Home Metalshop:

I have the space for a shop, and was thinking that it would be a wood working shop -- the universal suburban default. After introspection, however, I realized that I'm more interested in robotics than furniture and cabnetry. I looked into purchasing mills, drills, and lathes, but realized that I didn't have a project.

So, I thought to turn the hobby into its own learning project.

Looking around at home metalworking equipment, I don't see anything that does Electro Discharge Machining (EDM). EDM is a very flexible way to manufacture nearly arbitrary shapes in almost any electrically conductive material. It requires electronics (no problem), computer programming (no problem), space (no problem), and mechanical construction (maybe a problem).

Unlike cutting metal with grinders or tungsten-carbide cutting tools, the mechanical forces are more limited. This means that I am more likely to be able to build something that is accurate enough to be useful.

I'm investigating ... and investigating. It may come to nothing, but it is a good organizing principal to use for exploring.

I have a project! A Stewart Platform. A Stewart Platform is a 6 degree of freedom positioning device which is better than standard X/Y/Z tables and gantries because the loads are all either tension or compression -- no bending forces are applied to the actuators.

Follow the Stewart Platform progress from the projects page.

I've gotten some new tools:

Email me with comments, criticisms, suggestions, or whatever.