Will have an interesting big update for you all in the next few days. Stay tuned!
Muahahaha!
Not dead
March 5th, 2010Jan 9th LondonFur meet..
January 6th, 2010..not gonna be there. I’m behind on orders, and I want to get them done and shipped. In addition the last of my PU-elastomer’s gone bad, so I’ll be short on cash from ordering a new batch. It’s the most expensive of all the resins I use, and also the most temperamental in that it’s near impossible to degas.
The way I’m thinking right now is that if people want custom-coloured paw pads, they’ll have to wait until I open a fresh tin of the elastomer to do a big batch of the standard colour rubber items.
Which means I’m going to need to make more moulds. A lot more moulds.
More news as it comes. Suffice to say, February is going to be a busy month for re-tooling and re-planning.
Whew, dusty..
December 9th, 2009The new heated cabinet is mostly assembled now, and gained half a cubic meter or so of storage space. I’ll have to pick up some aluminium angle to make a shelf support frame and shelf runners, the cut up some of the steel mesh I have sitting around. But until then I’ll be able to find something to sit inside it I’m sure.
All those years of gathering up odds and ends have really been coming right this past few months.
Oh, I think I’ve figured out the new gallery scheme to work with here, though it’ll mean re-tagging everything. Remember kids, save time in the long run; just do it right first time!
Site edits
December 9th, 2009You may notice the various image galleries are a bit all over the place for the next few days. I’m messing around with some NextGEN Gallery options and image categories.
I’m also editing the category tags and static pages to make the site a bit easier to navigate.
Still aiming to have everything 100% for newyears.
LondonFurs Xmas Party and beyond
December 9th, 2009Had a great time at the party over the weekend, and sold quite a few glowsticks to those more neon partygoers. Shame I couldn’t hang around for long into the dance, but had another event to get off to!
More works
Xmas is rushing up, and I’m pushing to complete changes for newyears. This week I’m all stocked up on melamine chipboard, and rebuilding the heated cabinet. As some of you know the cold weather is my biggest bottleneck right now, with the temperature in the workshop low enough that the resins won’t set properly. Not an issue if I’m in there with the heater on, but a problem for those resins that need to be left overnight or longer.
I already store the raw chemicals in a heated cabinet to prevent them from decay, but it’s not large enough to fit setting materials in as well. In the next couple of days that should change!
Pre-Xmas catchup
December 2nd, 2009Well Christmas is only three weeks away now, and I’m a busy little elf.
Most of the time since my last update has unfortunately been spent ill, so very little has gotten done. This past week and a half though I’ve finally been feeling better, so orders have started to roll out again! I’m really very sorry for the delay. Please check the Order Status page to see if I’ve gotten to yours yet. If not, it shouldn’t be long now!
During my downtime I had a few extra suggestions from those holding at safe distance, so the new year will see some changes in pricing and stock that should get orders out in much better time from here on.
I will be creating a stock of claws in the base colours (Black, white, red, green, orange, red, yellow and unpigmented) in standard packs of ten. These will follow the same basic pricing scheme as ever, based in per-claw by size (£10, £11 and £12). However I will be implementing an as-yet-undecided surcharge for non-standard quantities, and the prices for customisations will be going up a little.
In short, I won’t be treating every order like a custom job. The result will be the actual custom orders will get the extra attention they need and the standard orders will be shipped right away from a held stock.
And this will of course make implementing the site shop at long last a lot easier.
You may also notice I’ve added a couple of extra links to the “buy at” menu.
Spreadshirt is a print-on-demand clothing company. And if laying feverishly in bed is good for one thing, it’s crazy scrawlings to go on Tshirts. Expect some fun designs to show up there soon.
Etsy is a shopping forum for selling hand-made and custom items. I on occasion produce a bit of jewelery or something aesthetically pleasing, and will from here on be listing them through there.
And Lulu is probably one of the best known print-on-demand publishers, and while I do have some longer-term ideas about writing, they also allow you to produce other items like calenders and compilation CDs.
For each of the above they’ll be notifications through this site, so please subscribe to the RSS feed for those and other more esoteric updates.
RBW Redux
November 12th, 2009So yes, I got back from RBW fine. I thought I’d dodged the bullet that is con-crud, but no! A week later it kicks in and my voice vanishes into husky croaks.
That said, RBW was a great time. Last year it all came apart at the seams, so people were hesitant to come back this year. But the new staff and change of venue have pulled it all back together into a very professional con, which I (and I’m sure MANY more) will be attending again next year.
Sales went pretty well, and had a few orders for the new rubber paw-pads. Glowsticks before the boat party sold very well, though some people waited until we were actually ON the boat to ask about buying some. Unfortunately I left my dealers table in the Dealers Den, so I guess I missed an opportunity there.
The robot also got a warm reception, being dubbed alternately Heineken, Keg-9, and K9’s alcoholic cousin. There was even an offer to buy him, but I want the satisfaction of having him work first. Well technically he does work, it just turned out his remote control didn’t.
