News

  Computer numerical control, or CNC, is frequently viewed as an extremely complex topic - a fact not aided by the high cost of CNC-based manufacturing equipment, putting it out of reach of most hobbyists. A couple of years ago, London-based design house Diatom partnered with members of the CoDe Lab to create a solution: the Piccalo, a CNC robot based on low-cost servos powered by an Arduino microcontroller. The project has now borne fruit, creating a permissively licensed design suitable for construction using low-cost off-the-shelf hardware, laser-cut body parts and an Arduino-compatible controller. The designs and software are available...

There's a lot of buzz these days surrounding building your own manufacturing equipment, something we heartily endorse here at oomlout. While the bulk of the column inches are spent on 3D printing hardware, we've seen everything from home-made lathes and CNC mills to laser cutters using diodes from old Blu-ray drives. Now. Jim Hannon has drawn our attention to Vincent Gingery's book Secrets of Building a Plastic Injection Molding Machine - proven by Jim's write-up for MAKE Magazine to let the determined hobbyist build the equipment needed to make professional plastic creations. While there's still the matter of creating...

Here at oomlout we like little more than a trip to China's Shenzen, home to the world's most impressive electronics markets and a source of every tool and component you could imagine. We're hardly alone in our admiration for the place, either, but our friends at Dangerous Prototypes go a stage further and look to introduce others to its wonders with semi-regular Hacker Camp Shenzhen events. The next such event, Hacker Camp Shenzen Volume 3: Reflow, includes a 'party bus' on which attendees - strictly limited to 20 tickets - will tour the markets at Huaqiangbei, South China City,...

Regular readers will remember when we highlighted the MeArm, a laser-cut open robotic arm created from a single A4-size piece of acrylic and the creation of fellow UK Maker Belt Association member phenoptix. Since our post, Ben Gray's project has gone from strength to strength with a cameo role in national TV programme The Gadget Show and its open design files having been hacked to create a stronger 3D-printed variant. Most exciting of all, though, is the news that Ben has entered a partnership to create MeArm Limited, a company solely focused on the development and production of what...

  Making your own printed circuit boards is a rewarding experience, but it can also be fraught with difficulties. Hove-based maker Chris Holden demonstrates this perfectly in his blog post from the weekend, showing how larger circuit boards can be challenging to produce even with access to a high-end laser-cutter to precisely remove the mask layer - in this case, off-the-shelf spray paint. While the hit-rate of five failures to one working board isn't great, it was undeniably a great learning experience for all involved - although Chris has indicated he'll be sending the Gerber files off for professional production...