Dallas Makerspace Show and Tell - April 2016

[wandrson]

Well I finished another one of my dulcimer sticks. This time I made it about 3-4" longer and with a wider finger board (1 3/8") since I found the earlier version to have the strings too close together for my fat fingers. I also increased the scale length (nut to bridge distance) from 22.75" to 25.5". The tuning for this is somewhat different as well, DAd instead of the GDg of the smaller version. This is the normal tuning you would find on a mountain dulcimer. Same materials (still using left overs) as the smaller pair I made.

I also used mandolin tuners instead of guitar tuners, made the tuning area differently. In general just experimented with things to see what can be changed and still produce the basic instrument.

Here is a photo of the new one sitting next to the smaller one on the right.

[Nick_McCarthy]

Started at the very end of March, but I built a Reprap!

Wilson II Kit - From unboxing to printing in under 24 hours

I purchased and built the Wilson II RepRap kit from here: https://www.tindie.com/products/mjrice/reprap-wilson-ii-complete-3d-printer-kit/ I came to know about the Wilson II Reprap from @hasbridge While he choose to source parts himself and print all the plastic parts, I was a little less patient and bought one of the complete kits from Marty. As others have posted in the reviews, the kit was very thoughtfully packed, with individual boxes for plastic parts, frame components, electronics, fas…

[themitch22]

Are you going to bring it to the RepRap user group meetup Sat, April 23, 3pm – 6pm?

[PearceDunlap]

Today we replaced a catalytic converter in my Buick,

Replaced a tie rod because it scared the shit out of everyone who saw it

Found out I had a screw in my tire.

And then had a dead battery.

[Photomancer]

Makes the Cruel Bus look like a model safety vehicle … in a Yugo/Lada sort of way. Good you caught it.

[jast]

This is why you should just ignore needed repairs on any automobile: once you’re under there, everything wants attention and will start breaking to get it (unless they’re brakes, which STOP braking for attention).
Probably all of these repairs cost you less than the cat alone at any shop. Great work!

[HankCowdog]

I made some horse head bottle openers from used horseshoes using semi-traditional blacksmithing techinques (“semi” cuz I used a propane forge).

[wandrson]

I thought horseshoes were iron, but those look copper colored. How did you get the coloring?

[kbraby]

Never tried on steel, but one common method of copper plating is gently rub with a copper sulphate paste.

[HankCowdog]

For an RPG crafting exchange (like a secret Santa but for terrain-making role players) I crafted a lava board. An arduino nano underneath makes the lava shimmer, though it isn’t captured well in the video.

[Nick]

Awesome work,
I love the detail, could I twist your arm in getting a vid in lower light to better highlight the smoldering lava??? It is a little hard to tell in the video.

[HankCowdog]

Just the warm lighting - they are silver.

If one wants a brassy color on iron one can briskly rub a brass wire brush over black hot iron and transfer tiny amounts of the brass onto the object. This is often done to color iron flowers or leaves.

[mattarmstrong]

Many of you saw me cutting 5 bazillion (roughly) 2.5" holes out of MDF on the CNC. Here’s the “giant Lite Brite”, or, basically, low res LED wall.
Big thanks to @AlexRhodes and @Kentamanos for helping me get started on this!
24 4’x8’ panels with 288 water bottles and ws2812 LED’s each (12Hx24W), arranged in 3 segments (2 8’x24’ sections, 1 12’x32’). Video fed by Arkaos MediaMaster to PixLite controllers.

[Kentamanos]

VERY nice, and so glad you gave up on Masonite

[Lampy]

So, did you drink all that water?

[mattarmstrong]

Me personally? No. This is for a conference for my church this week, and we’ve been collecting water bottles from events for months

[themitch22]

That is so amazing. You should run the game of life on that thing.

[mattarmstrong]

Yes! We’re wanting to try Mario or some other 8bit game… May have to go Atari given the resolution

[mattarmstrong]

Agreed! That 1/8th" mdf is brilliant! Thanks again for the tip!

[Jessi_Sawyer]

I’ve been doing a lot of simple pieces and basic wire-wrapping in between custom order work (or maybe instead of but I’m not going to obsess over details here).

Bracelets - great for layering. Lapis, turquoise, pyrite, sterling chains/clasps.

Bracelet made out of a bunch of scrap pieces of sterling chain and random beads that never made their way back to the strands they belong to. (yellow jade, orange aventurine, blue/green aventurine)

Simple gem drop earrings in rose quartz & prehnite.

Last pair of gem earrings for Indiegogo rewards -