FreeCAD Laser Cutting Addon Workbench

Just uploaded my latest video tinkering with FreeCAD in which I explore how to install add on workbenches and we install the Laser Cutting Interlocking workbench and take it for a spin using the automated tools for adding interlocking tabs and holes to our models and how to automatically lay out 3d assemblies into 3d parts for export to an SVG.

Inkscape SVG to FreeCAD

On a bit of a roll with videos this week! After I put up the video about the longworth chuck mechanism as a robot gripper, a follower on twitter enquired about how I had approached importing an Inkscape SVG file into FreeCAD (which I had done due to laziness as I didn't want to totally redraw the longworth mechanism)! Seeing as he asked nicely I did this little walk-through. As I mention in the video, its a useful fix but its definitely preferable to only use this when needed as directly working in FreeCAD using sketches is more dependable. Hope it's useful. If it is do feel free to show your support via my ko-fi page here!

Longworth Robot Gripper

Devout long term readers of this blog may remember my longworth chuck design and build which got re-hashed relatively recently into a dividing tool (as seen in Hackspace magazine issue 29 article on dividing which also has links to the project files on thingiverse). I've been interested in its application as a robotic arm gripper for a while and decided to prototype a servo driven one which might be able to be mounted on the opensource Modular Tracked Vehicle (MTV) robot as featured again with all the design files linked in hackspace magazine issue 32.



I'm pretty pleased with this first pass prototype (as usual with heaps of hot glue etc) and I'm going to continue to develop and refine it a little as I think it could be quite a fun gripper type for people interested in robot challenges etc to think about using. Check out the video above to see it in action and feel free to subscribe to the Youtube channel.

3d Print Welding and Fibreglass

New little video I've edited today chatting about some 3d printing techniques, welding parts with a 3d printing pen and also embedding fibreglass into prints to make very stiff components.

FreeCAD video part 2

I've really enjoyed making these videos for the Ffiws project from Arloesi Gwynedd Wledig and its been a welcome opportunity during lockdown! Building on Part 1 we move to the part design workbench and build a part using the "body" concept, mapping sketches to faces and using tools like the pocket tool and hole tool to create a nice model. The model is a part of the larger MTV robot project I built and wrote about in Hackspace Magazine.