laser

Make Your Own Mechanicat

| Matthew Borgatti

I just uploaded this little mechanical kitty to Thingiverse, and I think you should make a version for yourself. After a few trials with some cheap 1/4″ plywood, I ended up splurging on pressboard made specifically for laser cutting. The first cat I cut from the cheap ply ended up burning so much it was hard to get something functional out at the end. I blame the adhesive used to laminate the sheets. I think I might try and source some thin ply made with a natural wood glue. In the meantime, Laserbits makes some excellent laser specific stuff.

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A day in the life

| Matthew Borgatti

I have lots of updates to share. I recently got a laser, made a new series of Guy Fawkes bandanas in bright, beautiful color, and spoke at HOPE. Unfortunately I’m being pulled in a thousand different directions by projects, interesting potential new work, consulting gigs, and new adventures with Sleek and Destroy.

Stay tuned for those updates. In the meantime, take a look of this time lapse I took of a day packing orders, cutting new jewelry, and folding bandanas right after the fold.

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Ceramic Knuckles

| Matthew Borgatti

Ceramic 3d printing exists. Every so often I’m reminded that I live in the future and that it is AWESOME. It needs some work, but egads is it great. As an experiment I printed a recent design, the foundation for some organ themed knuckle dusters, in Shapeways’ ceramic. It was remarkably light and very pretty but a bit on the flimsy side. My dad took a shine to them when I was showing them off around the workshop and he, meaning to look like a fifties gangser, donned them and then brought his knuckles into his palm. Cue crunchy noises and falling bits. Alas.

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