Build a Drawbot from Two CD Drives and a Raspberry Pi
Learn how to create your own drawbot: a portable CNC plotter using two old CD drives, a servo, and a Raspberry Pi.
CNC & Machining
The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the manufacture of metal, wood, plastic, ceramic and composites. We talk about machining, using a lathe to machine metals like steel, brass, and aluminium. We make chips fly!
CNC Your Own Star Wars AT-AT
The AT-ATrinket is a functional and decorative Star Wars AT-AT-shaped box cut from MDF using a CNC router.
Obsessive Tool Building: Turn a Metal Scriber from Brass
Turning your own metal scriber tool is a great first project for a metal lathe.
Your Next Hardware Project Might Be Biological, and Other News from the Solid Conference
O’Reilly Media held its annual Solid conference this week in San Francisco. It’s an annual show covering “Hardware, Software & the Internet of Things.” We found it eye-opening, informative, and occasionally controversial. Here’s some of what we heard at this year’s show: Synthetic Biology Joichi Ito, Director of the MIT Media Lab, explained that code is now being […]
Adam Savage Builds a Multi-Tool Holster from Aluminum
In this Tested: One Day Build video, with Adam Savage and Will Smith, Adam decides to upgrade one of his Leatherman Wave cases with a belt-borne, one-finger-access clip holster. He decides to use a scrap piece of aluminum for the build. He also plans to upgrade his previous design of riveted leather straps for the […]
A 5 Axis CNC Mill for Less Than $5,000
Every time I come back from a Maker Faire someone asks me what my favorite thing was that I saw there. At World Maker Faire 2013, that was an easy question to answer, the Pocket NC 5 Axis CNC. The possibilities of what could be made with a desktop 5 axis CNC mill are enough […]
This 3D Printer Mod Lets You Carve Metal With Electricity
Take any 3D printer, throw on this modular head, and use it as an EDM machine to do precise metal carving. Exciting stuff! What’s EDM? Electro-Discharge Machining or “spark erosion” is a fairly specialized field that not many hobbyists are familiar with. The technique flips traditional electrical design upside down by trying to maximize a […]
