A friend asked me if I could bore out a wheel adapter for a tire machine on my lathe. I hadn’t done much steel work, but figured it was a fun thing to try out. The results turned out nicely.
As part of my ongoing UAV development, I wanted to be able to use telemetry and have it stream video back. I’m using a 5.8 GHz immersionrc transmitter with fatshark goggles to watch the action. For the telemetry I’m using xbee pro 900 MHz transceivers. This allows me to not only get realtime feedback but also reprogram coordinates while in the air!
I decided that the the electronics enclosure vs 3 for my quad was bit crude looking. It functionally worked, but needed to be more refined. I modeled a new one with channels for the electronics. Then I lasercut a cap so that I had visibility into the case. You can see the results below. This is much more stable and refined.
I decided to order purple filament from a new supplier http://www.onlinefilament.com. I’m usually very particular about where I get my filament from, because printers are very picky about the quality. This time purple was not an option from Ultimachine, so I tried something new. The good news is that it worked. The bad news is that its a bit more fuchsia than purple. See below 
To try and get better photo etching results from the laser, I purchased the 1-touch laser software from ULSinc. The result below is my first attempt to engrave a photo of my children in granite.
One thing that I’ve wanted to try for a long time is astrophotography. A few years back I got my wife a 10″ LX200 scope with GPS and UHTC optics. She has long loved gazing at the stars. I had wanted to attach my camera to it so that we could capture the things that we saw. To this end, I finally sprung for the parts to connect my 5D to it. The first image below shows the camera mounted to the telescope and the second shows my first picture of Saturn.
One of my longer term objectives is to create a garden in my backyard. Never one to under-do something, I decided to get a hydraulic tiller for the back of my riding mower. This one can go in either forward or reverse and till several inches deep in one pass.
*Update*
Unfortunately there are more pieces missing than I had hoped. I’m going to need to adapt quite a bit to make it work with my mower. I got a good deal off of ebay, so I shouldn’t complain much. Guess I’m further away from tilling than I had originally hoped.
Tonight I decided to try an etch an image in a anodized black aluminum card that I had laying around. The image did not come out as I would have liked. For some reason when the laser rasters on aluminum, it doesn’t turn off fast enough for the movement. This is something that I need to work on …
Recently we had the upstairs finished at our house. In this expansion, we added a fabrication lab, an office, and a craft room. I find that the blazing summer and brisk winters in Memphis get in the way of me using my CNC machines. Having a lab inside will help. Its about 600 square feet with dedicated spots for my electronics, laser cutter, v90, taig mill, sherline lathe, 2 printers, and a few other misc items. There is a workbench in the middle of the room with electricity. On top of that, I’ve got about 60 amps of 110 and 220 run to the room. This is going to be exciting
