stuffmadehere

Directors commentary: Mini golf auto aim

New video: real time mini golf aim correction

Director's Commentary: Egg Cracker

Hey everyone!

It’s time for another patron-only director’s commentary livestream!

Join me on Thursday, September 11th at 4:45 PM Eastern as I walk through the egg cracker video, share behind-the-scenes details that didn’t make it into the final cut, and answer your questions live.

Thanks so much for your support - I hope to see you there!

- Shane

New video: automating egg cracking

I've always wanted an egg cracking tool. You can buy them, but they all seem to have various shortcomings. It's not surprising because egg cracking is one of those problems that's super simple to understand but rather complex to do reliably.

The trickiness of the problem convinced me that I should try and build one for myself. Complicating things is that I wanted to make something that could actually work. This made for some constraints that made life hard for me like "no mess" and "the...

Director's Commentary: No Edge Pan

Hey Everyone!

I'll be hosting a patron-only Director's Commentary livestream for my latest project - the no edges brownie pan!

Join me Tuesday, June 10th at 3:30 PM Eastern as I go watch through the video and constantly pause to share details that didn't make the final cut . I'll also be answering your questions live!

Thanks for all your amazing support - see you there!

-Shane

New video: building an edgeless brownie pan

Hey Everyone!

I just wrapped up my latest project: building a brownie pan that bakes without any hard, chewy edges. What started as a simple idea turned into a pretty involved build - with a lot of machining. The designs came out great, and the results were surprisingly fun. Hope you enjoy the video!

As always, I’ll be scheduling a director’s commentary in the next week or so to walk through all the ...

Kinetic helicopter: livestream wreckage analysis

Hey everyone! This Friday 3/7 @ 4pm EST, I’m hosting a patron only livestream looking back at the kinetic helicopter project. I’ll be sitting down with some tools and going into much more detail as I take apart its wreckage. I’ll also be answering your questions in the chat. I expect it will be a sort of blending between a directors commentary and a sloppily run NTSB investigation.

This is a patrons-...

New video: kinetically powered helicopter

I  had a simple idea for a simple project: try to spin one of those little propeller-on-a-stick toys really fast to see how high they can go. Of course one thing led to another and the next thing I knew I was building an extremely not simple helicopter, complete with collective pitch and an onboard computer and sensors to allow autonomous flight. I don't want to spoil it, but one very unfortunate and particularly bad ov...

Camera project directors commentary livestream

Join me for a patron only livestream this coming Monday (Dec 30)! I'll be going through my latest project video (approximately) frame by frame and discussing all the details that didn't make the final cut. I'll also try to answer any questions you have live as well. It's always cathartic to share all the stuff I had to cut out of the video, but these commentaries are also one of the ways that I say thank you!! I hope it's interesting.

The 2024-12-28 20:30:16 +0000 UTC View Post

Raw image data from single pixel camera

If you're interested in messing around with the raw image data from my camera, here it is! Trying to render it into an image is a fun exercise with a lot of potential ways to doing the projections.

The data is packaged extremely inefficiently (but extremely portably) as JSON with the following format

Aside from the raw voltage readings from the photodiode and encoder, it has information about...

New video: Camera with a software controlled lens

I just wrapped up a project where I build a very strange type of camera. It can only take a photo with one pixel at a time but it can build up complex images by combining a ton of 1 pixel “pictures” that it takes over time. If you’re familiar with software rendering, one way to think about this camera is that it’s a sort of real life ray tracer. 

It may sound kind of silly, but taking pictures in this roundabout way enables the camera to do some really interesting things li...

A very technical teardown of a 3D priter

Earlier this year I visited Formlabs HQ. I used to work there and spent countless hours developing SLA 3D printers. During my visit they offered to let me tear down their latest printer the Form 4. I was really keen on this because I wasn't involved in developing it, so I was really curious what was going on under the hood.

What followe...

Directors commentary livestream this week!

Hey Everyone,

Join me this Thursday at 3pm ET for a directors commentary livestream on my lil' bikes project. I'll be going through my project video and sharing details and anecdotes that didn't make the final cut. For example the fact that I actually had to redesign the frame of the smallest bike several times more that didn't make the video. Shocking i know ;) I'll also answer any questions about the project you have in the chat.

This is for patrons only and hopefully is intere...

New video: The pursuit of the smallest bike

As an avid cyclist I've always loved bikes. As an R&D guy I like the idea of making stuff that doesn't have a clear solution. I decided to put those two passions into a blender and the result was my latest project: seeing just how far I can miniaturize a bike while keeping it ridable.

It turned into quite the interesting rabbit hole with a lot of interesting engineering challenges. I also had my fair share of phys...

New video: Disc Launcher V2

After having the idea for this project living rent free in my mind for almost two years, I decided it was time to finally build it. I've documented the overall process with all of its ups and downs in my latest video.  

My first generation disc launcher was cool, but it left me unsatisfied in many ways. Namely it was...

