DISCLAIMER:  I know I go a bit crazy with the screws.  However my son says it looks like a robot with them so oh well!  If you build your own you will not need this many

This past weekend I decided that I would attempt a carbon filtering fume extractor stack (at least what I called it).  Basically the fumes from the smoke of many different materials is pretty bad.  The idea was to make it so the carbon would filter the smoke and output clean air (ok well a best hopes less smelly air).  Heres some photos of the build.  I will be putting the whole thing on thingiverse soon.  I do not like how the filters are working out.  They were the carbon filters you can cut to size from home depot.  I have a different idea how to make your own carbon filters from masonite, screen door material and the laser cutter.  I will post an update here soon.  Check back to this page to get updates on this project.  I have a lot more pictures on my flickr stream.

This little stepper motor with a PC fan blade is hooked up to 2 LEDs. When the fume extractor is turned on the air flows from the top of the "SYNstractor to the bottom" thus spinning the fan (stepper motor) generating a few volts to turn on the robot eyes!. Super cool IMO. Not sure if it will work but I think once the filters get too dirty then the LEDS will start to dim. But if not.. its super cool that this robot comes to life. Attrib: I got the robot logo from this website. blog.analogmedium.com/2008/05/am-scrape-may-part-i.html

Hide the all of the layers.  Then display only the Dimension and Tcream.  (Note: in the screen shot its the document.. it needs to be Dimension).  Also change the fill style for the cream layer.  It is a “hatch” looking pattern by default.  We want a solid color pattern.  I left the color Grey.  When we print the PDF it will turn it black anyways so it does not matter. Click ok.

Now you need to click Print and then click the PDF button.  This is going to get us a vector format of the stencil.  However, for some weird reason the PDF writer in EAGLE creates some sort of non-standard PDF (not sure exactly).  This does not allow us to just import this into Corel Draw (corel is what the vector cutting drivers work  for the epilog laser cutter).

So scroll down to see the next step.

Now you will need to download Ghostscript and Gview for your platform.  Here is the windows links.
http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/GPL/gs864/gs864w32.exe – Ghostview
http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/ghostgum/gsv49w32.exe – Gview (Windows GUI for Ghost Script)

Ok once those are installed go ahead and open Gview and then open the PDF we created above.

Now click File >> Convert.  Select the EPS Write and type in 1200 dpi.  Then click OK and save it. You now have the file you will be loading into the epilog laser cutter.

Open up Corel draw… Ungroup everything (if needed) and check the outside lines for duplicates.. Meaning select a outer line and delete it… If you see another line.. Delete that one until the lines are no more.. Then just undo the last delete.  Why do we do that?  For some reason Ghostscript from time to time adds multiple lines on the outside.. Not sure why.  But if we do not delete them we will have the laser cutter going over everything (at least the outter edges) 2x or 3x.  Ok so you have removed all duplicated lines and now you are ready to select all and make the line width a “hairline” width.  This is something that corel calls it.  This is the #1 reason that you can only use Corel draw to do cuts (vector stuff) with the epilog.  So anyhow.. Now you should print it out.  Setup your desired epilog settings (based on your material) and have at it.

Your done!   (DFX is here: Goodget 2.1 stencil dxf)

I am using a method that I invented I termed:  Self threading square tube insert method. Whats so cool about this is it combines fairly easy cuts of aluminum that pretty much anyone can do with a band saw, hand saw or rusty pocket knife… Well not the last one and I don’t suggest you try it.  But is very cool.  Basically its all in the spacing of the 4 holes that were laser cut that the aluminum sits below.  Its a very tight squeeze which allows the screws to “self thread” inside the square tube’s inside.  Hence the name.  Not super witty but it describes it nicely.   Comments, questions or concerns always welcome.  Next thing to make is the collet holder.

Here is the final results:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1393

Thingiverse Links as always here:
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1393

However, My metal cutting table has clamping T’s that little bits of metal would fall down into and become very much of a pain to clean.  So I decided to fab a part in google sketchup for the T slots to help extract the junk.  So a few quick measurements with my digital caliper and I was good to go.

Thingiverse Part Here: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1372

Here is the final product:

My first attempt at a rack for a rack and pinion setup on the laser cutter.. All by hand in sketchup.. not super great so far but getting close… Once more unto the breach..

What does that even mean?  It means its a cool system that allows you to make cages, stands, frames whatever for your evil mad scientist projects that you have dreamed up and glued to a shoe box to present created a unique display for.  Here is one of the things you can build with the framework.

What else can you build?  Well its up to you.  I have been working on my Wireless Antenna Sniper Bot:

But the sky is the limit on what you can build.  Newly added Contraptor components is Synthetos laser cut plexi-glass pieces.  These are really cool because the allow you to “glue” Contraptor parts together and create new Contraption’s that you were no able to create before.  They are still in the Beta stage of Contraptor components but you can see them on the Wifi Bot V2 above.  They are the black parts holding the top together.  So go forth and make something cool!

Over the weekend I created some new parts to add to the Contraptor.org project that I am working on.  You can see them here: and here: