This week on Maker Update, a TV for lazy people, a Lego Crickit rover, milk jug skulls, an EL nixie clock, a boat, a box, a rock tumbler, LED holders, and Tinkercad’s new Fusion feature.

Show Notes

Project of the Week

Rotating TV by mikeasaurus
https://www.instructables.com/id/Rotating-TV/

News

3D Printer Maker Printrbot Closes Shop
https://makezine.com/2018/07/18/printrbot-closes/

More Projects

LEGO Crickit Rover by Ruiz Bros.
https://learn.adafruit.com/lego-crickit-rover

Milk Jug Skulls By JasonF205
https://www.instructables.com/id/Milk-Jug-Skulls/

EL Wire Neon Nixie Style Clock by Gosse Adema
https://www.instructables.com/id/EL-Wire-Neon-Nixie-Style-Clock/

WiFi Paddle Boat by gzumwalt
https://www.instructables.com/id/WiFi-Paddle-Boat/

Secret Butterfly Box by 3DPRINTINGWORLD
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2977908

Printable DIY Rock Tumbler by jonathanlundstrom
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3005800

Tools/Tips

Stencilfy Web app by Tiffany Tseng
https://stencilfy.glitch.me/

Laser cutting text? I built an app on @glitch to help you create a stencilfied version of any text, using any font! It export an SVG you can bring into CorelDraw, Illustrator, or any other graphics software before laser cutting. Try it out here: https://t.co/ickhEUujrC pic.twitter.com/aTTbypum5q

— Tiffany Tseng (@scientiffic) July 19, 2018

Medium post on how it was made
https://medium.com/@scientiffic/stencilfy-creating-laser-cutter-friendly-type-b7b8ef1831ec

Tinkercad adds Send to Fusion
https://blog.tinkercad.com/2018/07/16/tinkercad-send-to-fusion-is-live/

5 Ways to Hold LEDs by @BarbMakesThings
https://youtu.be/s66Dwip7a5U

Varnish [Bits] by Bob Clagett
https://youtu.be/ivvXF3nhymQ

Bucket Boss Parachute Bag review
https://kk.org/cooltools/bucket-boss-parachute-bag/

What I keep in my bag
https://youtu.be/fPvv1wrNmck

Wall Printer
http://home.theodoregray.com/blog/2018/7/21/i-just-saw-the-coolest-thing

MagPi 72 available online
https://www.raspberrypi.org/magpi/issues/72/

Book giveaway winners
Jonathan Whitaker, Panther The Cat, and Fernando Rodríguez Longhi

Tips and Tales from the Workshop (Amazon link)
https://amzn.to/2JlmGW1

Maker Faires

Find your local faire:
http://makerfaire.com/map/

Dayton Mini Maker Faire, Dayton, Ohio
Maker Faire Tokyo

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, a TV for lazy people, a Lego Crickit rover, milk jug skulls, an EL nixie clock, a boat, a box, a rock tumbler, LED holders, and Tinkercad’s new Fusion feature.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome to another Maker Update. I hope everyone’s doing great. This might be the most project-packed Maker Update yet, I have so much to share with you guys. So get comfy, and let’s start things off with the project of the week.

You ever lie down on the couch and wish your TV could turn sideways to match up? Well, Mikeasaurus has solved the problem with this remote controlled motorized TV mount.

Using laser cut plywood gears, a 12v high-torque motor, and an articulating wall mount, Mike cooked up this TV stand that can rotate your TV in either direction using a simple remote control. Of course, if another person is also watching TV, you may have to fight over the best angle.

You can find a link to Mike’s full Instructable down in the show notes.

It’s time for some news. This past week we learned that Printrbot, one of the pioneers of the desktop 3D printer world, is closing up. A goodbye note from the founder Brook Drumm on the Printrbot website points to low sales as the reason for closing. He also notes a new site that will sell replacement parts for existing customers. Still, it’s a bummer to see Printrbot close.

I’ve got a lot of other projects to share. Over on Adafruit, the Ruiz brothers have this guide for a Crickit-based LEGO robot.

By combining a servo, some inexpensive motors, a Playground Express board and a Crickit breakout board, you have this relatively inexpensive, programmable rover that you can dress up with all kinds of LEGO bricks.

