Category Archives: Evil Mad Scientist Shop

Bantam Tools Acquires Evil Mad Scientist

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Bantam Tools Logo

Lenore Edman, Windell Oskay, and Bre Pettis standing in front of Bantam Tools headquarters
Bantam Tools Acquires Evil Mad Scientist to Accelerate Development of Next Generation Art and Handwriting Machines

Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman of Evil Mad Scientist named CTO and COO of Bantam Tools 

PEEKSKILL, N.Y, January 16, 2024 — Bantam Tools, the desktop CNC manufacturer that builds exceptional computer controlled machines for innovators, is excited to announce the acquisition of Evil Mad Scientist, the designer and manufacturer of popular computer-controlled drawing and handwriting machines that provide versatile solutions to artists and educators. Dr. Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman, co-founders of Sunnyvale, California based Evil Mad Scientist, will move to Peekskill, New York, headquarters of Bantam Tools, as CTO and COO overseeing technical development and operations. 

“We are excited to announce the acquisition of Evil Mad Scientist and its amazing art machines,” said Bre Pettis, CEO of Bantam Tools. “I’ve been a fan of the art plotters and have been using them for years. We have an amazing year planned where we intend to release several new and different creative machines. This acquisition will help accelerate these new products and we are very excited about bringing on these innovative and creative machines and Evil Mad Scientist’s co-founders. I’ve been friends with Windell and Lenore for almost two decades since my days at Make: Magazine. We share a love of creative tools that empower our users.” 

As developers of popular drawing and handwriting machines, the acquisition of Evil Mad Scientist will expand offerings at Bantam Tools to include art machines, in addition to the high-precision Bantam Tools Desktop CNC Milling Machines. This added product category of drawing and handwriting machines will give artists, designers, and educators the ability to create new art forms, convert digital art to physical artwork using traditional materials, and teach the next generation to use computer controlled art machines to express themselves. 

The next generation of Bantam Tools art machines that Dr. Windell Oskay and Lenore Edman are helping to develop will be marketed under the Bantam Tools NextDraw™ brand. The Bantam Tools NextDraw will be manufactured in Peekskill, New York, and will launch in the spring of 2024 as a reliable and well-supported computer-controlled drawing machine that provides versatile solutions to artists, innovators and educators.

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Bantam Tools,” said Dr. Windell Oskay, CTO of Bantam Tools. “With my background in atomic physics, I bring nearly 30 years of machining and designing computer controlled instrumentation. I am especially looking forward to leading technical development and harnessing the combined experience of our hardware and software engineering teams to build the next generation of creative machines.” 

“I’m also excited to be joining Bantam Tools and bringing to the company a focus on customer service and product documentation that has been so important to us at Evil Mad Scientist,” noted Lenore Edman, COO of Bantam Tools. “I’ll be continuing to support our existing customers with love and a supply of spare parts. I hope they’ll be as excited as I am about what my fantastic team at Bantam Tools will be building next.” 

To learn more about Bantam Tools and the Evil Mad Scientist products, visit bantamtools.com.

Bantam Tools builds exceptional computer-controlled machines for innovators, engineers, artists and educators, including desktop CNC machines with professional reliability and precision and computer-controlled art machines that are fast, automatic, mimic handwriting and create physical art from digital designs using traditional materials. Bantam Tools machines are easy to set up, ready to use right out of the box, and like its namesake the bantam rooster, punch above their weight class, empowering mechanical engineers, product designers, entrepreneurs, electrical engineers, machinists, designers, students, educators, artists and digital fabricators to stay ahead of schedule and under budget. All of Bantam Tools Desktop Milling Machines are clean, safe, and easy to use, making them a great choice for any lab, shop, classroom or studio. To learn more about the Peekskill, New York, company, at bantamtools.com, on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook at @bantamtools, or on  Medium. Bantam Tools is hiring. 

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Open Circuits: Now available

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Earlier this year, I wrote about my then-forthcoming book, Open Circuits: The Inner Beauty of Electronic Components, co-written with our regular collaborator Eric Schlaepfer.

