Woody's Workshop – Keeping the Grey Matter active

March 1, 2026March 1, 2026

Fanttik super tool is well worth a look

It is likely to make my Dremel redundant.

I came across the Fanttik via a sponsor link on a YouTube channel. I had just struggled with a fine engraving job where my Dremel was just too large and unwieldy for the delicate work involved. Out of curiosity (and frustration) I bought the Fanttik and was very impressed with the quality. The packaging of the product was on a par with Apple and product casing impressively over engineered.

Maximum speed is 25,000 rpm and it is supplied with carrousel of tools. There are plenty of sources of spare 2.3mm shank tools available on Amazon including sets of drill bits. (The 2.3mm shank standard means that most Dremel tools are not suitable).

I recently made a modified version of the 3D printed JSK soldering iron brass insert press. The JSK design is well thought out, is rigid, spring loaded and works very well. (Note that I had to print the column in two sections as my Qidi X Smart build volume was too small). I made a revised gripping sleeve for the press to grip the Fanttik so the press now acts as a mini drill stand for small diameter holes such as on PCBs. The run out on a 0.8mm drill bit was not visible to the eye. Here’s the finished press. Excuse the perforated base plate – you have make use of what is functional and to hand.

More workshop tooling …. but this one ticks two boxes, insert press and mini drill with a quick swap out depending on activity.

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March 1, 2026March 1, 2026

Gearwheel Designer Update

Brocot escape wheel preset added.

Graham Baxter has added a Brocot escape wheel design preset button in his latest version of Gearwheel designer (GWD). This additional preset function came in useful as I had a client asking whether I could copy a 22mm diameter 29 tooth Brocot wheel from a French clock. The wheel was damaged with missing tooth and two further teeth which were bent .

I had never before attempted cutting a wheel this small and fragile looking but it might be a good learning experience so I stuck my neck out and said ‘yes I can do that’ before I had actually seen how delicate the wheel would be.

I measured one tooth under the microscope and then used Fusion to create a circular array. The update to GWD allowed me to make a second version. Here is a screen shot of the model.

Using GWD in this respect needs some additional comments.

GWD will let you create the 2D geometry of the wheel and from this create a DXF. You can also create a direct CNC code to cut the wheel or a STL version. It is a very powerful piece of software.

My normal route is to export the DXF from GWD into Fusion using the Fusion’s Insert menu. Once in Fusion I can then extrude the 2D design to the required thickness and create the manufacturing GCode in Fusion. A qualifier is needed on this. If you are running the Fusion hobby licence you cannot import a DXF into Fusion. This is a real pain for hobbyist users.

If your intention is to create a 3D printed version of the GWD wheel then you can create a STL export and import this directly into your slicer without going via the Fusion route. With this direct route you need to set the Z depth in GWD. The Z depth value is the thickness of the wheel (equivalent to the extrusion value if you had gone the Fusion route). Note that in GWD the Z value is always a negative value. So if you want your 3D printed wheel to be 3mm thick you enter -3 in the Z offset box.

The next bit is a bit weird. When you import the STL created by GWD into your slicer it will appear as just the edges of the wheel outline with no infill. If you then run the slicing routine the infill appears correctly and you are good to go on a print. (I have tried this direct STL route and via the DXF Fusion route and the model in the slicer is exactly the same).

Back to the Brocot wheel …

Both versions were cut on my Tormach 440 CNC machine with the CAM created in Fusion. I used a Blue Builders tape superglue fixture to hold the stock in place. Here is a picture of the result.

The left hand wheel is the microscope measured version before the petals were cut. The upper one is the GWD version with the petals cut but retained in place by breakout tabs. The lower one is the original. Machining was done with a 1mm diameter end mill at 10,000 rpm.

The client chose to install the fully finished GWD version and the clock is now running happily once again.

There is a full write up of my process in the February 2026 edition of the Horological Journal. This is the monthly magazine of the British Horological Institute.

