Greetings and happy October to you! As promised, I have an update on the printer build. Cameron has 2 of the planned 6 printer/tool heads installed and working well together. There is more work ahead but it’s functional and he’s closing in on completion now. Take a look. That’s it for now; I hope you’re…

I know the blog has been quiet for a while, but trust that we have been very busy as usual. You are accustomed to reading about lasers or robot lawnmowers and their mega mansions that are being built for them and 3-D printers here, and there will be more of that but tonight I have…

Another rainy weekend did its best to thwart our plan to get the mower (he has a name now and it’s Kirby-a nod to a segment in Patton Oswalt’s Netflix standup special entitled “I Love Everything”—hilarious) and the garage placed in the yard but, we prevailed (mostly). We are still weeks away from receipt of…

Ta-daaaah! Finally, right? The weather was really against us today so we weren’t able to put the garage in its place in the yard. In addition, the circuit board Cameron designed hasn’t yet arrived and we are waiting on the L channel PVC that will replace the aluminum extrusion that is on the peaks of…

Cameron came very close to completing the robot garage this weekend. He has been grinding and the finish line is in sight. Take a look! Okay no one is home yet, darn it. Plebeians like myself are awed by anyone’s ability to design a circuit board but for Cameron, it’s like brushing his teeth. He…

We made more progress this weekend; less than hoped for but definitely some forward motion. I have to say I’m loving the way he cut the shingles; I think the scale is perfect for the size of the structure. The following video is mostly a demonstration of the approach he used to cut the asphalt…

Hey everybody! I’m back with good news! Cameron sleuthed through the electrical issues with the garage door and it’s working smoothly! It also moves quickly! I pilfered some of what would have been productive time from him to cut some fabric for some quilt projects I’m working on. I tried cutting one out all by…

Greetings everyone and a happy Mother’s Day to all in observance/celebration today. I hope everyone has had beautiful weather this weekend; we have had a gloriously comfortable one and take advantage of them in advance of the heat domes we know will come our way. Another trying weekend here though Cameron is sorting it out.…

Good evening everybody! I hope you’ve had a great weekend and that something delicious and Mexican will grace your tastebuds tomorrow. In the unfolding of the story about the lawnmower robot I share that it has been mowing our lawn successfully, with two temporary satellite connection disruptions, since the beginning of April. It is a…

Greetings everybody! I have progress to report. We had rain last weekend and it rained four times here yesterday (4/26) so we’ve been a bit waylaid. In addition, Cameron bought me an awesome longarm on a frame and put it all together for me last weekend. It was a major undertaking and we are still…

Greetings all! I hope everybody is bearing up well against allergy season. Our porch is covered in pollen and I wish all the leaves would open at once. A little more progress was made this weekend. I don’t know if either video will be of interest to anyone not building their own version of this…

Greetings everybody! Have you folks been working your fingers to the bone this weekend or is that just us? Cameron fabricated every slat for the siding on the “garage” this weekend, went on a protracted voyage to Lowes for some additional hardware, roofing shingles, some rubber pavers for the floor or base of the garage,…

Hey everybody! Cameron has made good progress on the robot garage. We decided to go with a PVC based composite for the exterior cladding hoping it will stand up to weather as well as the Trex decking and side walls of our screened porch. I have two short videos for you today. I can’t help…

If you sew or especially if you are a quilter you probably know all about the advantages of a pure wool pressing mat for the flattest, most crisp seams. I can’t think of another reason straight away that anyone would need to cut wool this thick, but the web is a big place and you…

Greetings everybody, I hope everyone is enjoying some down time this weekend. We stay busy making things; maybe you’re making things too? The next few weeks are going to focus pretty heavily on this robot mower and building the garage for it. We are also planning to have a patio installed in the back yard…

Happy Friday everyone! Spring is springing and our much loved lawn service provider has retired. We will miss him but wish him much happiness as he begins a new chapter. Bobby is just the best! But of course we had to decide what to do as our growing season is fast approaching. Many of you…