Open Circuits is a coffee table book full of close-up and cross-section photographs of everyday electronic components. And, it’s now shipping! As of today, it’s available in hardcover from your local bookstore, as well as to purchase online and in electronic versions.

Open Circuits, hardback

We also just launched a new website for the book, with links of where you can purchase it as well as lengthy galleries of images from the book and of outake photos.

We put up a list of sellers on the website, including direct from No Starch and our own store, where signed copies are available.

This entry was posted in Art, Electronics, Engineering, Everything Else, Evil Mad Scientist Shop, Vintage Technology and tagged , , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

The AxiDraw MiniKit 2

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AxiDraw MiniKit 2

Today we are introducing a major refresh of the smallest member of the AxiDraw family of pen plotters: the new AxiDraw MiniKit 2. The AxiDraw MiniKit 2 is our special compact DIY-kit version of the AxiDraw lineup.

AxiDraw MiniKit 2

Versus the original AxiDraw MiniKit, the MiniKit 2 has been redesigned for easier assembly, better precision, and higher performance. The key change is that the long linear rail that forms the base of the machine — a custom aluminum extrusion in the original — has been replaced with a solid bar of 6061-T6 aluminum, machined in the same precision process as our top-of-the-line AxiDraw SE/A3, and then anodized to a satin-silver finish. This change simplifies a number of the assembly steps, but more importantly has a cleaner overall look and tighter manufacturing tolerances for improved precision.

AxiDraw MiniKit
In addition to be being “Mini”, the MiniKit 2 is also still a kit.

Unlike other models of the AxiDraw family like AxiDraw V3 and AxiDraw SE/A3 (which come assembled, tested, and ready to use), the AxiDraw MiniKit 2 is a machine that you assemble yourself.

We’ve taken great care in designing a kit that is rewarding to build, own, and use.

AxiDraw MiniKit

The new version is also heavier than the old one, which helps it to stay stable on your desk at higher speeds and gives it a small boost in effective speed, in addition to the upgrades in precision. Small but sturdy, The MiniKit 2 is built with machined parts, just one custom aluminum extrusion now, attention to detail, and care.

This entry was posted in AxiDraw, EMSL Projects, Evil Mad Scientist Shop, Robotics and tagged . Bookmark the Permalink.

Opening back up

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Evil Mad Scientist front door with signs about opening and COVID-19 requirements

A couple of months ago, we wrote about our status under our county’s shelter in place order and it’s time for an update! The situation has been gradually changing locally and the newest guidelines allow for us to bring our employees back to work. With their help, we’re starting to ramp production back up and that feels great.

Our Sunnyvale retail location will remain closed to walk-in business for the time being, but we are offering no-contact local pickup for orders placed online.

We have been excited to be able to help out on a few COVID-19 research projects during this time. We want to reiterate that if your order is related to health care or related to COVID-19 research, please let us know so that we can prioritize and expedite your order.

We’re grateful to all of our customers and community for being so understanding and helpful during this time.

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Sheltering in place

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Picture of shop door with closure sign on it.

We started Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories in 2006 as a “personal project blog”, to capture, organize, and share some of the things we do for fun. It has evolved over time to become a resource for our customers as well as a way for us to share interesting and educational information from a variety of sources. It also gradually become our livelihood, as the hobby projects started to take over more and more of our lives.

Right now, we want to let you know where we’re at. Here in Santa Clara County (the south end of the San Francisco Bay Area), we are under a Shelter in Place order due to COVID-19. Windell and I are working from home, and checking in on Zener at the shop regularly. We’re bringing work home with us, and have even been able to start shipping some orders again. Our employees cannot come in, which means that assembly, kitting, packing and shipping have slowed to what the two of us can do.

We’ll be doing our best to communicate with our customers about their orders and we’re doing tech support and customer service as usual. Orders will likely be going out every few days instead of every day. Some items will not be restocked as quickly.

As we work through these details, there are a lot of resources here on the blog that may be useful to all of you doing your part by staying at home.

We have many tutorials for projects that can be made from things you can find around the house. We have lots of cooking projects, some of which are also math or science projects. We have a series of basics articles you may enjoy for people getting started in electronics. And our linkdumps have lots interesting links to occupy your time.

