I made a pen-holder to attach to the SCARA robot Z-axis shaft and used it to draw some hilbert curves. The python script to generate the gcode is pretty easy and I’ve put it in a github repository
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Another End-To-End Series
I’ve started a short series making a very simple four-part acrylic box. This is a good beginner project that touches on several different parts of FreeCAD including an add-on workbench for assembly.
Progress Update
FreeCAD Path can now visualize 4th axis gcode. That is gcode that has A and B axis moves in it. Very cool. Also, this blog has now been live for 10 years. Happy Cake Day to me!
Using FreeCAD to engrave on a rotary axis.
FreeCAD Path doesn’t have a 4th Axis operation (yet) but certain kinds of things should still be possible. For example, engraving or pocketing on a cylindrical surface. I’ve seen other software, both open-source and commercial, that allow the user to map a linear axis to a rotary axis. I decided to try writing a ‘Dressup’…
Old School Maker Cool
I recently endured celebrated my fiftieth birthday. As a gift, my father gave me this wagon that he’s had for many years. It was originally made by Dad’s uncle, Art Nelson near Brainerd, Minnesota, sometime in the 60’s. I used to look at it when I was a kid and it was one of my…
A nifty work-around for HeeksCNC Kurve offset error
HeeksCNC can be finicky about profiles. Often I’ve found that a sketch which should be easily profiled won’t generate any gcode at all. When I look in the console, I find an error like this File “/usr/lib/heekscnc/kurve_funcs.py”, line 247, in profile raise Exception, “couldn’t offset kurve ” + str(offset_curve) Exception: couldn’t offset…
CAD Is Hard!
I got the chance to speak about FreeCAD at the Osmoces event near Chicago over the weekend. I had a really good time seeing some of the other presentations and exhibits and just hanging around with some pretty cool people. In addition to the talk, I also taught a workshop where we got hands-on with the software…
FreeCAD WebGL Export.
This is still early but it’s too cool not to share. Yorik has added a WebGL exporter to the FreeCAD arch module (but it seems to work everywhere in FreeCAD) Open a model in FreeCAD and select the objects in the tree Export the objects (File -> Export) and select WebGL Save…
Fun in the shop
I spent the Thanksgiving holiday at my brother’s place. It was a very relaxing weekend spent eating too much and shooting stuff. (I’m not very into guns but this stuff is fun!) My brother recently bought a jealousy inducing lathe like this: This thing was barely out of the crate. The DRO hadn’t even been…
Keeping Good Company.
A reader on my Magic Clock site made me aware of this TED talk by Massimo Banzi, Co-inventor of the Arduino. He lists some really cool projects ranging from the important to the silly. I might be closer to the Farting Chair end of the scale, but hey, I made the list. Fast forward to…