Printing complex shapes: A sugar chain

By Windell Oskay on July 31, 2007

We made this chain of twelve giant links on the CandyFab 4000 to demonstrate the fabrication of a complex object, the sort that is difficult to make by conventional machining processes. You can see the 3D model and some build pictures for this monstrosity over at CandyFab.org.

This object also highlights the relatively large build envelope of the CandyFab– significantly larger than that of most other low end (i.e., under $50k) 3D fabrication systems.

PS for Chemistry geeks: insert joke about long-chain hydrocarbons here.

This entry was posted in CNC, EMSL Projects, Engineering, Play with your food and tagged candyfab, cnc. Bookmark the Permalink.

Webcast links

By Lenore Edman on July 29, 2007

We got all packed up and headed out to the Exploratorium today for the Maker Webcast about 3D Fabrication in sugar. Thanks to Dale Dougherty from Make Magazine for inviting us – we had a great time! In case you missed it, here are the links to the archived show on the Exploratorium website: mp4, real player, windows media. (If in doubt, try the mp4 version!)

This entry was posted in Field Trips and tagged exploratorium, make, museum. Bookmark the Permalink.

Another Flying Spaghetti Monster sighting

By Windell Oskay on July 27, 2007

It would seem that the Flying Spaghetti Monster has seen fit to bless this bag of Haribo “Sour S’ghetti” with his noodly presence. (Ramen.)

We came across this while working on the Circuitry Snacks project– they were one of the candidates that we originally thought might be good to serve as edible “wires.” Go figure.

[Related: FSM Costume, FSM Toast]

This entry was posted in Everything Else, Play with your food and tagged food. Bookmark the Permalink.

CandyFab.org : The CandyFab Project

By Windell Oskay on July 25, 2007

Today we are spinning off one of our projects and launching a new web site: CandyFab.org. The new site is intended to help foster a community around the idea of accessible, low-cost, and open-source three-dimensional fabrication technologies.

The first major goal of The CandyFab Project is to completely re-engineer the CandyFab within the coming year. We plan to produce an open reference design in hardware and software for what will become the CandyFab 5000S– a low-cost solid freeform fabrication machine that can be built with commercial off-the-shelf parts.
If you’d like to participate in designing, constructing, or using machines like this, we’d love to hear from you. Hop on over to CandyFab.org.

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects, Engineering, Open Hardware and tagged candyfab, open source. Bookmark the Permalink.

Five Electronics Tools You Might Not Know About

By Lenore Edman on July 24, 2007

You’ve got your wire strippers and your soldering iron…now what? You probably know that there is a standard set of essential tools that you need on your electronics workbench. You can find helpful lists of these tools at Lady Ada’s site and Dan’s Data.

However, real tool junkies always want just the right tool for the job. Here are five electronics tools you may not know you were missing. These esoteric tools go a bit beyond the basics that everyone should have.

Continue reading Five Electronics Tools You Might Not Know About →

This entry was posted in Basics, Electronics, EMSL Projects, Engineering and tagged electronics, soldering, tools. Bookmark the Permalink.

See us in Wired

By Windell Oskay on July 23, 2007

In the August 2007 issue of Wired Magazine (pictured here and just showing up on newstands now), there is a short writeup about the CandyFab.

There’s even a picture accompanying the article, which shows us with the machine. w00t!

Update: The online version is up.
(Nice of them to make that available!)

This entry was posted in Everything Else, General News and tagged candyfab, news. Bookmark the Permalink.

CandyFab at the Exploratorium Maker Webcast

By Lenore Edman on July 21, 2007

Come see the CandyFab 4000 in action on Saturday, July 28 at 1:00 PM (PDT) at the Exploratorium in San Francisco or live online for the Maker Saturday Webcasts.

Make: Magazine is partnering with the Exploratorium to bring weekly webcasts of interviews with makers this summer. If you haven’t been to the Exploratorium yet, use this as an excuse! It is one of our favorite sources of inspiration.

This entry was posted in Field Trips and tagged candyfab, exploratorium, maker, museum. Bookmark the Permalink.

July Linkdump

By Windell Oskay on July 20, 2007

Yes, it’s that time again when we round up and post some of the cool stuff out there on the interwebs:

First, check out this remarkable movie of Robot Arm Clocks. The creativity and resourcefulness shown in this project is astounding– look at all the different kinds of clocks that they made– holy cow.
Those of you who are into AVRs and LEDs (you know who you are) might like to look at this page of LED games. It’s in Japanese, but worth the effort to look. (You can always cheat and translate it too.) Source code is there for the downloading, kits are available– in Japan at least– and there’s also an alpha-stage version of BASIC for AVR there too.
Those of you who are not into AVRs and LEDs, but want to be, please check out Ladyada’s new, extensive, and growing AVR tutorial.
Next, get yourself an RC Predator kit. Includes digital camera.
See also: this DIY version.
Anybody for Dust hockey?
Here is something that I thought was needed and somebody else did it so I don’t have to: It’s a list of readily available chemicals.
Neat scale models of planets and stars. (The Sun I can grok. Antares, not so much.)
Excellent Periodic table satchel at Etsy. Sold out, but you should tell the seller to make you one.
An oldie but goodie: the Britney Spears guide to Semiconductor Physics tells you, in gory detail, how laser diodes work. (I took a semiconductor laser class in grad school. This was one of the references that we were given. Really.)
Not exactly CandyFab, but this rock-candy jewelry is interesting.
Tinkerlog has more AVR-ish goodness.
Awesome FedEx Shirt
Serious Eats. Cool food blog.
Tastespotting. Food pseudo-blog for the ~~illiterate~~ visually oriented.
Kawaii Not, the web comic for cute gone bad. Link goes to my favorite strip.
Graphical resistor color calculator
A report from Julian Bleecker (techkwondo.com) about ordering PCBs from Gold Phoenix.
Cocktail Party Physics. Another sciencey blog.
There’s something odd, amusing, and slightly awesome about these dog wheelchairs. Their anti-bite collars aren’t bad either.
Fun online Crystal lattice toy
More playing with food.

This entry was posted in Everything Else and tagged linkdump. Bookmark the Permalink.

Make a Camera Cozy

By Lenore Edman on July 18, 2007

This camera cozy protects your LCD and keeps your lens cap on when you toss your camera in your bag or are just carrying it around. It also provides storage for a spare set of batteries as well as a location for the dead ones you’re taking out.

It was designed for the Canon S2IS and S3IS, but the pattern can be adapted for other similarly shaped cameras. Download the pattern here (160 kB PDF file).

It was inspired by a ~~knit~~ crocheted camera bag by Leethal. (If you like it, she has a similar one ~~for sale right now~~sold!) However, the darling lens pouch seemed rather excessive for my non-SLR, and I don’t knit (or crochet!), so this design was born.

Continue reading Make a Camera Cozy →

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects and tagged fashion. Bookmark the Permalink.

Lampshade Light Tent

By Lenore Edman on July 16, 2007

Here’s a cheap and easy way to deal with getting rid of pesky reflections, shadows and backgrounds in your small object photography: use a lampshade for a light tent.

This $6 lampshade from IKEA is white, nearly cylindrical, and has an adjustable (removable) mounting bracket, all of which make it easily adaptable to this purpose.

Scale disclaimer: objects in this photo are larger than they appear – the cat is unreasonably large.
Continue reading Lampshade Light Tent →

This entry was posted in EMSL Projects and tagged diy, photography. Bookmark the Permalink.