Rapid Prototyping a Spray Nozzle for Makelangelo Venti

Two weeks ago I received, installed, and tested a 60 watt laser cutter from G. Weike. Within an hour the laser tube power supply died. Today I received the replacement and installed it in about 30 minutes. I cut my thumb and thought “blood for the lord of light!” Ah, Game of Thrones, the final boss before I quit TV forever…

Tuesday at VHS I used Solidworks to design a spray nozzle for the Makelangelo. When I design things I always ask myself “can you make 50 more of this?” I plan ahead so that every part I can either make or buy. Having a laser cutter in-house means the turnaround time for a design drops from weeks to minutes. It happened when I got the Prusa 3D printer, too.

I tried to print the design on paper, cut it from cardboard, and check the fit. Unfortunately the printer decided that I didn’t need 1:1 size – all the cardboard parts were about 12% too small.

Always bring two pieces of cardboard – the one you are cutting and the one you are putting under your cut. No point wrecking a good table when you don’t have to.

Today the very first thing I cut was a birch copy of the same parts and the fit is perfect. Tonight at VHS I’m going to test the nozzle. After that I’ll probably have to get bigger motors and some kind of timing belt to carry the weight of the can, as well as improve the DrawbotGUI software to handle the new nozzle.