Author Archives: mahto

Makin’ stuff with machines

This is what I’ve been up to for the past few days. Making some stepper motor mounts to retrofit a manual xy table into a stepper motor version. It’s basically just some machined aluminum standoffs, with an aluminum mounting plate … Continue reading

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Mendel Progress!

I’m building a RepRap Mendel 3d printer, using parts printed for me by my friend Marty on Makerbot 131, and hardware from ultimachine. Tonight’s project was to assemble all of the pieces that I could. I was able to get … Continue reading

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Rotation test

I made this little video to test the performance of the stepper drivers and rotary stage. The results are encouraging, except that I probably need attach the sample to the stage (it looked like it was vibrating around), and my … Continue reading

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One shield to fit them all, and in the darkness bind them

I’m working on a project which involves mechanizing some machining tables. I decided to use some surplus stepper motors and A4983 stepper motor breakout boards from Pololu to control them. Getting them to work on a protoboard was no problem, … Continue reading

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Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire 2010!

I had a great time this Saturday at the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire 2010! Big thanks to Bob Stack for inviting me, and to my wonderful parents for helping to man my booth (I showed off my new-and-improved laser … Continue reading

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Ubuntu rocks so hard, it goes to 11

Well, it allows you to set the sound volume amplification at over 100%. Which is really handy when you are trying to listen to a quiet video on underpowered speakers. To get to this dialog, hit up System->Preferences->Sound.

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Carving foam with the Roland Modela MDX-3

I took a few moments to play with the Modela MDX-3 tabletop milling machine that has been sitting around HackPittsburgh for the last year. It turns out that it works as a character printer device, and all you need to … Continue reading

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