This is the first of what is going to be a series of blog posts in exciting collaboration between myself, Jason Suter (known as “Ossum” around the web), and CEL-UK, the creators of the Robox project.

Before I get stuck into what we are planning to do I feel it would be best to introduce myself. I am an electrical engineer in the telecoms field for my day job but apparently have never quite grown up, because I still dream of being a toy designer or building props for movies. I have been designing projects in CAD for 10 years now but it is been over the last 2 years when I when I got access to a 3D printer that I was really able to start making those dreams come to life, at least in my spare time!

I am passionate about designing things that “do something” with a mechanical or electronic element, so I seem to have naturally fallen in with the RC crowd, but really my projects and interests are diverse, you never know what might happen next.

My first major printing project was a 1/10 scale RC rat rod, which I designed in Fusion 360, had the body printed via Shapeways and the chassis laser cut from aluminium. The design files I released won me a 3D printer, which really got the ball rolling.

I diverted into some mechantronic interior design, if there is such a thing, with a blooming flower night light which was featured in make magazine. This was a challenge to build something that would have been completely impossible for me to do without CAD and a 3D printer.

I went back to my roots with an RC 1/10 scale Willys MB Jeep and M416 trailer, which has been extremely popular. I get a real kick out of seeing my designs being built around the world, it helps me justify the hours that I spend working on them if I know they will be amortized over many builds!

 

There are some other weird projects in the middle like my giant LEGO skeleton where I flipped the scale and went 10/1, he ended up being 40cm tall!

Besides designing and building myself, I really enjoy getting others interested in tackling it themselves, I have really enjoyed the vibrant community that has sprung up around my designs. Here you can find the facebook page and group.

I have had the idea for a fully printable RC single-seater vintage racer brewing in my head for a while now, and in collaboration with CEL-ROBOX I will finally be bringing it to fruition, and sharing it with the world.

Over the course of the next few months I hope to bring you along on my journey through the design process, and with any luck, inspire you to tackle some things of your own. I’ll be posting fortnightly updates here and on my pages. In the next post I’ll be going into my design goals and how I get started on a project like this.

If you want to discuss any aspect of the project with me, I now have a forum section for this project which you can find here.