that they can be installed upside down, backwards or forwards and they will work. As much as possible panels are identical. In fact, the difference of a "window" module to a solid module is only 3 parts.

This model is a work in progress, but feel free to take a look. You can download it here.

Vermont Micros-house download

If you want to follow along with the updates, the entire model is on GitHub

A CNC made toolbox

February 9, 2014

The other day I decided to make a toolbox using my Handibot portable CNC machine. I actually found this model and modified it a bit to make it easier to fit on my sheet of plywood. Here is the result:

Pretty cool right? Do you want to make this yourself? Well if you have a Handibot, or any other CNC machine you can do it. I've posted all the files you need and instructions below.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Download

An Afternoon with the Handibot

January 25, 2014

I've never been much of a woodworker. While I can design and plan woodworking projects, the finesse that woodworkers have with wood always amazes me. That's why CNC machines have always fascinated me. A few years ago I even built my own.

I would love to have a full size CNC machine, but for me as a tinkerer, it's cost and space prohibitive. That's why I was so excited to see ShopBot tools come out with the Handibot.

The Handibot is a portable CNC machine that you can carry around and drop on top of the work piece that you want to cut. It has an effective cutting area of 6" x 8" and the toolhead can plunge 4".

I've had a lot of fun cutting out all kinds of widgets with it in the few months that I've had it. I've always wanted to use it to cut something bigger, and today I was able to do that. I'll walk you through how I did it.

First, I needed something to cut. I chose these "Rotational Stools" from Open Desk. I've got two nephews that will put these to good use for tying their shoes.

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Next, I had to prepare the files. Luckily OpenDesk offers DXF files of all the parts that you need to cutout right on their website.

To prepare files for cutting, you need to setup tool paths. The software I use for this is called VCarve. Not only does VCarve do tool pathing for CNC machines, in my case I needed to "tile" my toolpaths because what I am cutting is much larger than the area of the Handibot's range. This would allow me to cut one section at a time, taking the Handibot's small range and covering a larger area.

This is my parts layout, you can see that this is a toolpath for a larger CNC machine, but since it's divided into tiles I can cut one of them at a time, working my way over the workpiece. After I finished my tool paths, I loaded the Shopbot files into my tablet, grabbed my Handibot and headed to the garage.

But not before I swung over to Home Depot for some plywood!

To move the Handibot accurately over a large surface, it needs to be "indexed" so that it can me moved accurately between each tile. This jig you can see along the bottom has notches in it that correspond to an adapter I have on the Handibot that allows me to move it one tile at a time.

To make sure I was able to keep track of the tile I was on, I roughly marked them out on the work piece.

Here I am working my way down the first set of tiles. After each tile I slide the machine down to the next notch (which are numbered) and load up it's corresponding file.

I had to cut 8 tiles across, and 4 tiles up. To get to the next row I used this spacer and worked my way across the second row, loading each file and cutting it.

To get to the higher rows, I used more spacers. Each spacer engages into one another with the wedge cutouts.

Here are all my parts cutout. Now I just need to snap them out and to a test assembly.

There is the almost finished product. All the parts fit together nicely. In the picture here they aren't bolted together at all. It was about 9 degrees outside when I did this, and I was getting rather cold. I'm going to thaw out my toes and head back tomorrow to sand these down, assemble and paint them.

This is the kind of woodworking I can get into. Having these jigs attached to the Handibot really unlocks it's potential. I get a full size CNC when I need it, and for all the other times I can carry it to wherever I need it. This is the future of digital fabrication and it's AWESOME.

UPDATE:

Here's the final product:

See the rest of the pictures here

3D Printed Hexbright Flashlight Mount

October 29, 2013

So the other day I got myself a Hexbright flashlight. If you haven't seen one of these, it's an Arduino powered flashlight. It's incredibly nerdy, as you can hack and program your own flashlight. In the sprit of hacking, I decided I wanted to make a mount for it so that I could attach it to things like my car, bike, head, etc. To do this, I first needed a solid way to latch it to something:

I happen to own a Makerbot, so I designed this latch in Sketchup. It's a snap latch that holds the flashlight pretty tight:

The latch is completely designed in Sketchup. If you'd like to check the model out yourself, or would like to have one printed, you can check it out here on Thingiverse.