What makes this such a big deal is that the LEGO Mindstorms equivalent of this is a $350 kit. Using this system, you can use the Microsoft MakeCode drag-and-drop blocks to code your robot, in addition to Python or Arduino. Plus, you get support for Neopixels, capacitive touch, and speaker output.

There are a lot of educational rover bots out there, but with the price, features, and LEGO compatibility, I’d be surprised if this one doesn’t get some traction.

Skulls! Halloween is coming, and if you need skulls in bulk, Jason shows you how to make them out of old milk jugs. Using a resin master skull, some scissors and a heat gun, you can shape the milk jug plastic onto the contours of the skull underneath it.

The real trick is painting them when they’re done so you can get an authentic look, but Jason walks you through some great tips on that too.

Gosse Adema has this detailed guide on making a Nixie tube style clock using EL wire and a 3D printed template.

The build involves 40 Electroluminescent wires controlled by a single Arduino, but with some substantial electronics in between. There are actually three different versions of this design documented in the Instructable, one using relays and two using transistors.

But no matter which way you go, it’s an intimidating build, both in terms of electronics and winding and routing all those EL wires. Still, the payoff is super cool. And unlike a Nixie tube, you can scale this up really big.

For something easier to accomplish in a weekend, Greg Zumwalt has an Instructable on creating this Wi-Fi controlled toy boat.

The design uses to geared DC motors, a cheap motor controller, a LiPo battery, and an Arduino-compatible ESP32 board.

Like all of Greg’s work, the 3D print design is incredible. You have to do a little extra work to glue and seal up the boat to make it watertight, but it looks like a fun payoff.

Over on Thingiverse, 3D Printing World has this ingenious secret puzzle box. There are 12 parts to this design, plus a pen spring and some super glue you’ll need to provide. Considering how complicated it is to open up, it looks like a relatively approachable build, and a fun gift to make for someone. This particular design has butterflies on it, but a blank version is also included that you can dress up however you like.

Finally, Jonathan Lundstrom posted this 3D printed rock tumbler, great for polishing up metal 3D prints. The design uses some threaded rod, 4 bearings, and a 12v DC motor. The result looks really clean and gives his bronze prints a nice shine. I also imagine it works well for polishing rocks.

Now it’s time for some tips. Tiffany Tseng made a free web app called Stencilfy that makes stencil-ready versions of any text using any font. You can download the result as an SVG file and load it in your laser cutter or 3D printer.

Speaking of free web apps, Tinkercad has added a new Send to Fusion 360 feature. I’m a proud Tinkercad user, but there definitely times when you run up against a limitation and it’s nice to be able to bounce your design over to Fusion, bevel some edges, smooth out your model for 3D printing, or do a fancy render.

Barb Noren from Barb Makes Things has a video up on 5 ways to hold LEDs onto a coin cell. From tape, to magnets, to clever 3D printed holders, there’s bound to be one here that surprises you.

The latest Bob Clagett Bits video goes over different types of wood varnish and their best uses. I always learn something from Bob’s videos.

Cool Tools has my video review up for the Bucket Boss Parachute Bag. I’ve been using this bag for almost a year now to hold and organize my screws and it’s been great. There’s a link to the review in the show notes along with a video showing how I organize it.

Over on Theodore Gray’s blog I saw a post about this CNC wall printer he came across in China. It’s essentially a 4-color inkjet printer on its side used for printing ads and murals directly on walls. Apparently you can buy these for around $3,000. But it doesn’t look like it would be impossible to make your own.

MagPi issue 72 is out and available as a free download. This month’s feature is on AI projects.

And the three winners of last week’s book giveaway are Jonathan Whitaker, Panther The Cat, and Fernando Rodríguez Longhi. They’re all getting a copy of Tips and Tales from the Workshop, an outstanding maker reference book that everyone should check out.

Maker Faires! This weekend we’ve got Dayton Ohio and Tokyo Japan. If neither of those are near you, check the map at MakerFaire.com to find out when your local faire is happening.

And that does it for this week’s project-packed show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a thumbs-up or leave a comment. Get on the Maker Update email list to get show notes emailed out to you automatically with bonus projects I couldn’t fit in. And just a reminder, I’m not a Make employee. I do this show for nothing because I love it. But if it’s something really appreciate, you can buy me a coffee using the link down here. Alright? Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.