For three days only (Fri 9, Sat 10, Sun 11 Jan 2015) we are exhibiting our giant LED cube as part of the Canary Wharf Winter Lights Festival. This is the contraption pictured at the top of the page, and previously part of Leeds Light Night.
We’ll be showing off from 4pm-8pm in West Wintergarden, just on the south side of Canary Warf tube station.
We’d love for anyone in the area to come along and say hi, or just to marvel at the pretty blinkenlights!
With our new laser cutter being purchased I thought it about time to finish of a post about what I did with the last one.
The full shogi set
Shogi is a Japanese variant of chess and unfortunately it is difficult to get a set without importing it so making it seemed a good option and with access to the laser cutter this actually became quite feasible.
The pieces are pentagons – easy enough to design, with a kanji symbol engraved into it- cant be too hard right? The kanji goes on both sides- which makes things harder, and one of the kanji for each piece should be red- which would take some experimentation.
Using wikipedia as a source of the kanji I started by jumping through a number of hoops: grabbing the images, putting them in inkscape, tracing a bitmap of the image and exporting it to newlydraw which resulted in rough but passable results. Some more fiddling later, I found a better way was to copy the kanji directly into newlydraw, though this involved changing the non-unicode language settings.
To engrave on both sides I set up two files in newlydraw. One would cut out the pentagon shapes and engrave one of the kanji. The other file would have the corresponding kanji lines up to print in exactly the same place as their counterparts. Each file would have a small square in the upper right hand corner to account for newlydraw counting whichever first image of the top left is to be 0,0,0.
As usual a bit of faff and practice cutting was needed to I would get clean cuts and a deep clear engraving.
The sheet of wood that would make the pieces was taped down securely to the bed and the first pass of cutting and engraving done. Then I lifted the pieces out one by one with blue-tac, flipped them over and replaced them so the original sheet could be used for a template for the second pass.
Left to right: Just out of the laser cutter, varnished, wax applied, excess was removed, mover varnished for the finish.
To add the colour I tried first with paint but it spread and stained the rest of the wood too easily and clean-up proved end up ruining the engraving. Fortunately some of the other members gave me a tip about using wax. I prepared the surface first with a couple of layers of varnish. With the crayon roughly crushed I put in a small metal dish and gently heated it on a hot plate. I was able to scoop it up and apply with the back of a spoon. When it had dried I scraped off the excess with a knife and re-varnished to seal it in which had the benefit that also deepened and brought out the colour.
The board itself was simpler with just engraving a cross hatch pattern. I made a small wooden frame, and hinged it so I could fold it up with the pieces stored insid
e.
Anyone for a game?
Our bandsaw has needed a bit of TLC for a while, the clamp lever for the fence was broken, making it impossible to use it as a guide so straight cuts were impossible, a situation not helped by the fact that the blade is so blunt it seems to burn its way through anything you try to cut.
The problem
A brief investigation of the fence revealed a couple of options for a fix, and its now sporting a nice new knurled knob for clamping it into place.
The solution
Tomorrow it gets a new blade and it should be as good as new.
This month has been very successful at furnishing the space with some fun new toys^H^Hols.
Arriving at the space imminently* we have the following :-
Laser cutter and 3d Printer
A shiny new metalworking Lathe – not exactly new, in fact may be older than our previous lathe, we have gone for an upgrade as the previous one was on loan.
A shiny new laser cutter – 60 watt A2 size (600mm x 400mm). Â We have ordered this from china and will be upgrading the electronics with an open-source control board.
A shiny new 3D printer – This is more an extra 3d printer for the space but is a commercial FDM printer claiming a layer height (resolution) of 20 microns! Â It is not owned by the hackspace but will be living at the hackspace with availability for members who have done the 3D printer induction plus a brief extra induction covering the differences.
All of the above tools do require inductions for safety of members and longevity of the tools themselves.
*Imminently in this case meaning within the next two months or already arrived.
If you’ve been following the mailing list then you’ll already know that the members have been busy tidying!
The once grotty toilet is now seeing better days, the leak will be repaired and the walls are being/been cleaned up and painted. If it hasn’t been done already, the floor will be, too!
We may still not have decent security cameras, but the screen to help monitor the Hackspace is in place and a web page is being developed to show on it the relevant camera(s) and any important information. People are welcome to chip in on developing what will be shown on it.
The roof should also have some extra sealant to prevent further leaks – this has came on in leaps and bounds over the past year and the main desk will be significantly dryer to say the least!
Speaking of desk, work has begun on a new one so that there’s more work space to sit at. The current desk, while useful in some regards just couldn’t house everyone.
Power tools have also been tidied and labelled in respective boxes.
So improvements abound! Thanks to everyone and members whom have volunteered in helping out so far!
Massive thanks to everyone who attended and raised points.
After a number of years sterling service, we’re sad to announce that Mick has stepped down as Director. Mick has been a LHS director since we were in the previous space and has been instrumental in putting us into profit and sorting out the finances. I’m extremely sorry to see him go and massively thank him for all the work done (insert mailing-list compatible standing ovation here).
Fresh from the success of the Cube, we’re pleased to announce that Matt Collins has stepped up and joined the directorship. He was nominated by a couple of people and confirmed unanimously.
Minutes and other paperwork to come shortly, but thanks again to everyone who’s been involved over the past year; old faces and new.
Fligg.
There will be an AGM tonight (Tuesday 14th October), the meeting is open to all (member and non-members alike) and is a chance to discuss issues around the space, review activities that have taken place over the year, and put forward suggestions about Hackspace. There will also be elections for the positions of Directors of the space.
If you have and points of order/interest that you would like raising add them below or to the mailing list and we can get a running order together.
Hope to see you there!
To see more you’ll need to come to Light Night Leeds on 3rd October – you’ll find us in Leeds City Museum!
There will be an AGM on Tuesday 14th October, the meeting is open to all (member and non-members alike) and is a chance to discuss issues around the space, review activities that have taken place over the year, and put forward suggestions about Hackspace. There will also be elections for the positions of Directors of the space.
If you have and points of order/interest that you would like raising add them below or to the mailing list and we can get a running order together.
Hope to see you there!
Today saw the inaugural meeting of the Leeds HackSpace “You better believe I’m going to taste all the ingredients” (Lick All The Things!) Brewers and caffeine aficionados society (name to be confirmed).
tldr: Equipment was sterilised, water was boiled and secret ingredients were weighed out to 2 decimal places of precision. Oh -and there’s a good chance we’ve actually made some beer, too! (read more for how it went down)
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