I immediately thought of what it would be to have one in 3d and what @pubultrastar could make with that!
5 Likes
I’ve bookmarked that site so I can play around with it later. I’m not mathematically inclined (to say the very least!), so I didn’t understand the explanation of it all, but got the main gist of it. It looks like something fun. And I agree with @rbtdanforth, wondering what @pubultrastar can do with this!
7 Likes
This looks like a crazy rabbit hole to go down. Very fun tool. Here is my first design svg!
11 Likes
Ooh, that’s pretty! That would make a gorgeous suncatcher!
3 Likes
What?!
10 Likes
thanks, i am a total geek for this stuff.
6 Likes
That top one is excellent, that bottom one looks like it would hurt to pick up!
5 Likes
I found this years ago and just bumped into it again…
Kalahari Spirals
7 Likes
If I were one of those spirals, I’d be a water retention system, supporting crops between the channels. How were they formed? My guess would be 1) a person in the center plays out a rope as another person circles them in an expanding path. The track spirals outward as the rope is let out at a fairly constant rate. Once the path is created, people could create channels. Looks like there was a prefered width of channel and width of flat ground no matter what the size of spiral.
2) This is an arithmetic spiral, so larger designs could just be plotted* on the ground rather than require a looooong rope.
- I’m tired; I can see in my mind how to do it but can’t articulate the idea tonight.
8 Likes
In the Kalahari the rain does not fall, but fogs from the sea do blow in. Apparently they do not reach there now but may have in the past. With enough fog, the water would run down the rock and have a damp spot below that could keep a plant alive enough to harvest. This was a group of people who made it until they didn’t.
I have heard of such fog harvesting before, but it was not about this location (I don’t think) Given the data available, (almost none) That is where my mind has gone, with an easy change if other data showed up.
6 Likes
@rbtdanforth if you haven’t seen this yet…
9 Likes
Here’s another nothing to do with lasers at all post.
Just finished milling this Turner’s cube on my CoastRunner CR1. It’s a 1" cube of aluminum and took 3hrs to mill. Probably another half-hour just repositioning the cube as each face was bored.
Trying to figure out how to fixture a putter head so I can do the underside. 2D layering and 2.5D CNC routing is easier to figure out hold down techniques but learning how to hold a piece as the opposite faces get milled away is keeping me out of bars at night 
16 Likes
I watch so many machining YouTube videos. Don’t know why but it fascinates me… Going to try and get my CNC back in action over vacation since it’s at my farm.
Nicely done.
13 Likes
That is truly impressive which of course makes you my new go-to guy when I have the stupids on my CNC. 
9 Likes
Pre-CNC would have been impressive - manually moving the mill and boring precise depths. It was really a test of a machinist’s skill.
With Fusion you just need to create the model & then a setup for each bore using the previous & next layer faces to constrain the boring operation. Then Fusion generated the code.
This one took 6 facing operations and 18 bores. A bit duplicative in creating the setups but mostly a rinse and repeat process. They’re a great fidget toy because if you’re not a machinist it’s hard to figure out how you get 4 cubes embedded in each other.
9 Likes
That would be a fascinating trick in 3d printing, perhaps in the 5 rational solids just to keep it interesting. @pubultrastar ?
5 Likes
“Pask Makes” is at it again; this time a camera:
10 Likes
Their voice just draws you in eh!
5 Likes
For those of us who tinker with LED’s and arduino stuff (and don’t also happen to be engineers 
). Bekonix is a visual editor for creating cool electronics projects. It provides the programing, the mobile interface and even tells you how to wire things up. Still tinkering, but it looks promising.
11 Likes
I suppose this might have gone viral to anyone knitting but I was aware of the question and just bumped into the answer. So anyone doing fabric stuff might find this interesting…
12 Likes