March 2015

Hello everyone, Despite being the week of Spring Break, the 3D Lab at Wayne College is still a busy place.  Students came to the college to work on projects for themselves, projects for others, and just to “hang out”.  The R/C flight club also had their weekly meeting on Monday followed by a fun afternoon of flying outside in warm, windy weather.             Roche Harmon from Hiland High School invited Morgan and me to give two presentations on 3D printing, CAD design, and careers in engineering.  We drove through beautiful Amish country to Berlin, Ohio to deliver the presentations.  AsRead More →

Hello everyone, It’s hard to believe how fast the semester flew, quite literally.  With five weeks to go before Finals Week, students will be using 3D printers to build model rockets from their own custom designs.  The 3D Lab is also a popular place for the R/C Airplane Club where students build planes from foam board, 3D printed parts, motors, and batteries.  There are student-made planes scattered around the room; come to A-120 to take a look! Speaking of R/C airplanes, the NE Ohio Electric Festival is happening this weekend at the University of Akron Stile Athletics Field House.  Hundreds of attendees will fly planesRead More →

Hello everyone, The 3D Lab is a continual flurry of activity.  On most days, all three printers are running simultaneously for student, staff, and personal projects.  The printers are working fairly well, though our first printer was having quality issues.  We have service plans for two of the printers, which is a wise investment to keep the machines functional during heavy use.  Nathan noticed that the x-axis belt was loose and could not be tightened, so he installed a replacement belt free of charge from Makerbot.  We received so many parts that it more than pays for the service plan’s annual fee. We are alsoRead More →

Hello everyone, Now into the halfway mark of the semester, activity is picking up in the 3D Lab for student projects.  The Dynamics class builds model rockets this semester based on custom designs, aerodynamic studies, and various fabrication methods (including 3D printing).  We are thankful that all three printers are working well; they have been running simultaneously for most of the week.  One of our students is building a two-stage rocket, creating the design in CAD and building it with our first 3D printer provided by the Laura B. Frick Charitable Trust.  It is a modular design with stacking sets of fins to support eachRead More →