We always enjoy seeing our products being modified, revamped and DIY-ed, as well as the results of these transformations.
Our customer Vera Kark provided us with some thoughtful feedback on adding mechanical tweaks to improve our Solar GraviTrack build and documentation. She also painted the brown MDF of the machine. She used tempera paint on the wood components still in panelized form, and the GraviTrack's performance seemed to be unaffected.
The GraviTrack looks great in vibrant jewel tone colours, however, we do not recommend applying paint to the hand mechanism itself. You can paint the base and the rails, avoiding the hand mechanism completely. The moisture and the thickness of the paint might affect the precise tolerances of the moving parts, and will interfere with its proper functioning. Another relatively safe option might be felt tip marker since the moisture from alcohol evaporates quickly.
Photos & video by Vera Kark
P.S. Also, a particularly bad idea is painting your GraviTrackafter the assembly is completed. Even though we were using a very watered down acrylic paint, the mechanism seized up the moment the paint became sticky. Don't be like us. Take care of your GraviTrack.
Here's a few links to a workshop spear-headed by ScottyDogma in Vancouver, B.C. Some impressive work done using servos, BIOBug motors, some wooden spacer blocks and lots of soldering! Nice job, guys. Pics and movies: http://www3.telus.net/dogmabots Full Size (1344 x 1008, 500-700K) http://www.davehylands.com/VRC-BEAM-Workshop/index.html Half-Size (672 x 504, 100-150K) http://www.davehylands.com/VRC-BEAM-Workshop/Thumb-B/index.html
Wednesday, the boring ol' hump of the week. What better way to pull through than with some distractions? Here's our latest batch of neat-o internet distract-o thingers: Sylvan Lake Robotics Club Looking for Members If you're around the Sylvan Lake area and what to dip your toes into the big ol' pond that is robotics, […]
I love MAKE magazine. I always enjoy reading (then trying) the projects in each magazine. I was a bit disappointed in their last issue where they didn't cover the complete process to make gunpowder, but that's a minor complaint. I just noticed on their blog that they're talking about our Solar Pendulum kit and Christopher […]
The Calgary Comic Expo starts this week! If you have not bought your tickets yet, you can do so by clicking here. Keep updated on our Facebook and Instagram for live streams and media coverage of the event! Our booth is #1113.
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Warning: This product contains chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and birth defects or other reproductive harm. Please visit www.P65Warnings.ca.gov for more information. This item was manufactured prior to August 31, 2018.