Design a laser-cut Spirograph-like toy

The number of teeth on the outer ring and the inner gear determine the number of "points" on the resulting full drawing. When setting out to design a spirograph, I first fiddled around with a few different size rings and gears.  I found that, for a given ring and gear size, the number of "points" can be determined by dividing the least common multiple (LCM) of the number of teeth on each of the two elements (ring and gear), divided by the number of teeth on the gear.*  

Using this equation you can make a spreadsheet with columns as ring sizes and rows as gear sizes to help you choose the numbers of teeth for the elements of your toy.

Excel has a function for least common multiple, and thus it's easy to write a formula this purpose:

=LCM(B$1,$A2)/$A2

where B1 contains the number of teeth in the outer ring and A2 contains the number of teeth on the gear; see the screenshot.  

...Or just download the Excel file below.

As you might expect, for rings with a prime number of teeth, the number of points is always that number.  For gears which have a prime number of teeth, they result in designs with a number of points equal to the number of teeth in the ring.

* Perhaps this value has another name, but I'm no mathematician; please let me know if there's a more simple name.

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Design showcase cabinet (hacking IKEA style)

While I was searching for a nice showcase cabinet, I noticed that all the cabinets that I liked are really expensive. So the maker in me came up with this idea.
This cabinet is made from four IKEA pränt boxes, one IKEA dioder. The rest was just stuff that I already had.Materials:
4 IKEA pränt boxes 1 IKEA dioder (lights) 1 old standing lamp some pipes glass 1 castor wheel

Tools:
drill glass cutter ruler hammer

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Fractal Design Node 605 Silent HTPC Case Review

Legit Case Reviews

Fractal Design is a fairly new company that you may or may not be familiar with. They’re based in Sweden, and probably best known for their stylish PC cases. Fractal Design feels they are a great alternative to other similar products, so we’ll be taking a look at their latest and greatest HTPC case

The Node 605 (FD-CA-NODE-605-BL) is primarily designed with a media center in mind, but could easily be used for other applications. Unlike the Node 304, which was a shuttle style HTPC case, the Node 604 is traditional in case shape and size, while still being relatively light weight and sturdy.

Fractal’s Node 605 only comes in black, but it looks extremely sexy, especially with that black aluminum front. This case will set you back $150.47 shipped on Amazon, which is not exactly entry level pricing, but is still fairly affordable.

ATX, microATX, Mini ITX, DTX motherboard compatibility7 expansion slots4 - supports either 2.5" or 3.5" HDD / SSD1 slim-line ODD (only supported with mATX or smaller motherboards)PSU compatibility: 180 mm (including any modular connectors) with both hard drive cages mounted or 190 mm (excluding cables and any modular connectors) with one hard drive cage mountedCPU cooler compatibility: Approx 125mm with side-mounted fans - For coolers with top-mounted fans,Fractal Design recommends that you add at least 30 mm clearance for decent airflowCase dimensions (W x H x D): 445 x 164 x 349 mm (17.52 x 6.46 x 13.74 in)Net weight: 6 kg (13.23 lbs)

As you can see from the specifications, you can run anything from a full sized ATX board to a MicroATX board. This provides a ton of flexibility and helps hit a broad range of different users. One other thing that you will notice between the Node 304 and 605 is the inclusion of an optical disk drive bay (ODD). Unfortunately this bay will require a slim-line ODD, which if you only have a standard sized drive handy, it will force you to spend a few more bucks on your HTPC setup. It’s not a huge deal breaker, as you could pick up something like a Panasonic UJ240 on Amazon for $53.98 shipped.

Even though there isn't much in terms of moving parts or things that could break on this case, Fractal Design has a full 1 year warranty on the Node 605, which is a nice piece of mind.

Next up we’ll dig into the packaging and see how well Fractal Design accounted for the punishment of shipping companies.

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