A friend of mine pointed out that I didn’t explain anything about the differences when mailing a card or letter with a wax seal which was a very good point! So I thought I’d take some time today to go over that as well as a number of other ways the wonderful folks of the…

Hey everybody! Another weekend is at its end; they fly by so quickly. We spent Saturday working on individual projects but are squeezing in some fun with the fiber laser together tonight. First up, something a bit novel for us in that we had not previously tried engraving anything cylindrical on the fiber laser. My…

Pizza is my favorite food. I’m a cheap date until you take me any place that sells tools, machinery, or maker supplies. Need a pick me up? Pizza. Hungry for something good? Pizza. Looking for a reward for a job well done? Pizza. I could go on. But instead I’ll show you our engraved pizza…

If you’ve been following you know I’ve gotten into sourdough bread making and have had some decent success. We bought a knife/bread saw to tackle the crusty nature of sourdough and it seemed like a fun opportunity to use the fiber and CO2 lasers to customize it. You know I love customized items; details make…

Greetings everybody! How are we all doing? I’m immersed in making, hiding from the chaos. Today I bring you beautiful brass carvings; Cameron has (as he always does) really dialed into the fiber laser’s carving capabilities at least as far as brass goes. This is thanks in part to a request by our friend Andrea…

Happy New Year folks! Ah, a fresh new year and hopefully lots of fun new projects ahead for everyone! If anyone reading this has decided to take on a new creative pursuit this year I’d love it if you shared your new interest with us! We hope to gain more insight into the nuances of…

Hello again! The last post was longer than I expected it would be so I thought I’d show you this stuff separately. Short and sweet! There will be more to come on the epoxy front. I have some ideas cooking!

Greetings all! I don’t know what happened to my brain but in spite of uploading a number of fiber laser videos to YouTube I never made a corresponding blog entry about any of them. We have been doing so many different projects and of course Cameron has been very busy at work as the lunar…

Hey everybody! A quick post to show you the goodies that arrived (finally!) today! Limitless Solutions has many more options than I show here so if you’re looking for something else they may have just what you seek. Check them out online; I’m so pleased with the weight and quality and can’t wait until we…

Greetings to all! We’ve been quiet here but very busy. Don’t you just hate it when home maintenance responsibilities get in the way of your fun? That’s what happened this weekend but, let me catch you up. We’ve had this laser for a few weeks now but Cameron is very busy with work as the…

Hi everybody! I’m back with a new laser adventure (new to us, that is) and as with all new ventures, there is a learning curve. In the interest of helping others by showing our mistakes I have a real time video below of the process. Fast forward as you if you’re primarily interested in the…

Greetings good people! It has been a day of trial and error for us but we finally found success with both cutting and engraving aluminum. If you suffer the entire first video you will step through our succession of misfires that ends in perfectly executed cuts of medium/regular weight foil as well as the heavy…

I forgot to post this one last week. Project prep is always time consuming but essential. For this project, 1.5” strips of fabrics are needed. If you’ve ever tried to cut the same thing with precision over and over again you know how taxing it is. I have a hand injury that has exacerbated the…

Greetings all and happy weekending to you! I write with news! Cameron dropped the floor in our much loved Diablo to connect our new WeCreat Vision 20 diode laser so for now, we have a laser within a laser until we get a cart for it. But hey, we are up and running with a…

Hi everyone! I’m writing from the heat dome here and thinking of the folks on the gulf coast of Texas hoping everyone is safe. I dread summer but am grateful for the comforts of air conditioning and ice cream! We did a lot of experimenting this weekend. Some of it went well, other parts were…

Hey everybody, I hope the weekend is treating you well and that you’ve had time to be creative and do something fun! We’ve had this map done for some time but I haven’t wanted to spoil the surprise so I’m just posting it now. We used 1/8” maple plywood for the water and side street…

Greetings once again; I’m back with the other things we did this past weekend. First, a follow up on the “string art” butterfly on yellow acrylic. The finished product. I love the laser for detailed work like hole punching. I wouldn’t have the patience to do it manually on paper at the scale that the…

