I made this short video to demonstrate the assembly of the laser-cut Mystery Box. While there is an instruction sheet packed in with the kit, this seemed like a nice way to show the particulars.
Archive for the 'design' Category
I got a lot of great response to the articles on the laser cut Mystery Box I built for Wired blogger John Baichtal. A number of people asked where they could buy one. I’ve heard your pleas! I have started a new company, Magnolia Atomworks LLC, to build the kits.
You can now purchase one of your own from ThinkGeek and the Maker Shed.
I had a lot to learn when getting this thing going. First off, you can’t pick an odd size of wood for something like this. Has to be easy to find. I switched to 1/8″ Baltic birch plywood, since the 3/16″ I was using became suddenly scarce.
Additionally, I revised the kit to simplify assembly. I designed small notched tabs to lock the longer brackets in place. They have the added benefit of filling holes to prevent curious Mystery Box recipients from peeking inside.
I purchased an Epilog Zing laser cutter for the venture. This allows Magnolia Atomworks (me) to design and prototype products quickly. However, I don’t want to go into mass production, feeding material into the cutter for hours on end. For that, I contracted an outside company. They have many, faster cutters and can burn through a production run pretty quickly.
I’m really pleased with the results, and super-excited to see the kits for sale. I have huge respect for ThinkGeek and the Maker Shed, so it’s an honor to have my product for sale at both sites.
My Mysterious, Inspiring J.J. Abrams Mystery Box [Wired GeekDad]
Building a mystery box [MAKE]
John Baichtal
Epilog Laser
abye I’m just getting old-fashioned in my old age, but I really love the look of a beautiful drop-cap letter. I was just talking with my friend Mike about a character rigging book I had lent him, in which the binding had disintegrated (on my watch). I told him to enjoy the book, but please, don’t return it without having it re-bound. In tooled leather. He said he’d do so, but only after first buying a second copy of the book so he could mount each page separately on another, larger matted page, and then illuminating it like so many scriveners and monks of yore. Fair enough. I’m not sure this particular book warrants all this attention, but I’m happy to have it done nonetheless.
The beautiful drop-cap above is from the Daily Drop Cap. thanks to @barrymcw for the tip.
I love the band They Might Be Giants. I love designing 3D objects on the computer. I love turning those designs into real objects. I love this song and video!
I made this earbud owl on the Epilog Zing laser cutter using this file from thingiverse: www.thingiverse.com/thing:364
You can buy an acrylic one from the original designer on Etsy. Update: he stopped making them and gave me the go-ahead to sell my own wood ones on Etsy here.
I love the new, clean design (it’s the one on the bottom).
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/02/a-less-colorful-seal-of-approval/
I just found this in a drawer and had to share. It’s from a card game called Vampire: The Eternal Struggle. Back in 1995 when I worked at White Wolf Game Studio my friend Larry Snelly was doing some illustrations for it and asked me to pose for this guy. I realize now that I’ve been leaving Malkavian Prince of Stockholm off of my resume all this time.
This rolling clock, designed by the Buro Vormkrijgers firm is beautiful and beautifully vague. via mbandf.
The logo design for Mr. McGroovy’s box rivets was so beautiful I had to know who did it. The answer: Havana Street, a retro clip art and stock illustration house. The prices are very reasonable ($7 for some of these), and there’s a free set of 20 retro kid .eps files to download, if you click the above image.
Here’s some more of their work to enjoy:
