From our customer Rubbergunner comes this fantastic device. It's the first rubber band gun I've ever seen that's capable of fully automatic fire. It's the perfect weapon for holding off a horde of zombie officemates.
Here's a video with some more details about the construction of the MagMek-18, as well as a shout out to Big Blue Saw. We salute you, Rubbergunner!
Did you know that on this week in 1960, physicist Theodore Maiman of the Hughes Research Laboratories fired the very first laser? Maiman's laser was created with a ruby crystal and energized by a flash tube.
We can't think of a better way to celebrate than with a sale on laser cutting! (And, just for fun, waterjet cutting, too.) On Tuesday, May 17, and Wednesday, May 18, we are discounting parts made from two of our most popular materials: 0.25 (1/4) inch thick aluminum 6061 and 0.236 inch (6 mm) thick clear acrylic plastic. During the sale, setup charges will be drastically reduced so that you can get great savings on small orders. For instance, you can save big on aluminum parts: our "butterfly" example part will cost only $10.20 for a single part, an 87% savings off the regular cost! To get started: upload a part design, design a new part, or learn more about Big Blue Saw.
Just place your order online from Tuesday, May 17, 2011 through Wednesday, May 18, 2011 to receive the discounted price.
After a few years of hosting the Big Blue Saw newsletter on our own infrastructure, we finally decided to let the real professionals at MailChimp handle this for us instead. If you've ever tried to run your own mailing list, you know what an incredible pain it can be dealing with bounced e-mails, mail servers going down, and the like.
I wish Big Blue Saw was half as easy and fun as MailChimp; so you should check it out even if you don't want an e-mail newsletter. And really, if you're running a small business or even just want to send out announcements to your personal fan club, it's a good idea to set one up. I'll post more info about my experiences with MailChimp once a couple newsletters have gone out.
If you're already on the old mailing list, you should be on the new mailing list. If you weren't on our old mailing list, or want to verify that you're going to receive the new mailing list, sign up below. We've got a couple great announcements coming up next week that subscribers will hear about first, including:
The dates of our next sale.
An upcoming promotion where you can refer a friend to Big Blue Saw and earn discounts for both of you.
Grant Jones of MAISON Atlanta recently contacted us to laser cut the clear acrylic discs for the very architectural egg shown here. It's a demo egg to promote an egg decorating contest being held to benefit Atlanta Cotillion and AID Atlanta. First place prize is a trip and hotel for 2 to New York.
The competitors' eggs will be on display from May 14 - May 27, 2011 at MAISON Atlanta (Grant can't win, unfortunately).
Big Blue Saw's Spectacular Spring Sale starts Monday, March 28. During the sale, we're offering big discounts on laser cutting and waterjet cutting of aluminum and plastic parts.
We are discounting parts made form two of our most popular materials: 0.125 (1/8) inch thick aluminum 6061 and 0.118 inch (3 mm) thick clear acrylic plastic. During the sale, setup charges will be drastically reduced so that you can get great savings on small orders. For instance, you can save big on aluminum parts: our "butterfly" example part will cost only $8.10 for a single part, a 90% savings off the regular cost!
Just place your order online from Monday, March 28, 2011 through Tuesday, March 29, 2011 to receive the discounted price.
Casey Kuhns, a Big Blue Saw customer for several years now, is an undergraduate in the physics department at the University of Northern Colorado. I recently spoke with Casey about various robotics and aerospace projects he has worked on, as well as the tools and techniques he has used for design and construction.
Casey on designing parts for laser and waterjet machining:
I really do like using... 2D profiles for a lot of my designs.
Mostly because it's just quick. Working at a machining center, it takes hours to set up your part: you machine it, you flip it, you machine it and it's real nice to just send out parts to waterjet or laser...
A lot of my designs for robots started as flat stock; I try to use that as often as possible.
I've really enjoyed working with [Big Blue Saw]. I've been a customer for quite some time... It was always a dream to just get things out. I've worked with other companies before you guys were around and I always kind of got this e-mail tag... It's real nice to be able to take a DXF or drawing file, throw it on the net, get an instant quote, put it in the cart, and be done with it. It's real easy to work with, especially [at] universities.
From the mind of Erik Laughlin comes this amazing robot he created for the Mech Warfare competition.
This robot was custom designed using using Autodesk Inventor 2011 and includes many black acetal parts laser cut by Big Blue Saw.
Erik tells us that this machine, called Draco_08, has 16 servo motors and took him about a year to design and build. Its impressive appearance is no doubt
due to Erik's background in sculpture.
Take a look at these fantastic videos of Draco_o8 in action:
I'm live blogging from the Ferst Center on the campus of Georgia Tech. One of my customers, Jamison Go (better known as Tony Stark/Iron Man), is up for the Inventure Prize. Watch the event on Georgia Public Broadcasting right now and vote for Team Velociryder for the People's Choice Award!
Text to VELO or 8356 to 22333 at the end of the show to vote.
