Magnetic Palago tiles

These are magnetic Palago tiles. They are laser cut from 1/2" poplar. Disk magnets are embedded in the sides with alternating orientations, ensuring tiles are placed correctly, and also preventing accidental movement of the tiles during gameplay. The tiles are painted metallic blue and finished with polycrylic.

Holiday Gifts and Files

I'd like to finally make good on my promise to myself to learn 3D design tools. I spent all night trying my hand at Blender. I won't let myself be discouraged by the steep learning curve. But to make myself feel a bit better, here's a long overdue post: more laser cutter projects I made for the holidays.

Gorillaz - stained and painted laser etched plywood

I used this reference drawing.

Here is the vector art I created in pdf format.

Samus - stained and painted laser etched wood

I used this reference drawing.

Here is the vector art I created in pdf format.

Knit Wood - stained and painted laser etched plywood

Here is the vector art I created in pdf format.

Magnolia Card Set - paper mod podge

I made a total of 13 of these. Easy, fun project.

Here is the vector art I created in pdf format.
The original was a very low res gif online.

Map of Wisconsin with an error - painted plywood

Lakes and rivers are represented, as well as state lines

By mistake, I painted part of Minnesota underwater...

This is also a simple application of the Four Color Theorem

Here is the vector art I created in pdf format.

16-hex anisohedral tiles - painted plywood

Joseph Myers runs a program to discover interesting tilings like these.

He also provides PDFs to all the tilings directly from that link.

To sum it up in one line: 10 of these tiles create a pattern that can be simply repeated by rotation and translation (no holes allowed)
With 20 tiles, you need only translate the group to tile the plane.

Here's the direct link to the download from Myers' page (compressed archive, pdf inside)

I added some extra engraving to pattern the tiles for visual effect.

Laser Cut Hannukah Gifts (& update to the painting)

The laser cut holiday gift posts begin! On the left: My Neighbor Totoro cubby for my sister. On the right: a paper-on-plywood piece based on traditional Japanese woodblock prints. I like the technique and will probably experiment with a few more similar pieces, or the same piece with new patterns.

Above: the painting is soooo close to being done. Once it is finished I'll collect all the work-in-progress photos and post them side by side.

Laser-cut Shirt (aka first sewing machine project)

I have started making shirts. The process involves laser cutting pieces and assembling them with my new sewing machine.

Step 1: Choosing a machine

• I learned on an Emerald 116 Husqvarna Viking, an 'analog machine'
• The foot pedal sits inline with the power cord, controlling motor power directly
• Knobs control the stitch type, width, length
• The most widely/highly reviewed machine on Amazon is the Brother CS600i, a 'digital machine'
• (1,770 reviews averaging 4.4 stars at time of writing)
• LCD display is very convenient for choosing stitches, lots of stitches to choose from
• Will not allow 'mistakes' like trying to stitch with the presser foot up
• Foot pedal connects optionally via standard 3mm audio-type connector and port
• Competitively priced. I paid $155 for it, but I see it has dropped to $140 at time of writing

My one suggestion for improvement of the machine is the addition of a USB port and the option for users to upload new custom designed stitches onto the machine. That would be so cool.

Step 2: Fabrics
JoAnn's had some knit stuff appropriate for clothing, but not much. I have to find a better supplier for the next round.

Step 3: Designs
I used my point and shoot to take pictures of the front and backs of some of my favorite shirts. Then I went in with Corel Draw and created designs (cloning the left hand side from the right for symmetry). Finally I added outer contours for seam allowance and scaled the whole thing appropriately. I did an okay job but should have left a larger seam allowance.

Step 4: Cutting pieces on the laser cutter
On very low power, I cut all the parts out for the shirt using the files I created in Step 3. Because of the laser cutter bed size, I had to separate the shirt into 32" by 18" pieces. Therefore my favorite theme for this type of design is 'colorblock shirts,' though this shirt was not one of those.

Step 5: Sewing
This was by far the most difficult and time consuming step, of course. My first trial ended up wearable but definitely could use improvement. Here's a photo of the shirt and the design (the white thing is just an undershirt that I already had). Again, once I get a license for my Corel Draw I will clean up the files and export PDF versions for sharing.

Bamboo Pentagram of Circles Trivet

Trivets, coasters, candleholders, and other pieces are good ideas for laser cut gifts, except for the fact that most people already have been receiving those sorts of things for the holidays for years, and have more than they know what to do with.

Except...students! In general, I've found that single people who are students or who were recently students don't usually have a lot of this stuff.

In fact, I fit that description. I don't have any trivets. I have candle holders admittedly. But no trivets. So I made this out of a bamboo cutting board. You can find bamboo cutting boards for cheap at stores like Home Goods.

I found a png on Wikimedia (an amazing resource for png and svg files like this) and spent a few hours in Corel Draw making the vector cut file.

I need to get a license for Corel Draw but once I do that, I will clean up all my files and export them as pdfs to share.

Lasercut Holiday Gifts

As I promised, here are photos of the gifts I made with the laser cutter for the holidays.

Magnetic Tessellating Escher Fish. Based on this design. I made these out of plywood, then stained them.

Tea light enclosures, based on this design. I added a base piece with a circular hole, which keeps the tea light in place (they come in a standard size).

I made these with thin planks of what I think is called red oak, sold in the hobby section of Home Depot or Lowe's.

First order logic blocks. Design based on the idea from http://spikedmath.com/475.html.

I made these from a longer piece of oak. My roommate is a woodworker, and let me cut the blocks  with his table saw.

I made 18 blocks. Choosing the set of symbols, frequency of symbols, and which faces of which blocks to put them on was not easy. Credit goes to my boyfriend Scott for helping design this piece.

Jewelry tree based on this design.

Didn't change anything but the slot thickness (to match the plywood thickness).

Lissajous coasters. Original idea, though the svgs for the curves themselves come from Wikimedia.

I made these from thin poplar planks, sold in the hobby sections of Home Depot or Lowe's.

This piece is a giant version of this design. Due to the variance in the thickness of the plywood I picked, I wasn't able to make some of the last few pieces fit. I scrapped this and decided to remake it again later, smaller, with new materials, and stain the pieces different colors for better visual effect.

Another tea light design. This one is 'modular,' in other words the panels are not glued together and it is meant to lie flat for storage. The design was made with resources from this amazing collection of free, high quality traditional Japanese designs. The site is in Japanese. I found it through dezignus.com, another useful resource.

The gifts during the gluing, staining, drying, finishing process. I loved doing this but I have a job and school that eat up all my time...so next year I will probably won't be able to justify doing all this again.

Laser Cutting Stuff - What Have I Been Up To?

I've been introduced to the wonderful world of laser cutting. Most of the stuff I design is for work, used in modular robotics. Every so often I find time to create something just for fun. I can't share all the photos until after Christmas because most of these are gifts and I don't want to ruin the surprise (not that anybody reads this anyway). But here one of the things I made:

It is based on the piece by Robert Indiana, and made of pine board.

Preparing for a very DIY holiday season is taking up all my free time, but there are some other things in the works, though it could take a very long time:

• New macro photography tools, as I continue to experiment with lenses, lighting, etc.
• A simple HDR algorithm, for photos where no info (exposure time, camera model) is given
• A few sewing projects

Check back later for lots of photos after the holiday season.