Category: Build
Bamboo soap dish
One of the first things I ever tried to mill was this ‘Grunblau soap dish’ design I found by accident on the interwebs. It turned out that the project had too steep of a learning curve for... Read More
2016 upgrade roundup
Here’s a summary of the whole process of upgrading my machine from a pretty much vanilla setup to the beast I have at my disposal today: 1. X-axis stiffening 2. Y-axis and more 3. Re-assembly ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (12) – wasteboard + closing up
Last but not least, I decided to put a new wasteboard in place. I had 2 pieces of 6 mm MDF cut to 750 x 750 mm panels. Then, cut a hole pattern in both of them that matches my threaded insert spacing.... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (11) – new Makita mounting brackets
Ever since I installed the linear rail Z-axis, my spindle hasn’t been mounted perfectly perpendicular to my bed. The old mounts were a tad flimsy and not 100% identical.  The widening of t... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (10) – Gecko G540 / Mach3
I actually almost forgot to write a little something about maybe one of the more substantial yet invisible upgrades: I ditched the whole Arduino/Gshield setup and bought a real CNC controller: theÂ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (9) – Drag chain bracket
Next project on the block: making a new drag chain bracket. I actually made one ages ago mostly with hand tools, and it worked to a degree, but there definitely was some room for improvement. So here... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (8) – Aluminium Z-plate
A new day, a new project. Today: cutting a plate for the final version of my Z-stage out of 4mm aluminium. Why have a plate and belt drive at all instead of direct drive? Well I mentioned this before:... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (7) – New belts, pulleys and idlers
Ok, so now that I have the much more powerful 276 oz-in NEMA 23 motors driving my machine, I went on and replaced all the pulleys and idlers in order to have them accept 9mm GT3 belting. I do this... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (6) – New motors
Phew. It’s been a while! As I mentioned earlier, I did some traveling and I also needed to do some projects around the house during summer, so there was hardly any time left to put into hobby... Read More
Getting lathe
A few months back, I bought a used cnc lathe. It is a converted C6 that -sadly- has been collecting dust since. You know how it goes, life gets in the way sometimes. Included in the deal, I got a shi... Read More
Leaving on a holiday…
But I couldn’t resist showing the upgrades I have in store when I come back. 🙂... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (5) – Z-axis
Originally, I was going to start using my Shapeoko again for other projects after having completed the last batch of upgrades. But for some reason I got it in my head to order some more parts and kee... Read More
Gearing up (4) – my automated 360° rig is ready!
Previous articles about this project: part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 After 2 days, my Shapeoko Z-axis bearing locked up again, so while I wait for a replacement, I figured ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (4) – First cut
Well it is finally time to test out my upgraded Shapeoko. I finished it by adding an LED strip underneath the X-rail and put the enclosure back over it. So here it is in all it’s glory: I must ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (3) – Re-assembly and troubleshooting
Final day of my Shapeoko rebuild. Once again, I did a lot of small modifications and corrections. First of all, I took out the locked up bearing I noticed the other day, and pried off the shielding. ... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (2) – Y-axis and more
Today I proceeded with the Shapeoko upgrade. Nothing massive, but a lot of small things that took some time anyhow. I checked, and where necessary, fastened all screws/bolts. I flattened all of the ... Read More
Birthday card
Felix turned 1 yesterday, and since my SO2 lies in shambles, I cut a little card with the laser cutter. It’s the first time I used this type of foam cardboard on the K40, but it turned out perfe... Read More
Shapeoko upgrade (1) – X-axis stiffening
I’d been putting it off for a long time, but now it’s finally time to do some upgrades and work out some kinks i’ve had trouble with over the last few weeks. The most drastic one is... Read More
Gearing up (3)
Okay the automated photo booth is now 100% functional and here’show I did it: The heart of this project is an arduino. I’m not very proficient in arduino stuff but I know enough about... Read More
Gearing up (2)
As a follow-up to my previous article, here’s what I did today. First the theory: I designed a base that will hold my stepper motor and gear train. Nothing too complicated. I cut the shape on th... Read More
Gearing up
In order to automate my 360° photobooth, I concocted a gear train with a 36:1 reduction ratio. I had to google gearing 101 because I was totally ignorant on the matter, but I had a working princip... Read More
Slingshot assembly jig
I am planning to make a small batch of my slingshot design, and sell them here in order to recover some of my recent investments. As of today, I haven’t made a cent off this hobby… To mak... Read More
Newest tool in the shop
A few days ago, a forum user over at shapeoko.com posted an idea I just had to try out. He had bought some kind of table saw, but instead of a circular blade, it had a jigsaw mounted underneath (as s... Read More