Blog – Page 4 – smokeandmirrors

Cheeseborg

by Kirsty Lockhart February 15, 2019

As their electromechanical design capstone project, Taylor Tabb, Evan Hill and Mitchell Riek built a fully automated grilled cheese maker dubbed Ch...

Posted in Arduino, ARTS & DESIGN & CRAFTS, Electronics, Experiments, Prototyping

How To Create Low Poly Images From A Photo

by Kirsty Lockhart January 30, 2019

Have you ever wanted to make your one of those beautiful low poly images but weren't entirely sure how to start? Anthony from Trotec Laser Canada h...

Posted in Experiments, HOW-TO

Accounting for Kerf

by Kirsty Lockhart January 24, 2019

If you've worked with a laser cutter in the past, or pretty much any woodworking tools, then you'll most likely have heard the advice "don't forget...

Posted in HOW-TO, TOOLS AND UTILITIES

Track Buses in Real-Time With This Display

by Kirsty Lockhart January 09, 2019

With his wife's shop situated right by a busy streetcar stop, Mike Heavers wanted to build a live bus schedule sign to enable customers to more com...

Posted in ARTS & DESIGN & CRAFTS, Electronics, Prototyping

Acrylic and Resin Christmas Tree Candle Holders

by Kirsty Lockhart December 19, 2018

Wanting to finally get to grips with resin pouring, David from Make Something recruited Evan and Katelyn to help by recreating his childhood Christ...

Posted in ARTS & DESIGN & CRAFTS, Seasonal Holidays Projects

Kitronik Christmas Fair

by Kirsty Lockhart December 15, 2018

Are you feeling a little lacking in the DIY Christmas decorations department? Kitronik have you covered this year with their Christmas Fair display...

Posted in ARTS & DESIGN & CRAFTS, BBC micro:bit, Electronics, Seasonal Holidays Projects

It's Not Terry's, It's Mine!

by Kirsty Lockhart December 05, 2018

We may be a bit late to the December train over here at Smoke & Mirrors HQ, but this super simple Christmas tree advent calendar is certainly g...

Posted in ARTS & DESIGN & CRAFTS, Seasonal Holidays Projects

The Witcher's Alchemy Chest

by Kirsty Lockhart November 29, 2018

As a huge fan of The Witcher series, Rob of Further Fabrication was inspired to create his own version of Geralt's wooden travel chest. Set in a me...

Posted in ARTS & DESIGN & CRAFTS

Laser-Cut Box Loom

by Kirsty Lockhart November 16, 2018

Typically a back-strap loom user, Matthijs Witsenburg's wife found it impractical to use whilst also having to chase after their kids; so she asked...

Posted in ARTS & DESIGN & CRAFTS, TOOLS AND UTILITIES

Mini Disc Sander

by Kirsty Lockhart November 07, 2018

Cut Transform Glue was going through their junk drawer when they happened upon a little 19V motor; and remembering that they've always wanted a dis...

Posted in Electronics, Experiments, Prototyping, TOOLS AND UTILITIES

Tiffany Tseng's Collection of SVG Making Tools

by Kirsty Lockhart October 31, 2018

We've featured Tiffany Tseng's useful stencil font maker on the blog before, but that's not the only handy tool she's created to help make laser cu...

Posted in HOW-TO, TOOLS AND UTILITIES

Restoring a Chinese Laser Cutter

by Kirsty Lockhart October 24, 2018

After a fire put this Redsail X700 laser cutter out of commission at Joshua's work, he managed to snag the carcass and passed it onto Amy, who was ...

Posted in Experiments, HOW-TO, TOOLS AND UTILITIES