Projects
Astrophotography Camera Mount
One of the challenges with astrophotography is finding a way to prevent star trailing with deep sky objects. To take pictures of stellar objects, an exposure time of multiple minutes is often required. Due to the rotation of the Earth however, stars move slightly during this time from the perspective of the camera. To counteract this, a mount is needed to “cancel out” the Earth’s rotation. Using a stepper motor and Arduino, I came up with a design to let me take in-focus deep sky photos.
Sunset Medallion
In an effort to get experience with CNC milling and computer aided machining (CAM), I created a version of the sunset medallion from MDF, and plan to make a final out of bronze.
Homemade Metal Foundry
I started building my metal foundry in 2018, and I have been using it for projects and improving it as I’ve needed over the years. I love the creative aspect of metalworking, and I have been experimenting with different types of metal casting for high quality final projects.
Useless Box Project
For my second mechatronics project, I was tasked with creating a “useless box” that turns itself off, with a twist on that original design. With this project I worked more with the laser cutter and got some of my first experience using servo motors.
Bronze Star Keychain
My first ever metalworking/casting project was creating a bronze star keychain. I had no idea what I was doing, all I had was what I learned from the internet and in school.
Puzzle Box
To practice my skills with 2D-3D design, I modeled and built a completely original puzzle box from laser cut plywood.
Orca Rendering
For my second year of CAD class we were tasked with creating a 3D render of an animal. I chose to do an orca for my project, and learned to use the sculpting workspace in Fusion 360 for more artistic projects.
Self-Watering Plant
I worked with a friend to create a self-watering plant for a project in our electrical engineering class. The pot used a soil moisture sensor and pump to water a plant when the soil got too dry.
Leaf Mulcher Adapter
One of my first ever CAD projects was designing an adapter for a leaf mulcher. I built it so that I could attach a hose to the mulcher that went straight into a refuse bin, instead of a bag that had to be emptied over and over.
Headphone Hanger
My next project in Fusion 360 was designing and 3D printing a hanger that could be mounted to the wall and hold a pair of headphones. While it was simple, the project taught me a lot about CAD basics, and turned out to be very useful.
Goofy Sticker
The first project I completed in Fusion 360 was making a sticker. The basis of most design in Fusion is creating 2D shapes and manipulating them into 3D models, so beginning with a 2D project was a helpful introduction to CAD. I also learned how to use a vinyl cutter, and exporting designs to any CNC 2D machine.