My Makerbot came in and I got it built. The first three prints I attempted came out perfect, then it was nothing but trouble for a week. Last Sunday I got it working again.

I posted a bunch of pictures on Flickr and uploaded one design to Thingiverse.

You'll notice the filename on the light bracket I uploaded to Thingiverse has the number three in it. If you browse through the Flickr set, you can see the two failed design attempts.

(BTW: I'm sitting in a room with three making Makerbots, one idle one with a Frostruder, and one kit being built, none of them mine. That's what happens on craft night at NYC Resistor.)

I attended a class on Bioelectricty tonight and got to make a do-it-yourself ECK circuit on a breadboard. This screenshot is the bioelectric signals my circuit detected when I stuck three electrodes on my chest.

Very cool, no?

I'm thinking I'll head over to NYC Resistor tomorrow for craft night. I'll probably take my Arduino and see what I come up with.

Give me a month or so -- I will very likely be space-constrained in my new location, but I'll definitely set up so I can keep working with Arduino in preparation for the arrival of my CupCake (Hmmm, I should probably call Makerbot and tell them not to ship that to Texas...)

In the meantime, I'm about halfway through putting together the robot arm I bought with the intention of wiring it to the Arduino. While I've been poking along, a friends son put it together in a few hours. Check out Abe's blog here and here

This sure beats the extension-cord-and-power-strip solution I had earlier. Plus, the overhead lights with CFLs are much better (and more effiicient) than the halogen worklight I had hanging on the wall.

Here's some pics, I've got two from Before and several After. If the PictoBrowser widget isn't working, you can view the set on Flickr

The computer under the workbench is a Shuttle case with a Celeron and 1GB Ram, running CentOS. I need to get a wireless router I can use as a gateway for it and any other ethernet-aware devices I bring in.

I'm excited to have a good place to work. For my first project, I'm going to assemble a Robot Arm and hook it up to my Arduino controler.

I debated building the shelves and bench -- that would certainly be more in line with "maker philosophy," but the deciding factor was I'm not sure how much longer I'll be living in this location and have access to this storage building. It'll be easier to move the bought shelves, and they would work just as well in an apartment spare bedroom or garage.

I got a deal on a workbench on clearance at Sears. After looking at Home Depot and the current stock at sears, I was dissapointed. Most of the workbench offerings were way overkill - tons of drawers and shelves. The clearance item I found has three drawers, a big flat top, and a backwall with pegboard and an fluorescent light fixture. Best part, it was 40% off.

I hope to finish putting the workbench together tonight, then I'll post some before and after pictures of my workshop conversion.

I used aluminum angle beams and hollow tubes with threaded rods and was able to build something that works. The only tools I needed were a standard drill and a hacksaw. I used 3/8" x 1/8" adhesive rubber weatherstripping to provide a no-slip surface that also protects the bottom of the laptop from being scratches by the bars. It keeps my laptop monitor in line with my other monitors, and clears up all the desk space under it.

If I recall correctly, I spent about $30 on parts - I bought some aluminum I didn't need. It took a couple hours to design and put together.

Here are some pictures:

It's going to be a challenge to get any real work done over the next few weeks if I'm stopping every few minutes to sketch out an idea for a quiz game controller or electronic big-screen Etch-a-Sketch.

• It's 10 feet by 12 feet, so I can stack all my boxes along one wall and have plenty of room left over.
• It's close enough to the house I can run electricity over from the GFCI-protected exterior outlets.
• I should have not problem getting wi-fi coverage from the routers in my living rooms.

It's going to take awhile to get the space ready to work. In the next feww weeks, I need to:

• Clean and organize. I'll need to build or buy some shelves and move all the boxes that are spread out in a 2-3 foot tall maze into a more orderly configuration along the right wall.
• I need to run the electricity out there. I've got a 50-foot box of 14-3 underground cable, and a GCFI-protected outlet close enough to use.
• After I get electricity, I'll need lights. I'm thinking a few CFLs should do it.
• Then I need to get my Shuttle PC set up. I already know where an extra 19" LCD and wall mount are, just need to track down a keyboard, mouse, and wifi adapter.
• Oh yeah, I need to build or buy a workbench.
• I desperately need to clean out and organize my tool chest and various tool bags. That'll probably take the better part of a Saturday.

Then we're good to go. By that time, the Arduino will have arrived and I can start working on the tutorial projects. I won't be surprised if I'm barely ready with the workshop by the time the CupCake ships.

So I just ordered a CupCake CNC kit. If all goes well at MakerBot industries, I'll be getting my kit at the end of March. I can't wait.

In the meantime, I don't want to just sit around waiting and reading about what other people are making, so I also orderer an Arduino starter kit from Adafruit Industries. That way, I can go ahead and start learning about microcontroller programming.

I'd love to use the CupCake to make parts for Ardruino-powered robots. I'll chronicle the journey -- and the inevitable side-trips -- here.