Hey everybody, this weekend’s adventures brought some surprises. Because we did our first rubber stamps a year ago I truly thought that this stamp would be press and play and not even worth filming, but as it happened, we ran into a symptom of a problem we haven’t seen before on any of our projects.…

It’s new for us, anyway! I came across these “stitched card” patterns online that are a subtype of string art, in my view, and while looking at the designs my first thought was, I want to do that on wood! But having never done it before and wanting to scale up the designs I asked…

Hey everybody! I know it probably seems as though we have been dormant so far this year but the truth is, I’ve been enthralled with my new longarm and Cameron has been exploring some CNC router projects but hasn’t made them yet. He’s in the gathering information and testing of router bits phase with those.…

One roll of the decision dice, that is! I know, I know, it has been a long time since my last post. Cameron and I have both been working on non laser related projects so I’ve spared you the tedium of our other pursuits. Cameron has been building a model and I have been working…

Hi everybody! Is anyone beginning a new project out there that will take some time to complete? If so, here is some inspiration. We have been at this project for a little over two weeks, cycling the epoxy pours and drying time and such, but just like you, we stuck to it, even managing to…

Greetings everybody! I hope everyone had a fun, productive weekend! We surely did! If you’ve been keeping up you know we left off last week in the middle of our puzzle preservation project and had our extra large cardboard format puzzles left to preserve in addition to one smaller (but gorgeous) wooden one by Nautilus…

There are a few tiny bubbles in each of them but none that protrude enough to be remarkable. Five dry, one small and three large to go. Today is a great day to make something!

Greetings once again! We have been busy bees and in the interest of getting these puzzles knocked out I glossed over and/or omitted things that could be helpful to others. Since a big part of the intention of this blog is to share what we have learned/support other makers I filmed some aspects of the…

Sharing our latest epoxy preserved wooden puzzle…it makes me hungry! I’m editing a video that shows more of the process that goes into preserving puzzles in epoxy. We really like the finish and I can’t wait to mount them all to a wall. We have five more to do, four of which are much larger…

Hey everybody! Ah! I’m so invigorated by last night’s snowfall! It’s only a few inches but it was enough to shovel and getting out there was so much fun! I truly love winter. We didn’t get any snow last year so I was hot to trot this morning!!! Our friend next door had shoulder surgery…

Greetings everyone! I hope everybody has found some indoor fun over the holiday weekend and that 2024 is full of maker adventures! You know we are always up to something here! We did some jigsaw puzzles several years ago, some cardboard from Amazon and some laser cut wood puzzles from a company called Nautilus Puzzles.…

Greetings everyone! Are you ready for a fresh new year? I hope you’re all looking forward to good things and new creative adventures; I certainly am! Our last laser project of 2023 is another experiment that has been pretty successful thanks to Cameron’s mad software skills and fantastic tips from Steve at Steve Makes Everything…

Holiday greetings to all who observe them! Cameron and I have a tradition of spending our holidays up to our elbows in projects. Our first December together involved a massive snow storm and many gallons of paint! This year it’s the lessons of wood working as well as an art quilt that I just finished…

Just a quick follow up from last night. Cameron hung the doorbell chime box. I like it so much better than what we had and am still deciding whether I want to stain/paint it or leave it natural. It’s always hard for me to judge whether or not something looks right when it’s out of…

Have you ever heard of a living hinge? No? I hadn’t either, until I came across a notebook design on Etsy. It’s essentially wood or acrylic that has a zillion cuts in it so the material will bend and flex. People make boxes, notebooks, jewelry, bowls, lamp shades, clothing, even chairs and chaise lounges with…

Greetings! I hope your gathering has been/continues to be festive and that your meal was delicious! We are forever tinkering here and there are some questions about what the CNC does that a laser does not. This gecko holds some answers. ???? A laser beam points straight down. As you’ve seen, it is unswervingly precise…

