Thanks for welcoming me into the community. I have been thinking about joining a space like this for years and am very excited to get started asap.
I’m based in Brockley and a designer by trade - I mostly work in digital/UX nowadays so I have some front end web skills that I use for prototyping (HTML/CSS/JS) that I’d be happy to share with anyone interested.
My real passion is making physical things however and I try to do carpentry and a bit of metal work in my coal cellar (am experimenting with v-slot atm) I love the idea of a space where all of my interests and skills sit under one roof, where I can learn from others (and I can impart any knowledge where I can).
Hi electronoob - yeah frontend nowadays can be a bit much - but with no comp sci background learning it on the job was my way into coding. Having understood the principals I was able to pick up python (making some add ons for blender) and I make myself little tools in JS like recently I made a calculator for how much an aluminium extrusion will bend (based on this https://ooznest.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/How-To-Estimate-Deflection.pdf )
Hi Kyle - yes I will be there on wednesday. Looking forward to it.
With v-slot right now I’m making a sled for a circular saw. Not the most inventive use but a good place to start understanding how to use the wheels etc. And I’m looking forward to reliably accurate cuts (hopefully). I can share some images once it resemble something recognisable.
I realised that maybe my intro was a bit generic so I thought I’d share a recent project. Converting some cupboard drawers into a desk. CNC cut with as little waste as possible.
blender plugins: all quite specific things based on what I working on at the time. E.g. I made a script that converts the mesh deformations from an armature into shapekeys/morphtargets frame by frame and then removes the armature. The animated model was going to end up in an environment that didn’t allow bones - can’t remember where/why… also I was using .glb files a lot at the time which were quite new and so finding ways to make various things export correctly. All fun!
If you mean the CNC software I’m afraid I don’t know, they did that at crane and abel. To design the various shapes I used blender, it was supposed to be an improvement on my previous efforts with illustrator as there has always been a lot of back and forth with previous jobs getting the file right, there is often issues with curves etc… There was still issues though so I think I just need to bite the bullet and learn some proper CAD. I’ve started playing with libreCAD since then.
Welcome Nick and thank you for sharing the link to your CNC team. I am working on a project where I can definitely do with some help on designs etc. I’m currently playing with Shapr3d on the Ipad which is nice but a learning curve nevertheless.
i like blender, never been bothered to write any addons for it, but i don’t do anything too fancy i guess there. i do adore javascript, just, not the ecosystem around it… the language itself is my favourite though. quite like using the html5 canvas for things.
i noticed a post here recently about using alu t-slot extrusion for a camper van conversion, i wonder if your tool is useful for such things.