We want you all to stay safe and healthy! Please reach out to us if you have questions, concerns, blog post ideas, or pictures of projects that we may have helped you instigate!

Thank you all for being such a great community, such amazing customers, and sharing with and helping each other so generously!

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The AxiDraw MiniKit

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AxiDraw MiniKit

Today we are introducing a brand new member of the AxiDraw family of pen plotters: the AxiDraw MiniKit.

AxiDraw MiniKit
The AxiDraw MiniKit is a special compact addition to the AxiDraw lineup.

Designed for lighter-duty applications, It takes up less desk space and less storage space. With a plotting area of just 6 × 4 inches (150 × 100 mm), it’s small enough to take with you, or to fit into places where bigger machines can’t.

AxiDraw MiniKit
In addition to be being “Mini”, it is also a kit.

Unlike other models of the AxiDraw family like AxiDraw V3 and AxiDraw SE/A3 (which come assembled, tested, and ready to use), the AxiDraw MiniKit is a machine that you assemble yourself.

We’ve taken great care in designing a kit that is rewarding to build and to own.

AxiDraw MiniKit

And of course, it’s an AxiDraw, and performs like one. Small but sturdy, it’s built with custom aluminum extrusions, machined parts, attention to detail, and care.

This entry was posted in AxiDraw, EMSL Projects, Evil Mad Scientist Shop and tagged , , . Bookmark the Permalink.

Our Thanksgiving Weekend Sale

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It’s our Thanksgiving Weekend Sale! use checkout coupon code TURKEY to save 10% storewide at Evil Mad Scientist.

Save on popular items like the brand new AxiDraw MiniKit, surface-mount 555SE and 741SE soldering kits, and everything else too.

Our biggest sale of the year, it’s a great time to get that AxiDraw SE/A3, EggBot, or through hole 555 kit too.

Sale runs through Monday, December 2.

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The 555SE and 741SE surface-mount soldering kits

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555SE and 741SE kits

Today we are pleased to announce the release of two new soldering kits: the 555SE discrete 555 timer and the 741SE discrete op-amp.

Both of these new kits are surface mount soldering kits — our first surface mount soldering kits — and we think that you’re going to love them.

555 kits, big and small

You might be familiar with our Three Fives discrete 555 timer and XL741 discrete op-amp kits. Both are easy soldering kits that let you build working transistor-scale replicas of the classic 555 timer chip and the famous µA741 op-amp. Those two are constructed with traditional through-hole soldering techniques and are styled to like “DIP” packaged (through-hole) integrated circuits.

Our new 555SE and 741SE kits implement the same circuits, now with surface mount components, and are styled to look like smaller “SOIC” packaged (surface mount) integrated circuits, complete with a heavy-gauge aluminum leadframe stand. Side by side with their through-hole siblings, the new kits are exactly to scale, with half the lead pitch and a lower profile.

555SE kit for scale

The 555SE and 741SE kits each come with eight (tiny) color-coded thumbscrew binding posts that you can use to hook up wires and other connections.

You can also probe anywhere that you like in these circuits — something that you generally can’t do with the integrated circuit versions.

741SE kit close up

The new 555SE and 741SE circuit boards are black in color, with a gold finish and clear solder mask so that you can see the wiring traces between individual components. There are a few other neat details here and there, such as countersunk holes for mounting the board to the leadframe.

The surface mount components are relatively large, with 1206-sized resistors and SOT-23 sized transistors, and assembly is straightforward with our clear and comprehensive instructions. These kits are designed to be a joy to build, whether you’re an old hand at surface mount soldering, want some practice before tackling a project, or are introducing someone to it for the first time.

Family portrait

And here is the new family: XL741, the Three Fives, along with the new 741SE and 555SE.

You can find the datasheets and assembly instructions for these kits, as well as links to additional documentation, on their respective product pages.

Both new kits are part of our ongoing collaboration with Eric Schlaepfer, who we have worked with on a number of dis-integrated circuit projects including the four kits here and the MOnSter 6502.

This entry was posted in Electronics, EMSL Projects, Engineering, Evil Mad Scientist Shop, Vintage Technology and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the Permalink.