Hi everybody! Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! I hope you and yours have all reached your destinations no worse for the wear and that tomorrow is a memorable gathering ????. I had forgotten to post these; they are already in the hands of their recipients so here ya go! And of course I’m making…

Hi everybody! I hope your weekend has been fun and relaxing. Ours has been some work but well worth it! The Genmitsu is up and running. We used a thin piece of scrap plywood for the first carve just to test the stability of the table (excellent so far) and get a small spindle/bit moving.…

I suppose it is a natural progression once you get into the laser space…we have added a CNC router and a new Husky tool cart with an extension table! They both came today! Our friend and neighbor Kurt came to our rescue once again; this thing had to go around the back of the house…

Hey everybody! Are you having a fun weekend? Or are you grinding through your “to do” list? We are doing both! The length and near constant re-ordering of our list is almost entirely my fault. The item below has languished for far too long and made the list before we even had the laser. Take…

Hello again! I hope everyone had a fun weekend; any makers out there doing something new? We have been making some gifts and also working in a few projects of our own. One, a decorative cover for the back of cabinets we used to make a kitchen island, is still in the prep stage. The…

Thanks for looking!

Okay, full disclosure. There were no lasers or masking techniques deployed in this post. And yes, this is highly irregular, and no, it won’t be a common occurrence. So if you’re not interested in how a man who never cooks or bakes goes at the fussy French pastry this post is not for you. BUT,…

If you had asked me three weeks ago what Greek philosophers have to do with laser art I would have been at a loss for a response but all of a sudden we have covered two in less than a week. Without further ado, I give you Socrates on a rock. This is a gag…

Hi everyone! I hope you’ve all had a fantastic weekend! Northern Virginia has had a perfectly autumnal weekend with gusty winds and low humidity; I live for fall and winter! I’m really into rocks right now. I love the permanence of stone as well as the opportunity to do something uniquely personal. I did this…

This weekend has mainly been about rock. While we are always excited to learn something new we do wish the circumstances under which we learned so much were rooted in a joyful occasion. Lots of lessons learned here; doing is the best teacher for sure. Here are some videos that are shortcuts to what we…

I know it has taken me longer than usual to post; we have been busy but I haven’t felt as though the project photos were far enough along to be of interest so I’ll catch you up and hope to include “final final” photos next week. First, we have received some orders for holiday gifts…

Believe it or not, there is more to making these novelty cookies than might be apparent at first blush. Learn from my experience/mistakes here. Let’s start with the recipe. King Arthur’s recipe book, blog, and website are trusted sources for good recipes and solid advice, but I found this instance to be a bit lacking.…

Here are some elements for a customer order. I can’t wait to complete it and ship. It measures 20” round. I love anything wintry! That’s all I can give you until it’s in the hands of the recipient. I’m full of anticipation for this recipient and hope they will love it. It has been customized…

Hey everybody, happy October! We are having fun whipping up some gift orders so unfortunately, I can’t share those photos until late December as you never know whose surprise could be ruined. That makes for a quiet blog and I’m sorry about that because believe me, I want to share this cool stuff with you!…

Hi everybody! I hope everyone has had a great weekend; we here in the Mid Atlantic finally got the rain we have so desperately needed but Mother Nature shut us down for a while on Saturday. We were undaunted today though! I loved the wooden calling cards so much that of course I wondered how…

Okay, I’m not gonna lie, I know I get overly excited about a lot of our makes but this one ranks among the top contenders! I left the “work outside the home” world a little bit accidentally when Cameron and I married in 2007. Long story, all good vibes; it was a very early retirement…

I finished another Van Gogh inspired piece today and wanted to share because this is one of the few times I can say I think the variability of something hand drawn and hand cut renders a better result. Nuanced variation, I think, is key to something more reflective of nature. I think I’m done with…

You’ll want to take a seat because I’m going to say something I haven’t said here before: This weekend was almost entirely about Cameron’s projects! You read that correctly! I had been pretty hot to trot for some laser projects but it was almost 700 degrees here this weekend and my ideas were going to…

