Laser Cut "Turtle City" art piece finished.

Aspidochelone is Aspidoche-Done!

This weekend, I finished the "Turtle City" piece of art I was working on. It's called "aspidochelone", after the ancient myth (google it).

Here are some pictures.

This is the drawing of the original idea.

Here it is completed:

Here are some close-ups of various parts:

The city:

Close-up of some of the buildings:

The shell:

The head:

The overall size of the piece is slightly less than 3 feet across by about 4.5 feet tall.   Pictures don't do it justice.

Laser-Cut Gumball Machine

I wanted to make something I've not seen before: a laser-cut gumball machine.

So here is what I came up with:

You turn the big gear and gumballs pop out of the bottom.  

The bottom is MDF that I treated with beeswax to make it food-safe.   The top is acrylic.   My wife suggested I make the next one completely in acrylic so you can see the mechanism as it works.

I took some videos of the design process, and I'll post them once I've had time to edit them together into one big video.

Laser Cut Game Terrain - Industrial Finished

I cut the final parts of my "Industrial Game Terrain" on the weekend.   I also cut one of the "hangars" to see how well it works.   The hangar connects to the terrain with a bridge either on the side or the back of the hangar.     Here are some pictures.

I have a couple more hangars to cut, but they will have to wait a while.   The library where I'm using the laser-cutter is shutting down it's maker space for a few months to renovate it.

So I'll be doing a lot less cutting, and a lot more design in the upcoming weeks.   I still have a few sessions left, but I want to cut "turtle city" first.

Laser-Cut City Art

I've completely finished cutting the cityscape art piece.   It is 99% glued up and assembled.   I have about 15 screws left to put in place, and then I have to figure out how to hang it on the wall.  

Here are some pics of it laying on my ping-pong table.

I took some close-ups of some of the buildings as well.

Once it's on the wall, I'll take some more pictures.

Cut files for "Turtle City"

This is what the cut files look like once I've split all the turtle layers into parts that fit on a 24x12 inch bed.

There are 28 sheets that will need to be cut.   Looks like I have another long wait at the laser-cutter coming up.

Turtle City - model finished

I finished modeling my "turtle city" piece in SketchUp.  

It's 11 layers of 1/8 in thick material.   I've got a view of all the layers in the next image.   It's a little hard to see because the buildings in each layer are fairly elaborate.

The turtle is about 3' wide, so the whole piece is about 5' tall.

The next step is to make cut files from this model, which will be a challenge, since my cut bed is only 24x12.  

Miniature Terrain - Industrial Complex

I started cutting some of the designs I previously created.   I got through most of the industrial complex, but I only finished 3 of the 4 cut sheets.   I put together what I did manage to cut and I'm happy with how it's coming.

My sons played with it, and made a "scene" where the space marines are defending from the Tyranids.   The general at the top did not notice what's behind him.

We added a "speech bubble" to the image using PowerPoint.    They liked making this scene so much that I suggested they make a stop-motion movie using this setting.   We'll see if they make one.   If they do I'll post it here.

I'll also post an update once I've cut the whole thing.

I'm a YouTube star! "How To" videos now on my YouTube channel.

A lot of people have asked me recently how I do what I do on the laser cutter.   With that in mind, I just started a YouTube channel.     You can find it at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCEJrhpYDtKPmAwbRVNnKcA

I uploaded 11 short videos that show my design process.   In them, I design, cut and assemble a small box.

If you like them please subscribe to my channel, and if enough people subscribe I'll post some more videos.
 

Dice Tower Update

Last night I also cut another dice tower, but this time in Baltic Birch.   I made it slightly smaller, and I was able to stain some of the parts with Varathane Gel Stain.

I find it difficult to decide which parts to stain and which ones to leave as-is.

Warning Signs update

I went to the laser-cutter last night and found 5 minutes to cut these 2 signs.

I used the off-cut of the first sign to make the second sign.   They are both cut in Baltic Birch and stained with Varathane Gel Stain.

I'm not sure which one I like better.   I prefer the look of the left one, but the right one is easier to read.

Here are some closeups.

Glowforge

I'm really excited!   I just put in an order for a new GlowForge laser cutter.

Check them out at: www.glowforge.com.

If you want to buy one as well, please use the following link, and I'll get $100 off of mine.   I would really appreciate it!

http://glowforge.com/referred/?kid=mIM4SO 

Warning Signs

I've designed some warning signs to put inside my maker-space.

Here is one modeled in SketchUp, with some "wood grain" pattern.  I guess I could also cut these in Acrylic instead of wood.

I've not cut them yet, but soon, I should have time to do non-cityscape cuts.

Wooden medals

Every year, my kids participate in the "Homeschooling Olympics", which are organized by a family in our area.   About 100 kids show up, are divided into teams and play games all day.   At the end of the day, each team receives a medal for some achievement (best teamwork, best spirit, most acurate, fastest, etc).

The medals are always hand-made by some family or other.   Last year, it was a slices of a small log.

This year, I'd like to volunteer to make the medals.   I made a few designs.

I made three different types, with different icons on them.  Here is what the cut file looks like to make 17 different medals.

I'll update this blog with pictures once they are cut.

Dice Tower

I took a quick break from the cityscape to cut a dice tower I designed for my son.

Here is the design I made (with a "flat-packed" version at the back)

Here's what it looks like in MDF.

I find it a little big, so I'm going to make it smaller, and cut it in nicer wood.   I also want to design some with different themes.   Any suggestions?