This week on Maker Update, Halloween spider on wheels, a mini printer from Prusa, Arduino fog machine, robot centipede, what’s inside LED neon, and 3D printed press brakes.

++Show Notes++

-=Project of the Week=-

How to Make a Trick or Treat Cart for Halloween by I Like To Make Stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8CAmYqW9yM

-=News=-

Original Prusa Mini Announced
https://blog.prusaprinters.org/original-prusa-mini-is-here-smart-and-compact-3d-printer/

-=More Projects=-

Ultimate Dry Ice Fog Machine by DIY Machines
https://www.instructables.com/id/Ultimate-Dry-Ice-Machine-Bluetooth-Controlled-Batt/

Robot Centipede that really walks by Izzy Swan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3aq_z5ZYgc

-=Tools/Tips=-

DiResta Kindergarten Table
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs01tva0-HU

Making the WD-40 & Hammer Machine! by The Practical Engineer
https://thepracticalengineer.com/blog/wd40hammer

Best Rulers for Lettering by Chris Rummell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Uwg7nwuco

Big Clive tears down LED Neon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR-bepWcplc

Must Have 3D Printing Tips and Tricks! by Maker’s Muse
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxUobSs3B3A

3D Printed Press Brake Forming Tools by Proto G
https://www.instructables.com/id/3D-Printed-Press-Brake-Forming-Tools/

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales – Issue #20
https://www.getrevue.co/profile/garethbranwyn/issues/gareth-s-tips-tools-and-shop-tales-issue-20-201229

East Bay Mini Maker Faire Sun, 10/27
https://eastbay.makerfaire.com/

-=Product Spotlight=-

IoT Relay II – 4 Outlet
https://www.digikey.com/short/pn48p4

Transcript

This week on Maker Update, Halloween on wheels, a mini printer from Prusa, Arduino fog machine, robot centipede, what’s inside LED neon, and 3D printed press brakes.

Hey, I’m Donald Bell, and welcome back to another Maker Update. How’s everybody doing? Halloween is in the air and this episode is packed with spooky projects. So let’s get started with the project of the week.

On the I Like to Make Stuff channel, Bob Clagett has a great video on how he made a mobile Halloween trick-or-treat experience on wheels. 

The cart includes an inflatable spider that sits on a platform, with two cordless leaf blowers underneath it. One leaf blower is setup to push a stream or toilet paper from a roll mounted in front of it. That’s the trick part.

The other leaf blower is set up to gently launch a handful of candy. That’s the treat part.

One cool tip from this video is that Bob found that — at least for this model of leaf blower — that you could replace the barrel with 4-inch PVC pipe. Not only does this allow you to extend the barrel to any length you need, but you can also use standard PVC elbow joints and fittings to create whatever you want.

The other tip I thought was interesting was how he powered the inflatable spider using a portable jump start battery. The one he went with was $130, with a built in inverter, inflator, USB ports — all the bells and whistles. Absolutely overkill for this project, but as Bob points out, it’s a super useful thing to have handy after Halloween, either for your car, or for other projects.

It’s time for some news. Prusa printers, makers of the insanely popular $999 MK3 3D printer have announced their first small, budget printer called the Original Prusa Mini. 

The printer is $349 and has a cubic print volume of 7 inches by 7 inches. For a budget printer, you’re getting a lot of the features found on the bigger version, plus a color screen that the big version doesn’t even have.

The only major catch I see is that there’s some assembly required, which for some people is just an instant deal-breaker. It really doesn’t look complicated though, and I think it’s a great move from Prusa to expand their customer base.

Now for more projects. On Instructables, DIY Machines has a guide on making this smartphone controlled dry ice fog machine, perfect for halloween. 

The design uses a bucket with a lid, an Arduino Nano, a Bluetooth module, motor driver breakout board, geared DC motor, a pencil holder, and two contact switches. 