A few weeks ago I bought an art quilt pattern on Etsy from Darcy Hunter Arts. I love all things winter (I know it’s weird) and this design spoke to me. Cameron, my knight in shining armor, generously agreed to transfer the drawing of the design into Lightburn and then double its size. I liked…

We decided to prepare for trial season though we aren’t done yet. All of the Jack Smith merch inspired me so I thought a commemorative cookie was in order! We have not tried to convert a photo/image onto wood or metal before today. If you’ve been following along we have done a few photos on…

Greetings all! I hope everyone is having a great weekend! We have been busy this weekend trying some new things. Not everything I have below is in it’s finished state but at least you can see what we have been up to. My sister and her family were enthusiastic about the gift box I sent…

I know the blog has been still; we have been catching up on a couple of home improvement projects as well as tending to our other hobbies. Cameron is building a replica of the guidance computer for the Apollo missions (I know, right? Who does that?) He tells me that it will be fully functional…

It was worth the wait! I’m not known for being patient but I REALLY stretched myself as Cameron pointed out the flaws in the finish after the first rounds of priming and painting. I’m so glad I listened to him and managed to gird myself for the delayed gratification! It’s so hard when you just…

More wintry themes today; we certainly hit some snags in testing our settings but ultimately prevailed. I think Cameron may be more actively interested in a CNC router now… So my sister won’t see this post; she is always running in five different directions so I think I’m safe in posting my secret gift project…

I don’t mean to bombard your inbox but this is too fun not to share! I had seen someone else engrave pencils and thought OHHHH! The perfect companion to the notebooks! Cameron made jigs for both of the pencil shapes; the pastels are triangular instead of hexagonal. Take a look! We had some creative differences…

Hey everybody, just a follow up to last weekend’s cutting videos. Here are the end products; I hope our recipients like them!

So we are continuing on with the air vent covers and, I wouldn’t spend time posting on this if we were doing the exact same thing as last week but we aren’t. The videos below will explain. So I have to give a massive shout out to Cameron who is just the best, most awesomely…

Hi everybody! Happy Friday to those who are celebrating the arrival of another weekend! I’m super excited to bring you this new make; it’s so fun as well as being functional! Having what ever machine you’re sewing with sit flush to your sewing table/cabinet is wonderful for long sessions while making a project. Today’s sewing…

Greetings everybody! We had hoped to accomplish more this weekend but we are still behind on some home maintenance projects that needed tending. Cameron spent all day retrofitting the openings for the air vent covers and they look MARVELOUS in my opinion. Here are some photos: We still have a bunch to go but they’ll…

I have received some feedback here and privately from folks claiming that they could never do the work I do but I disagree! We all start somewhere and all you really need is a sincere interest/curiosity and the recognition that mistakes are education and progress! The right tools go a long way too, you wouldn’t…

Ha ha, made you look! ???? We are playing a little catch up this weekend but Cameron managed to cut me lots of precisely straight and consistently 3/4” wide fabric strips for a project I’m doing. Those of you who know me and some of my work know I tend to work with small pieces…

A new day, a new material-CORK! I love the adventure of trying new materials and doing something fun with them! Wooo hoooo! And in this case, it is also useful; who didn’t need to spot their bag from a distance every once in a while, or express their personality? Lots of trial and error today…

I cleaned up the rolling pin today and learned some things. Vacuum your wood engravings; it will save some elbow grease. Two, food safe oils and a small brush go a long way to dissolve the soot left behind. Three, Pillsbury cookie doughs do not work with embossing rolling pins. I was so anxious to…

Hi everybody! I hope everyone’s weekend is off to a great start. Stay safe out there! It’s hot and steamy here but we are like popsicles in the basement with the laser firing. I am so excited today to have seen how the rotary tool works because it adds yet another capability for creating bespoke…

Greetings to all-just a quick post of this birthday card I sent to a treasured friend. The dragonfly is colored with Pro-Tec powder paint and I used a diluted acrylic paint to create a sort of marbled/mottled purple. If you look closely you can see the glitter I added to the body of the dragonfly.

