On Tuesday July 1st 2014 we are closed for Canada Day. We will return to our regular phone calls answering and shipping next day on Wednesday. Happy 147th birthday, Canada.
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 GraviTrack after 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.
A portrait of a sad stuck GraviTrack
On Tuesday July 1st 2014 we are closed for Canada Day. We will return to our regular phone calls answering and shipping next day on Wednesday. Happy 147th birthday, Canada.
The America Solar Challenge finishes here in Calgary tomorrow (July 27) betweein 11 and 3:30pm! The teams are coming up over McKnight Blvd., which isn't far from our offices. We'll be out watching them go by for a few hours tomorrow, so if the phones don't get answered for a bit, you'll know why. Go […]
Every year a group of my friends have an engineering Secret Santa. The rules are simple: make something cool for under $20 that requires engineering to complete. In years past we’ve seen Google cardboard VR headsets that are 6DOF, match stick rockets, 3D printed fans that explode when used, 3D printed rockets with cardboard launch […]
Don't expect too much productivity out of Solarbotics in the next 11 days as the Calgary Stampede commences tomorrow morning with the annual parade. The boss (me, Dave) is giving the morning off to the staff to see the festivities, so we'll be open at 1pm Friday July 8. As for the better part of […]
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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.