3D printed parts dunked in acetone vapor produce professional finish

Acetone Vapor bath

TrenchPhysics documents his experiments with taking objects created on his 3D printer and dunking into a bath of acetone vapor to produce a professional finish. 3D printers produce objects by printing them from the ground up one layer at a time. This causes every printed object to have visible ridges on it. The acetone vapor causes the outside layer of the 3D part to fuse together, eliminating the ridges and creating a uniform smooth surface. The end result makes the part very shiny.

Check out his video here.


Reddit ECE Student mitchellele Delivers a Companion Cube Amp

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ECE student mitchelle was looking for a cool case to house his amp project. I suggested a companion cube and he delivered in less than ten days with the full cube. Crazy impressive speed if you ask me. Here is the link to the post if you want to see it.

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskEngineers/comments/14bg99/i_am_building_an_audio_amplifier_for_a_university/c7goyu8


Jack Daniels Independence Project – Mega Claw 2.0

Cunning Turtle has decided to enter Instructables and Jack Daniels Independence Project. We looked through all the things we built and decided it would be wonderful to resurrect Mega Claw. Of all the things we’ve built this one had the greatest impact on children and families. We won editors choice in Makerfaire 2010, but in 2011 and 2012 we haven’t been able to bring anything to the show. If we win the contest we plan to attend Maker Fair 2013 in style.

Here is our entry. http://www.instructables.com/id/Mega-Claw-20/


It’s Friday Night, have a cocktail robot

Just an awesome looking robot that dispenses alcohol. It uses Bar Measures (measures) to dispense the alcohol and compressed nitrogen on the right to dispense the mixers.

via hackaday


Computer Case: Weighted Companion Cube

This is perhaps one of our favorite computer cases that we’ve made over the years. Normally a cube isn’t an exciting deviation from the standard computer case, the rectangle prism, but this one is different. Not only is this cube weighted but it also a replica of the weighted companion cube from the video game series Portal. Some of you sober-eyed types who play video games might have recognized the similarity by now. How it resembles that cube you once had an encounter with, that abruptly ended when you threw it in a pit of fire. You monster.

This replica of the weighted companion cube was made with love (you wouldn’t know what that is). It was designed in SketchUp and cut out on our CNC machine. The cut out panels were then hand painted and assembled into the cube shape it is now.

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Gen 2 Photo Booth – Field Testing

I was invited to two weddings earlier this year. The wedding of Whitney and Jeremiah then another wedding for Courtney and Phil. I went to both weddings and my gift to them was the photo booth. I learned a lot about generation 2 of the booth. Some things I really liked some things I hated. Read the rest of this entry »


Gen 2 Photo Booth – Finishing the Booth

I really wanted the booth to pop. It had to be intuitive because there wouldn’t be an assistant attending the booth. Plus I wanted kids to be able to use it. We chose a design that attracts users like moths to a flame. It also attracts people to look right into the lens without thinking about it.

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Gen 2 Photo Booth – Designing the Camera Box

Now that the aluminum base is done it’s time to figure out how to protect the camera. We started building a cardboard mock up then cut the road case parts and put it all together. A lot of really good photos of the build in this post.

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Baby Shower

Andrea and I had our baby shower. She showed me some watermelon baby picture on pinterest and said, “Make that!” Being a DiY person I couldn’t resist.

 


Gen 2 Photo Booth – Designing the Stand

After doing the initial measurements I decided that I wanted the booth to be adjustable and sit somewhere around chest height for the average user. This would be a standup booth when necessary and adjustable to a sit down booth. We spent a good $300 to buy the material to build it, but there were still many risks. Would it be strong enough? Would it be light enough? Would the slide rail even work? We already tried to build this with draw slides and it failed miserably. Hopefully we didn’t just waste our money.

 

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