Model #808 continues to make steady (if slow) progress. I had some prototypes machined from aluminum by a fantastic machine shop, Cantabrigian Mechanics. They are gorgeous, if I may say so myself. Take a look:
The prototype at the top of the picture was bead-blasted, then anodized in black. The one at the bottom of the picture was anodized in black and engraved with lettering, which I then infilled with red. Actually, only the top piece in the bottom prototype was anodized black; if you look carefully you can see the un-anodized bottom piece. I wanted to see what the different finishes and combinations looked like.
This is Rev. 12 and it’s been an amazing journey from Rev. 1. Along the way I’ve learned two CAD tools, OpenSCAD and Onshape; prototyped in ABS, PLA, nylon, and aluminum; built an FDM 3D printer; and tried a bizillion different internal mechanism ideas.
I also dove deep into the world of fonts to find what I was looking for: the machine shop typeface that we’re all used to seeing engraved on heavy equipment. It turns out that almost everyone (e.g., NASA, Boeing) used engraving machines from the Gorton and Graham Machine Co. Here’s a picture from one of their brochures. To my immense good fortune, the typeface has been recreated by a fellow named Josh Kraemer and it can be seen on his website here.
So all the pieces have fallen into place. I think this may be the final design and at this point I’m working with Cantabrigian on getting the dimensions exactly right so that the fit and feel are perfect. Getting closer, almost there!