Alex from Hackster invited me to join her on Hackster Cafe today! We had a wide ranging conversation about running a small business, projects and products, and the AxiDraw MiniKit 2. Thanks, Alex!
Linkdump: January 2021
- Using a Sharpie can make gummy metals easier to cut. And we’re learning why.
- Online Digi-Comp II emulator (via The Computer Museum)
- Analyzing Solorigate from the Microsoft Security blog
- Exploring with Microscopes + Drones: San Rafael Bay, part of a new video series by Ariel Waldman
- The story of a community cannery in Portland, Oregon
- Quickly Sketch Escher-type Repeats Using Inkscape
- Pompeiian snack bar with guard dog excavated
- Reverse Engineering the source code of the BioNTech/Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine
- The Fighter Plane That Shot Itself Down
- Desktop Wind Tunnel (via The Prepared)
- Monitoring municipal water quality with clams
- A green flash while observing Jupiter at SpaceWeather
- CMYK Embroidery
Custom aluminum Bulbdial Clock case
Guy made a custom clock case out of aluminum for our Bulbdial Clock kit. It turned out beautifully! There are some really nice pictures of the design and build process, so definitely go check out his post.
Thanks for sharing your build, Guy!
Linkdump: December 2020
- Miniature Notepad Drafting Arm
- What Happened to the Submarines at West Edmonton Mall? (YouTube)
- A history of San Francisco lighted house numbers
- Breadboard wristwatch with bubble display (via hackster.io)
- What shape of 3D printed titanium implants best fosters bone adhesion?
- Typeset in the Future on Star Trek: The Motion Picture (featuring the Blaster Beam and real-life turbolifts).
- The Black-crowned Night-Heron is the official bird of Oakland
- anscombiser: An R package to create data sets that illustrate “the importance of using graphical displays in Statistics”
- A tweet led to a paper about galactic crepuscular rays
- A better air nozzle for better laser cutting
- More crepuscular critters that exhibit biofluorescence
- How push-latch mechanisms work, and how to make your own (YouTube)
- A big chain saw can cut through a big ship
The AxiDraw MiniKit 2
Today we are introducing a major refresh of the smallest member of the AxiDraw family of pen plotters: the new AxiDraw MiniKit 2. The AxiDraw MiniKit 2 is our special compact DIY-kit version of the AxiDraw lineup.
Versus the original AxiDraw MiniKit, the MiniKit 2 has been redesigned for easier assembly, better precision, and higher performance. The key change is that the long linear rail that forms the base of the machine — a custom aluminum extrusion in the original — has been replaced with a solid bar of 6061-T6 aluminum, machined in the same precision process as our top-of-the-line AxiDraw SE/A3, and then anodized to a satin-silver finish. This change simplifies a number of the assembly steps, but more importantly has a cleaner overall look and tighter manufacturing tolerances for improved precision.
In addition to be being “Mini”, the MiniKit 2 is also still a kit.
Unlike other models of the AxiDraw family like AxiDraw V3 and AxiDraw SE/A3 (which come assembled, tested, and ready to use), the AxiDraw MiniKit 2 is a machine that you assemble yourself.
We’ve taken great care in designing a kit that is rewarding to build, own, and use.
The new version is also heavier than the old one, which helps it to stay stable on your desk at higher speeds and gives it a small boost in effective speed, in addition to the upgrades in precision. Small but sturdy, The MiniKit 2 is built with machined parts, just one custom aluminum extrusion now, attention to detail, and care.
Linkdump: November 2020
- 7-segment magnet-driven ball clock
- Thermite Welding Train Tracks
- A review of the Apple Face Mask, via The Prepared
- A 3D printed infinity mirror Jeffries tube. Design available here.
- My Unlicensed Hovercraft Bar Is Technically Legal
- Moving a large building by walking
- What Victorian-era seaweed pressings reveal about our changing seas
- Biofluorescence in the platypus
Halloween Project Archive
This year’s Halloween may be a little different from years past. But maybe you’re doing a Zoom costume contest? Want some spooky snacks? Or want to get in the mood with seasonal decor? Is it not Halloween for you if there isn’t pumpkin carving? Head over to the Halloween Project Archives for inspiration and ideas.
Halloween is one of our favorite holidays, and … we’ve organized dozens of our Halloween projects into categories: costumes, pumpkins, decor and food.
Linkdump: October 2020
- Restored, upscaled, and colorized film of a 1902 ride on a suspended train in Germany
- Early web artwork restoration at the Guggenheim
- Doubts, a carpet by artist Faig Ahmed
- “The Different Useless Machine” (Rotates the switch instead of flipping it.)
- Introduction to the FOSS Governance Collection, for documents about how open source projects are managed.
- Musings on maker businesses: Makers in the Mittelstand
- Moon behind the NG-14 Antares launch
- Models of sprue card kits for quick 3D printing, like this DH.98 Mosquito
- What happens when an architect sees the movie “Parasite”
- Goodyear’s Illuminated Tires
Interview with Greater Spaces
The Ingeniøren (Denmark’s oldest engineering publication) blog Greater Spaces interviewed me in their ongoing series of interviews with women in technology. You can read the interview in Danish or on Medium in English.
Thank you, Vanessa for the great conversation!
Linkdump: September 2020
- Lego Interface UX
- Are there dead wasps in figs?
- ONO: How the Biggest 3D Printing Scam of All Time Unfolded
- This promotional video from Exco, a maker of aluminum extrusion dies, shows a lot of what goes into manufacturing an extrusion die
- New Supergiant Isopod Discovered
- Slide show of How Cork is Made
- Joe Rinaudo’s Fotoplayer Corona Virus Quarantine Concert. (A photoplayer is a specialized player piano used for scoring cartoons and silent movies.)
- You can apparently reverse engineer a key for a lock from the sound that the key makes upon insertion.
- A few of the 507 Mechanical Movements, beautifully 3D printed by Sam Schmitz
- A Refrigerator magnet clock
- The MINI PET DIY Computer Kit
- A demo of the Weav3r LEGO Loom by Jerry Nicholls showing how the heddles are set for each row for a zig-zag pattern. He’s gradually adding build instructions for it to his blog which holds a wealth of LEGO mechanisms.