Dunk boots commentary livestream next week!

As with most of my projects, my pneumatic dunk boots had a TON of details that got left on the cutting room floor. Although they didn't make the final cut, I still think they're interesting so tune in Monday Feb 12th at 3PM Eastern as I watch through the video live and pausing constantly to share more details. I'll also do my best to answer any of your questions. If you haven't been to one of these before, it truly is the most innovative way to turn a 20 minute video into two hours. 

Dunk Boots!

I just wrapped up my latest project:  tall self extending stilts with the goal of dunking as high as possible / becoming inspector gadget. If you're interested in seeing the video you can check it out here!

Fig 1: My project mission statement

As usual this project morphed from something I tho...

Directors commentary Tuesday 10/17!

A lot happened in the process of building all those pencil sharpeners. After fitting 2.4TB worth of footage and 10 sharpeners into the video (4 didn't make the cut), there was a lot of details and interesting stuff left out. It's time to remedy that, at least in part.

Join me next week Tuesday 10/17 @ 5pm ET for a livestream where I'll be going through the video and pausing approximately every 5 seconds to share more details and answer your  questions from the chat. It's u...

New video: 6 unusual pencil sharpeners

I've been keeping a list of weird pencil sharpening ideas for several years so I finally decided to build the coolest ones! This was a lot of fun and a neat way to make a variety of mechanisms grounded in a problem that everyone understands. 

Your support enables me to make things like this, so thank you! :) There were a lot of challenges and things that didn't make it into the video so I'll be doing a patron only directors commentary livestream in the next week or so to expound on...

Exciting news!

I thought you might enjoy this little sneak preview from my upcoming project. The rest of the video is being edited and should be done pretty soon! 

- Shane

Thousands of postcards: trials and tribulations

My postcard robot project is an excellent example of the difference between a prototype and a real product. After getting the robot writer working and making the video, I set out to have it produce thousands of cards. It was exciting to finally see my robot in action, that is until it ran into someone with this a...

AMA This Week!

Join me this Thursday 8/17 at 4pm Eastern time for an AMA! If you haven't been to one before, I'll be going through and discussing whatever topics or questions that you have. 

You can drop questions in the #ama channel on discord, the comments this post, or in the live chat. The earlier you can get your topics / questions in, the better so that my brain has some time to process them. It's usually pretty fun, also if you can't make it, it will also be available to watch any time aft...

Last call for addresses!

If you'd like a pseudo-handwritten postcard from the super duper handwriting robot and you haven't yet put your address into patreon, this is your last chance! The robot is currently working through everyone's cards and when it is done, I'm going to be taking the robot arm off to be used for... other stuff. 

The handwriting robot

Finally! I've made it through the fire and the flames of a most painful edit & export process and the video is live!

There's a lot that I could say about this project, but I'll save it for the upcoming directors commentary livestream. I'll be scheduling that soon to watch through the video and share all those extra details. 

The most important thing right now is that this project exists for you and I would love to send you a robot written postcard. I can't do that without...

The export from hell

The past 24 hours have been a letdown. I finished editing the video for my latest project and I was pumped because I wasn't up against a deadline. In fact I was still working out some details with the sponsor which put me in a very rarified situation: having time to spare. My plan was to post a sneak preview of the video on Patreon this morning.

This is something I’m always interested in doin...

Livestream AMA!

Hey Everyone, 

I'll be hosting a livestream AMA next Wednesday 3/22 at 3PM Eastern time. If there is anything you're interested in having me discuss feel free to ask it in the #ama channel on discord or in the comments on this post. 

This is patron only and one of the ways for me to say THANKS for the support. It's usually pretty interesting so I hope to see you there! If you can't make it, I ke...

New Studio!

After moving out of my rented warehouse in September, I haven't really had a workspace. I crammed way too many tools into my garage and then jammed the rest of my tools and small parts into shipping containers. I thought it might be OK, but it has been a very inefficient setup for getting projects done.

Puzzlebot Part 2 Directors Commentary

Hey Everyone, 

It's time for the long overdue directors commentary for the second installment of the puzzlebot. As usual I'll be watching through the video and pausing constantly to share details that didn't make the cut and answer all your questions. 

Hope to see you there! It will be this Sunday at 4PM eastern time, though if you can't make it, the VOD will be available after.   2023-02-10 15:49:44 +0000 UTC View Post

Interview with the CEO of Formlabs

A couple of months ago I sat down in my densely packed garage with my old boss Max Lobovsky. We talked about my time working at Formlabs, doing YouTube, a bit about cycling, and the general state of tools. It was a fun conversation that I think you might enjoy. I've linked it above if you want to check it out!

If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I'll try to answer 'em. 

- Shane

Puzzle robot part 2 is done!

It is done! We'll technically last week it was done. And also there is a lot of features that I didn't get to... but I made a video!

If you haven't already seen it, here's a link to Puzzle Bot Part 2.

I was worried that breaking a project like this into two parts might not work, but I am happy to see that ...