So we’ve been having a little fun today doing some decorative yet utilitarian designs for our house. A few years back I saw these custom air return grates that were just so much prettier than the metal slat style we have but it was going to be pricy to do the whole house; consistency is…

Greetings! I’ve been waiting to post this until Keely received it and now she has, so here it is. I decided to paint it and “weather” it to make it super surfy and casual. I feel like the “faded” blue adds a needed twist to it. As a reminder, BEECH is the spelling of the…

Hi Everyone! I know I’ve been quiet but we have been learning and preparing materials for projects. I finally have a few things to show you! First, as a sample, we did an Apollo Lunar Lander engraving on birch stained blue and coated in polycrylic. I frankly think the Polycrylic takes away from the effect…

Okay, so I had this idea simmering all day that about adding glitter to the melted paint. In my imagination it looked awesome and, thanks to some experimenting, it DOES look awesome, at least I think it does! It’s a manual process and I personally wouldn’t endeavor to try this technique with a laser melt…

Good morning! Last night I learned how to embed YouTube videos into my blog posts. I know, I know, I am incredibly feeble and grossly lacking web savvy. Try to remember that I’m an artist, not a techie, and that I am sincerely trying. I’m juggling a lot of competing interests and I don’t yet…

Okay, so, we completed the powder filling of this sign with some minor flaws but are still waaay happier with it than anything we did yesterday. Cameron still needs to cut it out but we are calling it a day. He’s going to do a test cut on 1/2” plywood because he hasn’t yet cut…

Hey everybody, I still can’t edit my videos from yesterday and I’m not sure how useful they’ll be because they were all failures, but after a long day of substandard results we went searching for guidance on the Pro-Tec powder melting and discovered Steve Makes Everything. The guy knows his stuff! He uses a heat…

Okay, this is a SAGA. We really thought that using Laser Dave’s settings with a few tweaks would punch our ticket to ride on the powder paint train. Instead, we’ve been trying to dial in the optimal settings for seven hours and counting. I have a LOT of video of our failed attempts and one…

Greetings all! I’m n the process of populating our new YouTube channel we have named Cut It Out! I loaded the latest fabric cutting videos plus several of our previous videos focused on slate and rubber stamps. I’ll be adding more until I’m caught up; it’s clear that I have a LOT of room for…

Greetings everyone! I hope you’ve all found some time to relax and enjoy yourselves doing what ever recharges you for the week ahead. It has been another nose to the grindstone here but it’s all good! Cameron completed the build at 6:50 pm Saturday, June 3, and after a number of high fives and rear…

Greetings all, I hope everyone has had a safe weekend and that those who have lost loved ones and friends while in service to our country are comforted by the collective respect and gratitude we all have for their sacrifice and for yours. I’m guessing some of you have wondered why I’ve been so quiet;…

Good Sunday evening to you! I hope your weekend was wonderful, the east coast had a lot of ideal weather today so I hope folks got out there and enjoyed it! We are experiencing our learning curve here; dialing in the settings for the rubber stamps took some doing. We finally nailed it (third time…

Hey everybody, I’m back with another experiment in materials. Slate engraves really nicely, it’s the photo editing that has to be done that can be tricky. Starting with a good photo is key, and what makes for a good photo for laser engraving on slate is a clear photo with minimal shadowing. There are many…

Happy Friday everybody! I hope your workday is winding down and your weekend launch sequence has been activated! I’ve gotten a few questions regarding the silicone engraving that helped me realize that I wasn’t doing a very good job of explaining how the designs get to the laser to people who haven’t worked with design…

Okay so tonight was a new experiment with silicone. There is some guidance online relative to what settings to use but every laser is different, and you don’t always know how many watts someone has so when they say 40% power, you have to ask, 40% of what number. So we started at 40% or…

Okay so, I’m euphoric right now! Immaculate cuts! I didn’t film the cut of the biggest piece of fabric in the frame but it cut 110 scales in 2 minutes and nine seconds. And they’re CLEAN!

