June / July laser team update
It’s been a busy few months for the laser cutter in the MakerSpace and you might have seen our work in unexpected places: hiding in the woods, hanging from trees or even round runners necks.
Dunblane Road Race 2023
The Dunblane road race is a popular annual event with 12km and 2km races winding through the countryside around Dunblane. For 2023 race, sponsor Weigh Ahead asked the MakerSpace to produce medals for the runners and after some brain storming the team came up with an eco-friendly solution.
Using storm felled branches from the local woods the team created laser etched race medallions using thin cross sections of the branches, sustainable, novel and no two were the same.
Dunblane Ecofest 2023
Dunblane Ecofest is an environmental awareness event which aims to answer your questions on saving energy, reducing waste, sustaining and protecting the environment.
The second year of the Ecofest saw a wider range of demonstrations and activities for all the family. We worked with the pupils of St Mary’s to turn their amazing illustrations of woodland animals into a set of wooden creatures for the EcoFest treasure hunt. The animals were cut from 13mm plywood with the illustrations etched on the front then painted for hanging around Dunblane
Laighills Heritage Orchard
A few months, back the Laighills Heritage Orchard reached out to the MakerSpace with a problem. The community orchard has a wide range of thriving fruit trees but the existing labelling options didn’t last long in the Scottish climate and it was hard to cover all the useful information.
MakerSpace members Peter and David have been working hard to come up with a solution to fit the orchards needs.
The final solution uses sustainable timber plaques, cut and etched on the laser cutter, functional, informative and they look great on the trees.
The project covered a wide range of skills, from coding a program to generate the sign layouts from a spreadsheet to experimenting with materials and treatments to find the most durable options. The new plaques are being installed in the orchard at the moment and have lots of useful information on the best use and season for picking the fruit, so check them out (and maybe snag some in-season apples!)