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February 23, 2026February 23, 2026

Simple Dual Pulse Arduino Based Generator

A useful test source for bench testing

I have a current project on the go for a clock synchroniser. This takes two pulses, one from a GPS reference source and one from a secondary variable source and calculates the time difference between them to correct the clock. The system is Arduino based and I needed to be able to test my software logic without having to manually initiate the two pulses. The result is this simple but very useful pulse generator.

The generator is based on my favourite Xiao SAMD21, a SSD1327 OLED display and an Adafruit rotary encoder. The PCB layout was designed in the Fusion Electronic module and uses through hole components. There are only two top side links so it is easy to mill the artwork using the Fusion manufacturing data in association with FlatCAM. Production boards will be run via PCBWay.

The software provides two output signals that can individually have their rep rate and pulse width defined via the OLED screen and the rotary encode. The two streams can be independent or locked together. If locked together then a delta phase shift can be programmed in. Here is the working unit built onto the CNC milled PCB. The enclosure is a simple 3D printed trough.

The missing BNC placement is a possible external sync input enhancement ( a rainy day job …). The unit is powered from an external source with a 5V on board regulator to feed the logic. There is a 3V3 to 5V buffer driving each pulse output (two digital transistors, two resistors and a LED indicator).

This development had been put on hold. Using a discrete rotary encoder I could not get a stable response on the OLED display and there was poor interaction with the encoder – lots of jitter and missed steps. The Adafruit module uses the same encoder but mounted on a small pcb that has an I2C encoder built in. The SSD1327 has the option for a SPI bus and an I2C interface. The new configuration using the combination of the encoder on I2C and the OLED on SPI completely cured the all earlier problems I was having.

Let me know if you would like a production PCB.

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February 4, 2026February 4, 2026

Fusion 2026 Update Furor

The natives are restless

Autodesk has released an updated version of Fusion in January 2026 that has caused quite a few ripples.

The gist is that the new version now offers both a traditional top down methodology as well as a new bottom up based process. This is not radically new as both methods were always available but this now hits you in the face via an opening dialogue box that offers various options on how you might want to proceed. The dialogue box is not optional and cannot be blocked. This has caused some heavy criticism on the Autodesk forum.

Top down is where you give a file a top level name and all the constituent parts are built under this title as components. One file holding lots of parts.

Bottom up starts with lots of individual parts in separate files all brought together in one assembly file. Lots of files with one holding file. This way of working suits large organisations where multiple operators are all simultaneously working on a large project.

Top down was always Fusion’s ace in the hole as it bucked the trend of other packages that stuck to the more standard bottom up way of working. Top down is still an option but will be known hence forth as Hybrid working.

For hobby licencees the Hybrid way of working more efficiently supports the 10 active files limit.

Here are some good YouTube videos giving an overview of this change.

Autodesk has inferred that this is a starting point in a planned new way of working. Time will tell. It might be a bumpy ride.

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January 31, 2026January 31, 2026

Confusion over the 10 files limit in Fusion hobby licence

A misunderstanding of the Fusion design process ?

I regularly see comments on forums from people who don’t want to use the free hobby licence for Fusion because of the ’10 open file restriction’. This suggests that perhaps they are used to conventional bottom-up CAD design whereas Fusion creates a powerful top-down architecture. (You can still use the bottom-up approach and this is probably why the confusion arises).

A bottom-up approach has each part of an intended assembly created in its own file and the individual parts are then brought together in an assembly file. This creates a 1+N count of files needed for an assembly where N is the number of parts involved. It also places a high demand on the creator to monitor and check linkages between the individual files.

A top-down approach starts with the assembly file and all the components are contained within that file. The file count is just 1. Clearly a top-down file could become enormous if there are lots of components but it is still one file. Unlike the bottom-up method, the linkages between the components are automatically updated.

One of the more helpful descriptions of the differences in the two techniques is the first 5 minutes of this video by Product Design Online.

The other big advantage of a top-down approach is the ability to have parametric modelling of the file. This uses a look up table of all the key parameters in a design. These parameters can be just a value or can be equation linked. They are represented in the design dimension values as text and equations. Once again Product Design Online has a good tutorial.

Although I have a paid licence to use Fusion I have never had an issue of needing anywhere near 10 projects open at anyone time but I might have had well in excess of 10 components active.

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