Projects

Freezer Burn is an Alberta Regional Burning Man celebration annually creating a temporary community out on the prairie. A few of us here at Solarbotics attend, and having access to all of the neat technology, we make an effort to bring special projects to the festival. Lit up projects work well since the event is outdoors and almost no artificial lighting is present. We made a special badge for our theme camp and wanted to share how it was made since it was a straightforward build, but it used a few neat effects worth mentioning.

Read more…Freezer Burn 2017 Pendant

We’ve been researching a manufacturer for a shiny new product we are working on (shhh, don’t tell anyone and stay tuned for the reveal!). What we have been looking for is a metal spinner. Metal spinning, also known as spin forming, spinning, or metal turning most commonly, is a metalworking process by which a disc of metal is rotated at high speed and formed into an axially symmetric part. Spinning can be performed by hand or by CNC lathe.

After doing lots and lots (and some more!) of internet browsing we came across Sieg’s Manufacturing (pronounced /seɪdʒ/). It is a family-operated shop that has been in business for more than 40 years and is located in Langley, British Columbia. It is one of only a few companies on the west coast who spin metal, serving most of Western Canada and the north western quadrant of USA. Being the closest manufacturer to us other than a random Hutterite colony in the middle of nowhere, it was worth a flight to Vancouver to check them out. So our emissary hopped on a plane for a day trip and brought back some stories.

Read more…Metal Spinning Field Trip