Beta Testing the Engravinator, Part 1

Anyone who knows me is aware that I'm an extremely (if not completely consistent!) backer of Open Source and Free Software.  That's one of the major reasons why I work for Red Hat.  Given this, I'm a frequent contributor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (and you should be, too!), to Wikipedia, and I just signed up for a monthly contribution to the Internet Archive.  What all of these things have in common is that they are part of the larger Free Culture movement.  I'm also a passionate maker-of-things, and a heavy user of 3D printing, and occasionally of CNC wood and metal cutting.

All of that is a rather long-winded way of explaining my significant interest in the Engravinator.  The Engravinator is an Open Source hardware project that was started, in 2018, by my fellow Red Hatter, Adam Haile.  You can read his blog here, where he discusses the various other projects that he has created.  I met Adam at the second East Coast RepRap Fesival (ERRF), back in October.  He was showing his prototype laser engraver, and I was immediately impressed with the quality and thoughtful engineering that had clearly gone into the device.

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So. Freaking. Excited. Nearly a year of work and the not-so-secret project is ready for launch! Say hello to @TheEngravinator! The most orange and compact diode-laser engraver around. Come check it out at #ERRF2019 ⠀ https://buff.ly/2ocEcaa⠀ #laser #3Dprinted #engraver #cnc

A post shared by Maniacal Labs (@maniacallabs) on Oct 1, 2019 at 7:31am PDT

So, when Adam told me that there was a beta test group being set up, to test out the process for building the machine, I jumped at the opportunity.  After an amazingly quick kitting process, where Adam was inundated with parts, he finished the kits over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Mine arrived on December 3rd, and I quickly realized that I had forgotten to print the required 3D-printed parts!  I finished the first set (the core components) early this morning (in Prusament Galaxy Black, perfect for a Baltimore Orioles fan!), and I think that they came out amazingly well:

I'm now running the print for the electronics enclosure, on my Prusa i3 Mk2.5, and am hoping to finish all the prints by late, tonight:

If you're as excited as I am about this project, join the forum, and discuss this amazing project with the rest of us!