Big Blue Saw Blog

General Updates

Audio Control Panel By Mystery Engineer

Details: Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: Thursday, 01 December 2016 16:56; Written by Simon Arthur

We received these photos from an engineer who, rather enigmatically, wishes to remain anonymous. So we can't tell you who he is.

We can tell you that this assembly was waterjet cut from 1/16 inch thick aluminum 6061, with Basic Finish applied. The front panel was painted white by our mystery maker.

There are 3 waterjet cut pieces: the front, back, and inner shelf.

The shelf is held in place using angle aluminum, as you can see in the photos below. (I would have suggested using nutstrip instead, as it saves the trouble of making a custom angle bracket.)

The front and back are held together with long standoffs. You can read about this and more types of assembly on our Construction Techniques page.

Have you created control panels you'd like to share? Let us know!

Ed's BB-8 Drive Now On Astromech Parts Page

Details: Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: Wednesday, 09 November 2016 20:13; Written by Simon Arthur

BB8drive

We've had a number of customers over the past year building their very own BB-8 astromech droid. One of the more popular designs for the internal drive mechanism comes from Edsjunk.net. We have had a number of other people inquiring about the design, but who haven't had the complete design ready for our online quoting and ordering system. So with Ed's permission, we've added all of the drive parts as a single design to our Astromech Droid Parts page.

If you are building a BB-8 style droid, be sure to review Ed's BB-8 Build Guide. You should also stop by the BB-8 Builders Club and review the forum thread on building based on Ed's design.

Ed has a lot of other interesting projects and information for makers on his website as well. I was especially impressed by his system for hardware and wire organization.

You can see in the video below how the whole thing comes together.

Check out all of the Astromech part designs on the Astromech example parts page. And if you're building your own droid with parts from Big Blue Saw, be sure to let us know!

Custom Stainless Steel Parts On Sale November 7-9

Details: Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: Friday, 04 November 2016 18:18; Written by Super User

Starting Monday, November 7, Big Blue Saw is having a sale on stainless steel parts made from your designs. During the sale, all 304 stainless steel parts parts in 0.25 inch and 0.12 inch thickness ordered through our online quoting and ordering system will automatically receive a quantity discount. The sale ends on Wednesday, November 9.

Big Blue Saw's waterjet cutting process can turn your ideas into real stainless steel parts. If you've never ordered from Big Blue Saw before, this is a great time to try out our service.

Stainless steel number 7, custom waterjet cut with simulated bevel.

If you're making a a sign, control panel, or anything that needs to look good, you'll love stainless steel 304's luxurious appearance. Its corrosion resistance makes it a good choice for stencils and anything subjected to corrosive environments like cookware, the outside of a vehicle, or outdoors.

Stainless steel bottle openers.

Stainless steel Cobra brake brackets.

In addition, its toughness and density makes stainless steel 304 a great choice for fighting robot armor or drum weapons.

Stainless steel butterfly with Basic Finish.

Stainless steel 304 is non-magnetic and is sometimes referred to as "18/8 stainless" because it typically contains about 18% chromium and 8% nickel.

Stainless steel trivet links.

Stainless steel number 8 with simulated bevel.

Keep in mind that parts ordered during the sale will take a little longer to ship than our regular orders. We make great prices possible during the sale by gathering up all sale orders and cutting them at the same time. We expect sale orders to start shipping around November 17.

Stainless steel wedding cake topper.

Don't wait! Get started by uploading your design to our online quoting system now.

Stainless steel sale coming November 7-9

Details: Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: Friday, 28 October 2016 20:45; Written by Super User

Here's an early heads up: Big Blue Saw will be having a sale Monday, November 7 through Wednesday, November 9 on stainless 304 in 0.12" and 0.25" thickness. This is for custom waterjet cut parts. Get your designs ready now.

Wine Cork Trivet with Made To Order Stainless Steel Links

Details: Parent Category: Big Blue Saw Blog; Created: Friday, 28 October 2016 18:50; Written by Super User

Ian Ward wrote in recently to show us the wine cork trivet he made with custom parts from Big Blue Saw plus off the shelf hardware.

The metal links were waterjet cut by Big Blue Saw from 1/8 inch thick stainless steel 304 from Ian's design.

Ian says "The water jet cut parts saved me a lot of cutting, drilling and grinding, thanks."

Got a design or idea you would like to turn into real stainless steel parts? Read more about how Big Blue Saw works.