I’ve been experimenting with woodworking joinery that can be cut flat (without vertical workholding) on a CNC. There are lots of examples of these joints online, and I don’t have any new ones to share, but I did model and CAM a bunch of them to compare relative glue surface area and internal voids. Maybe that information is helpful to somebody. Overview Butt joint Mitered joint Stepped “miter”…
I’m in the process of setting up karakeep (formerly Hoarder) to replace Pinry , and am once again installing it on a server running dokku. This is convenient for my own projects using common service dependencies, but is proving increasingly complicated with newer projects. Anyway, here’s what I needed to do to get karakeep running in dokku: # Create apps dokku apps:create headless-shell dokku…
I’m currently working on a number of updates to my CNC machine, including upgrading to a spindle, but the post about it was getting long, so I’m breaking it into smaller chunks. The first is this update to the touch plate, as I’ve had a couple of issues with the current one. The first is that the magnetic probe is kind of a pain to make, as it required soldering directly to a magnet, while moving…
I’ve shared this project in a few places, but like many other projects, I’ve neglected to add it to this blog. I’m currently using CNCjs with my GRBL-based CNC, and while there are some really nice pendants out there for 32-bit grblHAL boards, the options for physical devices and interfaces for older 8 bit boards like mine, with CNCjs, are very limited. Previous to this, I was using another…
I installed Home Assistant with Dokku . It was very easy, but there were a couple of gotchas that slowed it down a bit. Setup Create a new homeassistant app in Dokku dokku apps:create homeassistant Set the timezone dokku config:set homeassistant TZ = America/Chicago Create a folder that will be used for Home Assistant configuration mkdir /path/to/my-config dokku storage:mount homeassistant…
I do a lot of multicolor 3d printing, where more than one color is printed on the same layer using manual filament swapping, and I wanted to share some tips that I haven’t seen collected everywhere. Several multicolor prints for a TTRPG tracker Some of this applies to layer/height-based color swapping, but this is directed specifically at the above, AKA the poor-man’s MMU . This is pretty easy to…
The word hello centered inside a circle in CascadeStudio I’ve been using CascadeStudio recently for parametric modeling ( like this ) and needed a way to center some dynamic text, which isn’t implemented currently. Fortunately, a user on github documented a way to get the boundary box of a solid shape here: this discussion post , which makes centered (or right-aligned) text easy. //…
I built this last year, but completely forgot to post about it. As such, it’s a bit detail-light. Okay2 synth with closed case Reasoning I was looking for a small keyboard that I could use to sound out musical phrases or chords, while learning other instruments. Notably, I wanted: 1.5 to 2 octaves of notes Standard piano layout Small enough to fit in my desk drawer, around 10.5” wide by 9” deep…
I’m working on a pendant for my CNC, running Grbl 1.1f, and wanted to add smooth multiaxis jogging. I’ve already done a single axis implementation for this project: https://github.com/Billiam/cncjs-pendant-keyboardreader This took me a little bit to find my way through, so I’m documenting it here. Here’s a good introduction to the feature: https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Grbl-v1.1-Jogging Smooth…
Note: This is an older (2+ years old) project, and there are now better third party options available (check Millright groups on facebook), even completely replacing both the Z plate and router mount with significantly beefier aluminum parts free of these issues. There are a couple of problems with the default router mount on this CNC. The first is that none of its sides are parallel. When mounted…
I’ve released a few projects I’m using for managing projects and games on itch.io . itchpack The first is itchpack , commandline, preconfigured wrapper around webpack with some extra utilities. Itchpack provides a local development environment for game, gamejam, and profile pages on itch.io. It downloads your current page markup and styles, can render templated data from a data file, prefixes…
An itch.io project of mine has been getting a little attention recently, and I wanted to get alerts for new purchases, instead of obsessively checking the website. I saw this kickstarter alert desk bell project a few years ago, and thought it would work great. Here’s my finished project: It runs a web server waiting for a JSON payload, and then rings the bell the appropriate number of times. Build…
I’ve just launched Sequence8, a PICO-8 music sequencer toy. Sequence8 by billiam Here’s a video: You can play with it in the browser at https://billiam.itch.io/sequence8 , or download prebuilt binaries. The copy button will save your song to your clipboard so that you can keep and share them. To import a song, just paste it in. Shorter songs fit in a tweet, so if you make something you like,…
While working on some other projects, I mocked these guys up real quick to help organize some of the tools and accessories I’m using with my CNC right now. The design is simple, and they’re just carved in scrap 3/4” plywood, so recreating them if when tools change won’t be a big deal. Eventually, I’m planning to have these in drawers instead, but it’s a good start. Tool holder Workholder holder To…
This is my first real CNC project, a cyclone dust separator . There are lots of different versions of these floating around, but most use big box store five-gallon buckets, or larger garbage cans, but I wanted one that would fit comfortably underneath my CNC table and still have some capacity. I settled on using a short, 10 gallon steel bucket The lid and is made of 1” plywood, cut with a 1/4”…
I had some keyboard switches left over from a previous project , and wanted a more convenient process for changing bits during a job. Bit setter mountet to wasteboard This is a simple switch, wired in parallel with my touch plate, that is used before and after changing router bits. When changing a bit, a macro offsets the Z height by the difference between the first and second tool length, and…
To drive the CNC, I’m currently using CNCjs , installed on a Raspberry Pi 3b+. The system is currently headless, because I don’t have a dedicated laptop for it, and my CNC lives in my garage where it’s too cold to leave an LCD screen. CNCjs is fine, and a good fit for this use case, but pretty clunky on a small screen, and lacks some of the features available in other gcode senders, like…
After finishing the dovetail grooves , I started on workholding and clamps by designing and 3d printing some dovetail inserts and knobs. Dovetail fittings and knobs Dovetail inserts and knobs I tried a few different bolts, but settled on 40 and 50mm M5 hex bolts. Any longer, and I have trouble clearing them with my router (and extra spoilboard). For clamping taller blocks, I can counterbore them…
Some minor site updates (once every 5 years, whether its needed or not, imo). Added pagination, because all of the posts on a single page used something like 84mb in images. Added a projects section to track larger/longer term projects chronologically. Spring cleaning was originally published by Billiam at Fail Fast on April 29, 2020.
The stock spoilerboard included with the MDF version of the Mega V uses t-nuts for workholding, but they’re pretty sparse to begin with ( example here ) I knew that I wanted to add a supplemental wasteboard that could be surfaced and replaced easily, and started looking for other options. From what I can tell, the most common options here are: No special workholding : Screw, glue, nail, or even…