Fun with LASERs

[Sundae]

I watched The Hotel Inspector a few weeks back.
Well, what you going to do when you can't work?

Couldn't work out what was being pixellated out in the lobby.
PORN?
A racy painting or somesuch?
No.
A Dalek.
Couldn't show it on Channel 4 because it's protected by patent. Otherwise it could be used in any Channel 4 series. Seemed a bit heavy-handed to me, but hey - it's our money they're protecting after all.

Colour me impressed that the Beeb liked your models. Well, they'd be mad not to, but they have high standards. Have a nice cup of tea and a sit down in celebration.

[xoxoxoBruce]

That tardis link doesn't work for me.

[JamesB]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

That tardis link doesn't work for me.

Interesting. We have a number of IP adresses blocked after problems with spammers. It's possible that your IP may be in the range we've blocked. I've killed the blocking, so see if it works now.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Nope, I altered the link and got to the fractalcoffee home page and looked around the site, but that link won't work for me.

[ZenGum]

LASER etching, 3-D printing ... the 21st century is pretty cool.

[JamesB]

Curiouser and Curiouser.

I'll have to do some more investigation. What Browser and Operating System are you running?

Does this full link work?

[xoxoxoBruce]

Nope, blank page. IE-9 in 7.

Does work in Firefox.

[JamesB]

Interesting, it comes up blank on my IE9 on 7 installation as well. There's no reason for it I can see. The page code checks out fine on the W3C validator site, so it looks like it's something in IE9 that's behaving oddly.

Works fine in the Firefox/Mozilla suites.

[Happy Monkey]

Man do I envy you that equipment. And know-how.

I love that TARDIS.

Is the "official color" affected by the undrlying material color? Or is the paint opaque enough that the material doesn't matter?

[JamesB]

Originally Posted by Happy Monkey

Man do I envy you that equipment. And know-how.

I love that TARDIS.

Is the "official color" affected by the undrlying material color? Or is the paint opaque enough that the material doesn't matter?

The paint I used is a standard satin finish latex interior paint, so like all latex paints, put on enough coats and the underlying colour doesn't show through.

The real trick was getting the paint mixed to the correct colour. The BBC Doctor Who Style Manual that I had access to (not something you can normally buy, and used by license holders as a reference), states that the correct colour is Pantone 2955C. While you can by paint from Pantone, the price was outrageous ($40/quart plus shipping, customs, and taxes) and the delivery time just wasn't compatible with the short time period I had to get a painted model together. I used a couple tools to translate the Pantone number into a colour format that could be used by the colour mixing equipment at our local Home Depot.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by JamesB

A new piece of LASER hardware will be arriving in a few months ... I've ordered a high resolution 3D printer.

Most of the hobyist 3D printers use plastic extrusion (FDM) technology and work by running plastic filaments through a heated deposition nozzle. The one I've ordered is a stereolithography (SL) type that uses a scanning LASER beam to activate and cure acrylate photopolymer resin. While the materials are more expensive, the resolution it can achieve is far higher.

I've got a big learning curve ahead of me relearning 3D modelling (I haven't played with 3D since LightWave 4, over a decade ago), as well as learning the 3D printing process with out wasting too much of the ~$150 (don't know the exact cost yet) per litre resin.

I came across this YouTube video (ad) of what seems to be touted as a "new and better" way of doing 3D printing. The way I've seen it before is the material is piped from above and the nozzle moves about depositing the material in layers... building up to form the product.

This company says they are feeding the material from the below, with the lazer on top. The video is just over a minute long, but the product comes up and is shown at 1:10.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I believe that method preceded the current squirt from a nozzle method, by several years.

[Lamplighter]

I have no idea how these were done... maybe lazers... maybe not.
But I liked them and thought others might too.

I found these pics in Anneke van Bommel’s blog - Art by Cal Lane

[JamesB]

Thread necromancy time.

I got a pair of commissions before Christmas to make two TARDIS models ... one as a Christmas present for a friend's Dr Who mad niece, and the other as a presentation box for an engagement ring.

Time to do some of the improvements to the design that I'd been planning.

The model for my friend's niece was completed first as the time deadline was a bit tighter. The presentation box for the engagement ring had a bit more of a generous time window due to a number of foul ups by the company making the engagement ring. I encountered some problems with features in the new design, so while I cut the parts for both at the same time, and did the bulk of the painting on both designs simultaneously, I stopped the engagement ring box version at about the 90% completion point and went on to finish the Christmas present. The problems with the first model could be worked around, but the stage of completion of the engagement ring box meant I could re-engineer solutions to the details that I was less than happy with.

Here's a couple of photographs of the almost complete engagement ring box. I still had to engineer an internal ring holder and do some minor trim adjustments, but it was looking good.





The beveled trim around the windows and the door panels was done using the LASER's 3D engraving node to generate a 45 degree bevel into the edge of the Masonite. For scale reference, the entire model is less than 7 inches tall, and each group of 6 windows measures 1 inch tall by 3/4 inches wide.

This particular model has had a hard life, and needed repairs done before it was even finished. We have a 150 pound Newfoundland, and his tail is like a fur covered baseball bat. Things that you think are safe, are still within the range of his swinging tail, and this poor TARDIS was knocked off the table and onto the floor boards ... twice. Fortunately, as long as I had a stock of 3mm thick Masonite, I could make all the replacement parts I needed, and the replacement parts fitted exactly the same as the original parts. Other than lost time, the damage caused no other problems. There was still a bit of touch up work to be done when the photos were taken, but the model was 99% complete (and placed well out of reach of the dog's tail when I wasn't working on it).

[JamesB]

The engagement ring box was commissioned by a professional photographer.

As I didn't have time to take any good photographs before I shipped it off to him, after it was delivered, he set me a few photographs that he took while his girlfriend was out of the office/studio for the day and he could sneak it in.

























Once he's actually popped the question, and no longer has to keep the TARDIS hidden, he'll have time to set things up properly in the studio and take some really good photos.