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News Archive

Emu lab news, ongoing projects, website updates and interesting stories

News and updates

12/04/2026

I've been working hard on creating and experimenting with new designs whilst completing some interesting engineering projects that showcase developments in 3d printing. There are a significant number of projects I've been working on so I'll be adding a few news articles over the next few weeks.

Repairing a vintage drill using modern technology:

I completed a project repairing a 1960's pillar drill with a broken quill spring. For those not familiar with stationary drills, this is the part that creates resistance against the user as the drill is lowered onto the workpiece and then causes it to retract once hole cutting is complete.

Unfortunately a replacement spring was unavailable, as we quickly discovered. The original manufacturer had gone out of business and it also appeared that the original quill spring housing had been replaced with a modified unit, many years ago.

Rather than attempting to find a replacement spring of great rarity we would have to come up with an alternative solution. My idea was to create a replacement housing that would allow fitment of a standard, modern spring.

This was a particularly challenging project due to the peculiarities of the ancient drill and the extremely limited space available for a replacement housing. I got to work measuring the dimensions of the original spring, housing and appropriate parts. We then researched available materials for 3d printing that would provide sufficient strength, toughness and durability to resist the tension created by the coiled spring.

After designing and prototyping a number of housing iterations that eventually proved successful I created a housing from glass reinforced nylon. This was 3d printed at a high temperature and slow speed to aid layer adhesion and create the strongest possible part. The design was also printed at a 45 degree angle to prevent issues with directions of weakness.

This project was particularly interesting and effective as parts could be rapidly designed, fabricated and tested - something that would not have been possible prior to advances in 3d printing technologies.

If you are interested in taking advantage of this service to repair machinery or vehicles with hard to obtain parts then feel free to get in touch with me to start a consultation.

This is the vintage Meddings pillar drill with quill housing and spring removed.

(below) This is original quill spring housing with a modern spring fitted. The replacement spring was coiled too tight to function so a modified housing was needed to enable the drill to operate again.

(below): one of the rapidly fabricated prototypes created to test function and develop the design.

(below): Photos show the final version of the 3d printed, PA6-GF quill spring housing now fitted to the pillar drill.

News and updates

19/03/2026

Hello there, sorry it's been a while. I have continued to be very active on the design front and we have been working on making the storefront work and actually include some glorious goods. After completing the prototype Shroowoman, I worked on several projects, that I have included in a little photo gallery on the right.

Gallery

1+2) I created a replica cosplay Chainsaw lancer from the video game 'Gears of war'. I'm very pleased with the outcome, there is no painting just colour 3d printing and some adhesive backed vinyl to finish it off nicely.

3) This is the new and marginally toned down Shroowoman design. I took inspiration from the female Gremlin from the absolute classic of a move - Gremlins 2: The new batch.

4+5) Here we have the new snail riding shrooman design, the saddle/throne needs a bit of improvement but in general it's a pleasing design and the snail in particular has so much character.

Gallery continued

6,7,8+9) These photos show the new Shrooman USB night lights and the very special rainbow puking Shrooman mini light. I intend to create more Shrooman variations over time, next being a Shrooman fidget toy.

10+11) The smallest Shrooman so far, the mini reward shrooman that can be created in large quantites and used for collectors, parties, rewards etc.

12) My niece modelling a T-shirt we designed and made together using the vinyl cutter. We included her own art in the design.

13) Experimenting with Shrooman key-rings, there were others too but they need further development as the designs was not especially production ready.

14) Finally we have another experiment, my first attempt at laser etching a design onto an aluminium card. Resolution on the laser cutter/etcher was mind blowing and I will be putting this to great use in the future.

News and updates

11/02/2026

Today I have updated the Shroomiverse page with far more lore on the Emu and Shrooman. I have added many more pictures also.

I have a huge list of projects I am working through currently, including the addition of many of my designs on the makerworld website. For those of you not familiar with the site - it is an incredible resource for downloading 3d printing models that are 100% ready to make. You can even download them on a mobile phone act and print directly from there. It makes 3d printing so accessible. It's pretty astounding what is available. It really shows how far 3d printing has come in the last few years.

Beware catnip stalker!

News and updates

04/02/2026

Another small update today but a critical one. I give to you, the deadly Dragon chicken!

This started as a side quest, that wouldn't take too long but unfortunately ended up being a week of 3d design practice!

Read more in the News archive.

What is a Dragon chicken?

This creature evolves from the vicious Werechicken.

Upon reaching maturity and killing precisely 100 enemies, the chicken turns into a giant egg. For 2 long years the chicken must survive as a massive egg with legs. If the chicken survives, the apex predator emerges. A creature so deadly that even seeing it can kill a man from fear.

The Dragon chicken is a large, daunting creature that has the ability to breath fire. Unfortunately this is not always the greatest power as the dragon chicken is still mainly a feathered fiend and this means that it is often the case that they set themselves on fire. Fire breathing is not the only ability a dragon chicken possesses however, they also have a large dragon tail and fairly small wings. The wings allow the rather large chicken to jump higher than the most, it is able to get between 1-2 feet off of the ground. The tail is large and heavy and often use to bludgeon enemies.

News and updates

28/01/2026

Small update to website today - progress is really slow as I am splitting the small amount of time available between improving the website and prototyping.

We have been working on creating a prototype Shrooman light design to add to the shop. This is now completed and I will add more on this soon but you can look at progress on our instagram page.