I bought this cut file on Etsy today because the lines were made specifically for laser cutting. I chose this time to do it in plywood and to cut it all the way through instead of engraving the wood. You can do this on acrylic or glass or leather or even engrave denim with it…

Hello my sewing friends. You know how cutting out apparel patterns is a major drag? Not anymore! We achieved a perfectly clean cut on our first try using the same settings we used last night on the woven cotton. Even though the edges would be sheared off by the serger and/or enclosed in seams you…

Good morning ??! We snuck in a bit of experimentation with cardstock cutting this morning. Cameron still doesn’t have all of the settings fine tuned so we expect our result to improve but this is our first go at it. Interestingly, the reverse side is completely free of char (char being the bain of paper…

So we had to buy more space on WordPress because I maxed out the one gig you get for free. The app is wonky so Cameron had to do what ever it is he does to get the app working on my phone again so I can continue uploading content. Picking up where I left…

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers and mother figures out there tonight. I hope you all had a banner day-Cameron and I surely did because Diablo (the name for the laser that happened organically) is OPERATIONAL! I have a lot of videos below. A reminder here that you have to go to the WordPress…

Good Monday evening to you; I write with a few more feet of progress toward the finish line today! I hope you’ll excuse my exuberance over every step; the anticipation is building! Here are some still photos of the exhaust mount Cameron made this weekend. He put the fan in it tonight and I have…

But the road ahead still feels too long! For anyone who has ever used a dictionary, you know, that enormous bound tome with the hard cover that perched on a shelf above your Smith Corona, you’ll never see my face anywhere near the word “patient” nor any of its synonyms ????. Even I use the…

Greetings all! I have a nibble of excitement to show you tonight. Cameron did some alignment work on the laser tonight and snuck in a partial test cut before inviting me to come down to the shop to watch it cut paper. The compressor nor the exhaust are connected so we can’t run the laser…

Greetings all! Anyone who has ever taken on a large scale project can probably relate to how much other chores and routine maintenance projects get neglected. It is no different here. Last week I had a big flame event while grilling chicken; something I’ve done every week for over three years without ever having had…

Okay people, it’s really taking shape now! Cameron had another busy weekend and as he likes to tell me, he has made progress I can SEE ????. The 3D printer has been key once again as he printed the plate for the switch panel. I saw that he posted on the Rezo forum that his…

Greetings all! I hope you’ve had a great weekend. It has been another busy one here as Cameron pushes the build toward the finish line. This weekend he did a lot of metal fabrication to customize the rear door that provides access to the laser tube. The original design had an all aluminum door. He…

So this is what it is when you have a non technical person who trusts her atrophying memory rather than taking notes-inaccuracies. Here are the corrections. One, the compressor pushes air through the LASER HEAD, not the chiller. The reason it pushes air through the laser head is to blow the smoke out of the…

Hello again! Yesterday you saw the laser head traveling on the X and Y axes; today Cameron wired the Z axis which raises and lowers the honeycomb bed/cutting surface. This is necessary for calibrating the distance needed between the laser and the material being cut or engraved All cutting, etching, engraving operations will have different…

Greetings all! Ordinarily I would wait until Sunday evening to post but this is too exciting to keep in ice for another 24 hours! Cameron has the laser head moving! Watch! Here is the image it’s tracing. The laser isn’t firing yet. You can also see what the control panel looks like all lit up…

Greetings all, I hope everyone is safe out there; really dangerous weather for so many folks this week. I hope you and yours are all doing well. This weekend was the beginning of the wiring of the electrical panel. When Cameron complains of tedium I KNOW it’s over the top. He says he’s 40ish percent…

Greetings all! Well, it’s another Sunday evening and I have progress with a side of humor to report. First, the board for the electrical components arrived on Tuesday of last week; I guess the third time is the charm. Cameron cut it to size but then got a little stumped by how exactly to arrange…

