Hello everyone,
Things were too busy for a blog post last week, so this post will catch-up on what’s been happening at the Wayne College Makerspace.
The most exciting announcement is the arrival of the filament extruder kit. Once assembled, we can make our own filament in addition to buying it in spools. That will save us 8-10 times the cost if the make the filament ourselves. It works by feeding plastic pellets into a hopper which is pushed to a hot end via an auger. The hot end melts the pellets and pushes out filament through a hole.
Initially we had trouble with it, as there was intense torque between the vertical boards while plastic was pushed through the pipe. The boards would bend and crack from the pressure. Bracing the boards with additional wood did not help; we resorted to a 1/4″ metal band that restrains the torque (thanks for the suggestion, Will!). The produced filament works wonderfully in our portable printer, so we are off to a good start. Here is a picture of Will repairing the extruder when the wood braces literally cracked apart under the pressure:
Dusty made improvements to the geared heart box, as the original design from www.thingiverse.com suffered from a weak crank which is compounded by tight gears. Instead of a small gear turning a large gear, he designed a torque reducing gearing system, strengthened the base, and designed a better crank. As a result, less force is required to turn the crank which makes the heart easier to turn as well:
Yesterday, Dusty and I made a trip to the Orrville Boys and Girls Club to demonstrate the 3D printer and 3D scanner, the latter of which was purchased by the Club and loaned to Wayne College. There were 30-35 kids in attendance. The energy from their excitement was thick enough to touch. The kids asked dozens of questions and were well behaved through the demonstration, so they certainly were interested.
We explained how the 3D printer and 3D scanner worked, then the kids designed cookie cutters using basic CAD design. We also handed out plastic cards that fold themselves into tiny velociraptors. It was quite a challenge for them. It was gratifying to see the kids so excited about the technology and engineering in general; a number of them asked some good questions about how it all works.
We hope to have more collaborative efforts with the Orrville Boys and Girls Club in the future, so stay tuned!
Did you know that Ford Motor Company produces many car parts using 3D printer technology? Read all about it here:
There are some big things happening at the Wayne College Makerspace in the coming weeks!
Tom
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