All my forays into engraving have been rather troublesome, using push gravers or hammer & chisel.

A couple of weeks ago, I got myself a Magnagraver , and that has transformed the process. At least, the process of making lines is easier. Making the lines look like anything in particular is obviously still hard.

Anyhow, here is my first testpiece, on a bit of 15mm wide mild steel. As you can see, it is a traditional hunting scene:

From The Noble Moose

Last week included a trip to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. They have many fabulous things, and I suggest you all go there at once.

Here are a few highlights, from Babbage to Google:

From Computer History Museum, 2009

I have, therefore, waxed my coat.

That should fool it.

This time, using a peroxide browning process on the steel:


More details here. I think I over-planished this one a bit, so the silver looks squishy. Must try harder.

These each held thirty gigabytes, before I got at them with my hammers:





Suprisingly stretchy stuff. The coating is much more durable than I was expecting, too. Nothing fell off or went flaky.

Here's my Saturday afternoon experiment, sticking silver to steel by the nunome-zogan process:



More pictures, and a bit of a writeup, are here:
http://www.jarkman.co.uk/catalog/jewel/nunome.htm.

I'm frankly amazed that this process works as well as it does when done as badly as this. Now I just need to work out what to make with it that isn't just a test...

Dorkbot Bristol had a hat-hacking contest yesterday.

There was much entertainment of the usual sort, technical chitchat and swearing at computers, and a bit of actual constructional work. I made (well, half-made) a computerised hat with a compass sensor. None of the work was really very technical, just a lot of fiddly wiring-up of stuff.

It's kind-of finished now, and the full writeup is here, for those of you that enjoy masses of tangled wires:
http://jarkman.co.uk/catalog/fripperies/compasshat.htm

The Militant Guild Of Rural Tailors Research Group

Obviously, I am in favour. But still perplexed.

Yesterday, we played with the BronzClay(tm) that I gave D for Christmas. And today we fired it, with suprisingly good results (click for the album):

From Fun with bronzclay

Working with it really is like working with ill-tempered Plasticine. You can squish it & roll it & generally shove it about, and then suddenly it is too dry and cracks in two. It was made to be worked by the swamp-men of Venus, with their steamy atmosphere and glabrous fingers. But humans can manage if they are persistent.

The astute reader will spot the textures of ray-skin and sea-urchin and machined Perspex in some of these pieces. Oh, and the shiny things are 5mm steel ball bearings which were fired in.

Firing is a bit long-winded - bury in charcoal, ramp at 250C/hour to 840C, hold for 2 hours, then cool. These bits have all been tumbled for half an hour to burnish up the surface a bit.

Well, we've spent most of the time since Christmas in bed, and not in a good way. As the upstairs heating broke on Christmas Eve, staying in bed has required two duvets and the occasional hat.

But the pall of plague is starting to dissipate now, and normal life is slowly resuming. By way of celebration, here's some of our festive manufacturing to feast your eyes on:

( Clicky shiny clicky )

From What The Hack, 2005

So, who is coming this time ?

From Lighthouse!

It's a B&B in a lighthouse with a Dalek. Who could ask for more ?

From Cornwall, 1108

Donna has Handed In.

Feel free to cheer and caper about.

I seem to be signed up for the Shapeways 3d-printing beta (www.shapeways.com).

Which means, I can send any old 3d file (STL, Collada, X3D) off to a nice man in Holland, and it'll come back in white plastic for two bucks per CC.

If it's hollow, the volume inside doesn't count, so it isn't even ruinously expensive.

Clearly, we are now living in the future. I wonder what it's for ?

And, who knows about 3d design software ? The stuff I've tried in the past has always seemed rather intractable.

Is

( Spot The Difference: )

As you may or may not know, Donna & I spent the week before last on Lundy.

Which, as you may or may not know, is a moderately deserted island in the Bristol Channel, run by the National Trust and the Landmark Trust for the benefit of the Lundy Cabbage, a lot of sheep, some twitchers and bellringers and rock-climbers, and those who feel they ought to be living in simpler times. Our trip was delayed from last year, when Herm was forced to stand in for a plague-ridden Lundy.

We spent our time wandering about, staring at the wildlife in a non-technical way, and sitting in the sun. No screens, no connectivity, no newspapers, not even much electric light. It was marvellous, and I commend it to you all. Except for the week when the bellringers are there. Avoid that. We had them one day, and they did not improve the place.

Photos are here:

From Lundy (small ...

Here's a pendant I made for Donna, for our wedding anniversary :
( Click for the Shiny! )

( So wrong, and yet so right )

Saturday saw my first stumbling steps into the world of CNC, with assistance from quercus and the inimitable 10bulls
( Pictures! )