His walking robot Scurrier, shown above, was beat by 1/100th of a second for second place in its category. In the autonomous fighting robot category, George's Decapitron took second.
Read more about Decapitron, Scurrier, and many other wonderful things at George's website.
Says the talented Mr. Collins regarding Big Blue Saw:
My robots are so much better now that I know how to cut parts. I used to make them from peanut tins and plastic shoe boxes. Thank you.
What cool things have you built with Big Blue Saw? Let us know in the comments section or by e-mailing
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
At Big Blue Saw, we try our best to give our customers what they want. Based on intense Facebook discussion, it's clear that our customers want aluminum 5052. So, we're proud to announce that we're putting it on sale this month, April 23 to 26, 2012.
Place your online order of 1/8 inch thick aluminum 5052 parts during the sale and you will automatically receive the discount normally reserved for orders of 100 pieces or more. If you only need to order 1 or 2 pieces, this means a savings of up to 70%! And, if you are new to Big Blue Saw, this is a great way to see what we can help you achieve.
Our customers chose aluminum 5052 and it's easy to see why. 5052 is strong, light weight, and easy to weld. Its high corrosion resistance makes it ideal for use near the ocean or for parts that are exposed to the elements. Many people prize 5052 for another important characteristic, its ability to be bent and formed. Unlike 6061 alloy, 5052 can be bent with a fairly tight radius without cracking.
Take advantage of this sale and spread the word. Find out how Big Blue Saw can take your designs and deliver them to your doorstep with a few clicks of the mouse.
Acrylic plastic is one of our most popular materials, and with good reason. It's inexpensive, and looks great when laser cut.
That's why we're happy today to announce 6 new thicknesses of clear acrylic plastic in our online quoting system ready to be used to make your design. The new sizes are 0.06 inch (1.5 mm), 0.08 inch (2 mm), 0.125 inch, 0.177 (4.5 mm), 0.25 inch, and 0.354 inch (9mm).
In the image above, you can see the various material thicknesses. From left to right in the top row is 0.354 inch, 0.25 inch, 0.236 inch, and 0.177 inch clear acrylic. The bottom row has 0.125 inch, 0.118 inch, 0.08 inch, and 0.06 inch clear acrylic.
Most acrylic fans know that the clear polymer is generally sold in metric thicknesses. However, our new offerings include two standard inch thicknesses, 1/8 and 1/4 inches thick.
Shown for comparison, a quarter is about 0.069 inches (1.75 millimeters) thick, and a dime is 0.053 inches (1.35 millimeters) thick. So a dime and a quarter together are about the same thickness as our 0.118 inch (3 mm) thick material.
As always, let us know if you would like your parts made from any material that's not in our online quoting system, and we'll do our best to accommodate you.
From our customer Rubbergunner comes this fantastic device. It's the first rubber band gun I've ever seen that's capable of fully automatic fire. It's the perfect weapon for holding off a horde of zombie officemates.
Here's a video with some more details about the construction of the MagMek-18, as well as a shout out to Big Blue Saw. We salute you, Rubbergunner!
Did you know that on this week in 1960, physicist Theodore Maiman of the Hughes Research Laboratories fired the very first laser? Maiman's laser was created with a ruby crystal and energized by a flash tube.
We can't think of a better way to celebrate than with a sale on laser cutting! (And, just for fun, waterjet cutting, too.) On Tuesday, May 17, and Wednesday, May 18, we are discounting parts made from two of our most popular materials: 0.25 (1/4) inch thick aluminum 6061 and 0.236 inch (6 mm) thick clear acrylic plastic. During the sale, setup charges will be drastically reduced so that you can get great savings on small orders. For instance, you can save big on aluminum parts: our "butterfly" example part will cost only $10.20 for a single part, an 87% savings off the regular cost! To get started: upload a part design, design a new part, or learn more about Big Blue Saw.
Just place your order online from Tuesday, May 17, 2011 through Wednesday, May 18, 2011 to receive the discounted price.
After a few years of hosting the Big Blue Saw newsletter on our own infrastructure, we finally decided to let the real professionals at MailChimp handle this for us instead. If you've ever tried to run your own mailing list, you know what an incredible pain it can be dealing with bounced e-mails, mail servers going down, and the like.
I wish Big Blue Saw was half as easy and fun as MailChimp; so you should check it out even if you don't want an e-mail newsletter. And really, if you're running a small business or even just want to send out announcements to your personal fan club, it's a good idea to set one up. I'll post more info about my experiences with MailChimp once a couple newsletters have gone out.
If you're already on the old mailing list, you should be on the new mailing list. If you weren't on our old mailing list, or want to verify that you're going to receive the new mailing list, sign up below. We've got a couple great announcements coming up next week that subscribers will hear about first, including:
The dates of our next sale.
An upcoming promotion where you can refer a friend to Big Blue Saw and earn discounts for both of you.
Grant Jones of MAISON Atlanta recently contacted us to laser cut the clear acrylic discs for the very architectural egg shown here. It's a demo egg to promote an egg decorating contest being held to benefit Atlanta Cotillion and AID Atlanta. First place prize is a trip and hotel for 2 to New York.
The competitors' eggs will be on display from May 14 - May 27, 2011 at MAISON Atlanta (Grant can't win, unfortunately).
Big Blue Saw's Spectacular Spring Sale starts Monday, March 28. During the sale, we're offering big discounts on laser cutting and waterjet cutting of aluminum and plastic parts.
We are discounting parts made form two of our most popular materials: 0.125 (1/8) inch thick aluminum 6061 and 0.118 inch (3 mm) thick clear acrylic plastic. During the sale, setup charges will be drastically reduced so that you can get great savings on small orders. For instance, you can save big on aluminum parts: our "butterfly" example part will cost only $8.10 for a single part, a 90% savings off the regular cost!
Just place your order online from Monday, March 28, 2011 through Tuesday, March 29, 2011 to receive the discounted price.