Inside the bucket, the dry ice sits in a little metal pencil holder held above water on a 3D printed arm. When the Arduino is triggered over Bluetooth, the arm lowers the ice into the water and creates the fog. 

A 3D printed vent on the bucket lid helps to direct the fog a little. He’s also included an enclosure design to hold all the electronics and batteries. It’s a great little project.

For something far more involved and far creepier, check out this remote controlled, drill powered centipede by Izzy Swan. 

The creature is designed around 280 CNC-cut pieces of plywood, with interconnected drive shafts that spin within each segment of the body. Each of these shafts spin a worm gear which drives the feet. To steer it, 20kg servos in the first three segments work to shift the direction left or right by remote control. 

It’s a wickedly awesome robot and the sound it makes as it marches around is music to my ears.

It’s time now for some tips and tools. Jimmy DiResta pulled an oldie from the vault on how he made a series of Kindergarten tables. It’s one of those projects that today he would probably throw at CNC router, but it’s so cool to see how he got these factory-like results just by using common power tools. 

A lot of it just comes down to designing around a template piece, and then using pattern router bits to copy that design to other pieces. Definitely worth a watch if you want to work on making reproducible designs from a small workshop.
Also on YouTube, The Practical Engineer shows how he made this hammer machine for knocking loose rusted parts. It’s not a tool I need but it’s great how he shows an approach to harnessing the power of mechanical timing. 

Using just a few different cams on the same rotating axle, he’s able to automatically pull the hammer up and down with alternating sprays of WD-40. The cams rotate around until they press up against a series of limit switches, activating solenoids that trigger the spray. 

Sometimes I get my head so focussed on solving problems with Arduino, I neglect to think of these clever, old-school ways to create mechanical sequences.

On the Cool Tools channel, I’ve got an interview with artist Chris Rummell on two of his favorite grid rulers for model making and lettering. They’re cheap too, so if you don’t have something like this it’s worth a look.

Big Clive has a video teardown of different styles of neon LED strip. This stuff is great and it’s become much more affordable to get your hands on, but not so cheap that you want to cut it open and peek inside. So let Big Clive do it for you.

Maker’s Muse has a great video on Must Have 3D printing tips and tricks. In this first part of the series he goes over design tips, mostly in Fusion 360, but still applicable for whatever design software you’re using. He also makes a compelling case for why we can and should stop using STL files.

One of the more surprising uses for 3D printing I’ve seen recently are these metal brake forming tools by Proto G. These are PLA plastic forms that he’s using to bend and shape metal. There’s a whole Instructable on how and why he’s doing it, but essentially the how is by using 12 perimeters on his sliced files to create extra reinforcement. The why, is to be able to quickly create custom dies for projects, reducing turnaround time and cost. 

Issue 20 of Gareth Branwyn’s Tips, Tools and Shop Tales newsletter has some great tips, including one from Eric Strebel (eh) on finishing foamcore and cardboard prototypes with an EVA foam skin that you can heat up and mold to create organic, compound curves.

I also want to remind everyone that on Sunday, October 27th, I’ll be at the East Bay Mini Maker Faire in Oakland CA. I’ll have a table setup there with a bunch of projects that have been featured on the show. If you’re around, come by and say hello.

For this week’s Digi-Key spotlight, check out this power strip with an integrated relay board from Digital Loggers. It’s one of my favorite tools for Halloween or Christmas projects. You can get it for under $30, and you get an always-on outlet for powering your project board, and then three other outlets that are switched on or off when your board sends out a 5v signal.

Basically, if you want an Arduino to turn something on and off that connects to household power, this is a quick and safe way to get that done. 

No splicing power cords. No frying project boards. And it’s something you can reuse again and again. You can find it on Digi-Key using the link in the description.

And that does it for this week’s show. Be sure to subscribe, leave a comment, or leave a thumbs-up. You can get on the Maker Update email list for weekly show notes. A big thanks to my patrons on Patreon and to the awesome Digi-Key electronics for sponsoring this show and just having all the stuff. Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next week.