WoodMarvels Blog

News and happenings within WoodMarvels.com

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  • About a week ago, I got a testimonial from Stephane who completed our free Mobile Crane and now he has sent me one for the Full Armor Gear Transporter! What’s even cooler is that he created a really attractive and neat pincer for the Mobile Crane which you can see in the pictures as well (more on that later). Here’s the testimonial!
    —————————
    Hi Jon,
    The crane (another of the first) will be modified with a self made design of pincer (10 pieces [...]

  • I got a testimonial from Matthew who ordered both the WoodMarvels.com free Medieval Castle Walls and the EPS file for the Medieval Castle Walls B – using both he created a model that was made uniquely for his child. Below are the pictures and testimonial. This testimonial made me especially proud because a child had a very unique toy built by his father using designs I made… which meant a lot!
    ———————
    (I blurred the kid’s faces in the pictures)
    Hi Jon,
    Well the [...]

  • Wooden Mobile Crane Picture - turned

    If you look a little on the WoodMarvels.com, you will find that there are a few PDF blueprints that are free – not just my first version of my Medieval Castle Walls.
    I got an order about a week ago from Stephane which included one such free model, the first version of my Mobile Crane and Stephane was kind enough to send me pictures of the completed model along with a great testimonial of how it went.
    ——————
    Sorry for my English… I [...]

  • Here’s is a testimonial regarding a physical laser cut kit ordered just before Christmas:
    I have finished making the straddle carrier – it was great fun and went very well. As your website says it assembles pretty easily and the finished product is amazing considering it comes out of one piece of plywood. I am very impressed with the concept. I will show it to a few people and see if I can come up with some more orders [...]

  • I just found a picture of our wooden Brontosaurus looking out from the Ponoko head office in New Zealand! I wonder what it’s thinking? I’ll tell you in a few weeks time…

    Brontosaurus Assembly Animation
    You can find this brontosaur and many other dinosaurs at WoodMarvels.com under Theme / Pre-Historic / Dinosaurs.

    Buzvia: http://img36.yfrog.com/i/r1om.jpg/, Ponoko.com

  • HomeWorkshop.com picked their favorite designs among the thousands found on Ponoko and decided our serving table was worthy of recognition. Here’s the animation.

    Read the blog article by HomeWorkshop.com

Wooden Mars Rovers: Wooden Caster Wheels

Posted by Jon On January - 26 - 2010 2 Comments
Solid axle, free flowing inner and outer wheel

While I’m waiting for my latest project to finish rendering, which will be sometime tomorrow – I began working on a very complicated model that I’m sure will be by far the most complex things I’ve designed so far.
A wooden version of the Spirit / Opportunity Rovers currently residing on Mars. As my only material is wood (by choice) and all my parts must be cut out of 2D – I think this is a great opportunity to really challenge [...]

Baliste Siege Weapon: New Product Launch

Posted by Jon On January - 15 - 2010 0 Comment
Simpler yet more powerful than the Mangonel!

I’m happy to announce the released of the WoodMarvels Baliste Siege Weapon, I think out of all the siege weapons I’ve designed, this is by far the most powerful as the elastic band is stretched out by a lot from the start and more can easily be added.
This Baliste also borrows very heavily from the design I made for the Mangonel but I can better appreciate the design process now that I’ve made one myself as to what people though [...]

R. Wallace Straddle Carrier B Testimonial

Posted by Jon On January - 12 - 2010 0 Comment

Here’s is a testimonial regarding a physical laser cut kit ordered just before Christmas:
I have finished making the straddle carrier – it was great fun and went very well. As your website says it assembles pretty easily and the finished product is amazing considering it comes out of one piece of plywood. I am very impressed with the concept. I will show it to a few people and see if I can come up with some more orders [...]

Optimizing EPS files to other board sizes

Posted by Jon On January - 9 - 2010 1 Comment

As you may have noticed, I’ve optimized the EPS files on this site to generally fit either 18.4cm square, 38.4cm square or 38.4cmx 79cm. The main reason for this is because our laser cutting supplier, Ponoko, uses these sizes.
I do of course realize that other laser cutters have different board sizes, so if you wish to have something optimized at a different size, 50cm x 50cm for instance – the easiest thing to do is to ask me to do [...]

I made that? Wow!

Posted by Jon On January - 6 - 2010 Comments Off

I’m filling in an application form for a very special program I’m hoping to get myself into and part of the process is submitting some of my past work. In all honesty, I rarely go back and view the work I have done as no matter how much I did in the past, the queue in my mind looking forward is just as endless.
I remember a comment on the forum that didn’t like me “advertising” a few days ago that [...]

New WoodMarvels Blog Design

Posted by Jon On January - 5 - 2010 Comments Off

I’ve decided to update the design of the WoodMarvels Blog, one because the old one would cut half an inch off the videos I posted here and more importantly… change is good I think I want to get away from “wood” looking designs and more into “light” (meaning prism/laser) multi-colored ones as my stuff is focused mostly on lasers to begin with and rainbows are more colorful than oak
The main WoodMarvels.com site is due for a [...]

Naming mistake: Onager VS Mangonel

Posted by Jon On January - 3 - 2010 Comments Off

I just realized that I made a slight mistake in my naming conventions regarding my Onager series of siege weapons. I’ve research the topic in a little more detail and from what I can see, an Onager uses a sling approach with a hanging “sack” of stuff at the end of a long pole while the Mangonel uses a static rod that looks like a big spoon to project materials, so what I was really designing were Mangonels, not Onagers.
What [...]

Onager B Siege Weapon: New Product Launch

Posted by Jon On January - 3 - 2010 Comments Off

I’m happy to announce the release of a far more powerful and stronger Onager Siege Weapon, version B! After I completed work on the first version of my Onager, I immediately wanted to make one that was more capable in every way, from customizing the power of the catapult for the material about to be thrown to the general look being far more rugged. Oddly enough, now that I’ve made two of these, I have even more ideas on how [...]

I think I’m really starting to itch some people in the wood industry the wrong way… and I’m happy about it!
Background
A few days ago I got a Google Alert that somebody thought my designs here at WoodMarvels.com were cool so I clicked on the link and more than half of the comments after the forum post were negative! They where saying things that were not even true such as my site charging 15$ for digital downloads, my designs didn’t work [...]

WoodMarvels 2009 Year in Review

Posted by Jon On December - 29 - 2009 Comments Off

Believe it or not, I started WoodMarvels a little over two years ago but wow has it changed and grown! I’m very proud at what I’ve managed to do in such a short amount of time, I use to be happy when I’d get an order once a week but now, I get them daily. Traffic is up and even better… my ability to design has shot-up dramatically though with the associated rendering slowdown as things got more involved.
So, what [...]