Greetings all! I hope you’ve had a good weekend and found some time for doing something you enjoy. This weekend Cameron constructed the front and rear lids of the machine. If you look at the photo of the finished Rezo laser it will give you an idea of what these lids will look like once…

Ah, the woes of setbacks continued this weekend with the death of Cameron’s 20 year old Dremel. This sent him out of the basement and into the wild that is Lowe’s on a Saturday afternoon. This delay added to the lost “spring forward” hour as well as the energy that the time change always seems…

So, another weekend in the shop and more progress to report. The first accomplishment was the installation of the motor for the bed lift. This motor raises and lowers the honeycomb bed to position what ever is being engraved or cut at the ideal distance from the head of the laser to achieve the result…

The following was written by Cameron and posted on the private Rezo forum. this is the kind of detail I could never deliver with accuracy on my own!???? Well, that was a lot more work than I was expecting but the bed is in! I went with Phillip Danner’s ball screw lift mod. I like…

Greetings to all this Sunday evening. I hope everyone has had a good weekend. It has been another busy one here, and a laborious one at that. Cameron spent a lot of time modifying parts/hardware with his grinder and drill press to accommodate the “outside of plans” drop down floor. You’ll see in the photo…

So we have an inside joke around here when it comes to chore oriented projects. I’ll ask Cameron how the shop clean up is coming (you guys didn’t see it before he prepped for the laser build) and he’ll tell me he’s “making progress”. It didn’t take me too long to modify my query to…

Another long but productive day in the shop for Cameron. The gantry and it’s two stepper motors as well as the laser head have been installed. I helped a TEENY bit with feeding the belts into the gantry but mostly came downstairs intermittently to ask questions. How’s it going? What’s that? What does it do?…

Today was certainly eventful! The stepper motor driver, the controller for the laser, the laser power supply, and some assorted hardware arrived. Cameron says we have about 90% of the parts we need in house now and boy did he go to work today! I have a LOT of photos. I’ve been fretting about how…

Greetings all! As promised we have begun an action packed weekend. Cameron went to work in the shop right after breakfast only breaking for lunch. What we didn’t know was that the weekend would kick off with a much welcome surprise! The 100 watt laser tube and the chiller were planted on our front porch…

It has been too long but we finally have shipping delays and logistical twists behind us and have the parts needed to make the upcoming long weekend a productive one! And to make matters even better Cameron has taken Friday off, so four days of action are ahead. I suspect we will once again have…

Can I just say how much I love Amazon? I think they should handle fulfillment for everything; they’re so efficient! Not much in the way of visible progress this weekend but we were all abuzz ???? as we set out to enjoy the blustery three mile loop in our neighborhood today to bring this inside…

Cameron had a busy weekend given the delivery of the extrusion this week. Below is a photo of the frame for the laser; it’s upside down because it is built upside down (I’m told there is a method to the madness) so what you see is the top half of the frame for the laser.…

Some of you may wonder why a textile artist like myself would be so gung ho about the Rezo laser. I have many intentions relative to substrates/mediums I plan to cut, etch, and engrave with this laser but my primary want from it is to cut fabric…but not how you might think. Oh sure, it…

Let the games begin! The extrusion arrived this afternoon; the build will begin in earnest this weekend. Cameron is not the most effusive person but he did admit to being excited after dragging the delivery into the garage and declaring that the laser will be “a beast!” I’m attaching photos and video for the benefit…

Parcels of all sizes have been landing on our porch for over a week now; UPS, FedEx, and Amazon drivers must have a flash of “what are these people DOING” as they stop at our address daily. The coolest element to me is the actual laser head (the orange gizmo on the table). I had…

Cameron and I are both makers; my primary hobby is sewing and textile art/mixed media while Cameron’s interests are sprawling. We have both been interested in investing in a laser cutter for several years but after an exhaustive search of lasers one can buy “off the shelf” we were unable to find one that met…