It was also great to meet so many new people as well as see and hear of the wonderful works other people are working on.
Anyway, new casting supplies were ordered and have now arrived, as well as a preserved coyote skull with some excellent teeth. I’ll be making replicas of it’s teeth for sale soon.
Oh, I’ve added a fixed status page to the site so people who’ve ordered at cons or who have other commissions with me, can keep track of them. It’s very rough at the moment, but I’ll be tidying it up shortly.
I’ll be at the upcoming LondonFurs Xmas party on the 5th, selling some of my remaining glowsticks. I’m also trying to revive an old idea I had called the Fandom Trade Association, which is much more informal than it sounds. News on that as it develops.
RBW Tomorrow!
October 29th, 2009The “Rather Brilliant Weekend” starts tomorrow! If you’re attending, please come find me in the Dealers Den. I’ll be trading there each of the 3 days the con runs.
There’s a dance every night, so I’ve stocked up on glowsticks. 600 of them. The thin 8″ ones are 30p and the thick 6″ ones are 80p. So please come and buy a few, I’d love to sell out of them!
They’ll also be displays of the cast claws and paw-pads which I’ll be taking orders for, packs of face/body paint crayons, emergency repair kits, and I’ll be taking sketches and commissions.
Here’s my advert for the con-book. Hoping it made it in!
(it’s made 70’s movie style to be inkeeping with the con’s theme)
A sad note is that since making the advert, my sewing machine has seized up, so the emergency repair station is out for the time being. The robot is also throwing up some issues with it’s power supply, so we’ll see if he comes along or not.
There’s still a whole day to go, and anything could happen in the next half hour!
Back in the saddle
October 18th, 2009It’s been a little while since the last site update. My bad! I really need to config a desktop client just for updating here!
I’ve been a busy boy though. The new workbench got done and is just perfect for what I needed. I’ve been abusing it’s poor new surfaces quite heavily, pushing a lot of smaller projects out of the way quickly.
Also the new vacuum degassing chamber is complete and running! I had my phone on me when I first ran it up, so got a little bit of footage.
Excuse the stilted tone of voice, I’d been up for a little while!
And what am I currently making in that chamber? Claws!
Pricing is as follows:
- Small has a base price of £1, Medium is £1.10 and Long is £1.20.
- For stripes add 50p per claw per extra colour.
- For glow in the dark add 75p per claw (this premium quality glow powder is expensive. Supply of Green is in stock, other colours will need time to order in, may require minimum order and may not glow as brightly as the green).
- To have an LED mounted add 50p per claw. Can be clear or translucent. Add 10p extra per for translucent colour (advised, diffuses colour better).
- To have the claws made in rubber (good for footpaws) add 50p per claw.
- Clear or translucent claws with other fillings are negotiable.
I’ve also got some lucky person getting a set of the pre-production sets of rubber paw pads. Muahaha. 
Other things acheived have included some forrays into robotics, but for the most part the rest of the time has been some minor commission work, knocking down walls and fixing coffee machines.
Oh, if you’ve bought items from me before, I’d love to see some pictures of them in action! Just email them to me at sci@starborneworks.com
Also, RBW is less than 2 weeks away now! Time to get busy!
On fixing Wacom tablets..
July 5th, 2009Last week, for the second time in several months, I found myself soldering a Wacom tablet. They’ve very nicely made items, but I suppose it’s no surprises the only parts that wear out are the mechanical ones. In these cases, the USB cables.
Perhaps I’m missing something, but the cable Wacom use seems rather cheap. It’s very thin and tightly bound inside. And it always breaks internally right at the point where it enters the tablet casing. There is some strain relief there, but it doesn’t seem to be enough.
The fix is fairly simple: Cut off a few inches of the cable and solder it back together. Or if you can fit a heavier duty cable in, replace the cable entirely. I also hot-glue it in place as much as possible to provide extra strain relief to the cable.
I feel I should let everyone know about a design quirk that almost scuppered the last repair however.
It was a repair as a favour for a friend on a big Intuos 1, GD model. The cable connects conveniently close to where it leave the casing so there was no awkward snaking of wires through it to deal with, unlike the Graphire 3 I fixed last time.
The point of note though is the foil flap stuck to the inside of the upper surface. It’s there as a shield.
After the fix and it was all reassembled, the tablet wouldn’t work. At one point it tripped the safety on my 2.5Amp powered hub!
Wires were re-soldered several times, until we finally took to plugging it in and re-assembling it “live”. The moment the upper surface went in place it stopped responding. It’s about then we realised the foil flap doesn’t just sit on top of the electronics, it wraps around behind it too! The inner surface of the flap is insulated, the outside is not. We were lucky not to fry it.
Slipped it under the board, holding the upper surface open before easing it all into place, and it all worked fine. Phew!
So for anyone else repairing a Wacom tablet; watch where you put your foil flaps.
