Hello everyone,
The Wayne College 3D Lab is a free to use, open to the public makerspace for students and community members. You can learn more about the lab in the attached brochure. The 3D Lab is open throughout the summer from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, so feel free to stop by to make something creative!
With most students taking the summer off, that gives us time to maintain equipment in the 3D Lab. We are busy repairing 3D printers, cleaning, lubricating, and calibrating the laser engraver, and installing new machines such as a button maker and two Prusa i3 MK3 3D printers. Community members and staff visit the lab every day, usually to print items from www.thingiverse.com or engrave materials donated by P. Graham Dunn.
Earlier this week, Sara from Ramseyer Farms visited the lab. Among the many activities offered at their farm (such as the huge corn maze above), they maintain walking trails. Scattered along the trail are stations that describe dinosaurs. Sara wanted to create 3D printed, embossed images that young walkers could rub onto paper with crayon, commemorating their visits to each station.
Sara created 3D images using a combination of line drawings in 2D software, then converted them to 3D “blocks” with the images pressed (or in technical terms, “extruded”) into them. The resulting STL files were printed on our Taz and Up Plus! 3D printers using ABS plastic. This plastic is resilient to the heat of the sun. As you can see below, the rubbings turned out beautifully!
In the future, Sara may try creating rubbings with the laser engraver using the technique here. This method allows higher detail and text, too.
This past spring, staff member Leslie invited her future son-in-law to the 3D Lab to make wedding gifts. The laser engraver etches images onto many materials including glass, leather, coated metals, even food! The gifts were margarita glasses with commemorative images and wording along the rim.
The laser engraver includes a special attachment that allows cylindrical objects to be engraved such as bottles, mugs, glasses, even rolling pins. The glasses spin slowly while the laser beam engraves the exposed area. The result was very nice, similar to sandblasting. Leslie’s son-in-law made over 50 glasses quite easily with this method. Many thanks to the Romich Foundation for providing such a useful machine to so many.
Also earlier this year, the 3D Lab was invited to give a demonstration to young community members, notably Boy Scout Pack 357 in Millersburg. The group usually invites guest speakers during its meetings and the 3D printer was surely a hit! We took our portable 3D printer “on the road” and talked about how they work, applications in the real world, the open-to-the-community 3D Lab at Wayne College, and the upcoming Maker Faire in May.
The curious young adults were fascinated with the machine and had many questions! It’s encouraging that 3D printers and other digital fabrication equipment are becoming commonplace in K-12 schools, sometimes complementing, sometimes replacing traditional “making” tools. These machines inspire young minds to dabble in careers in engineering without even realizing it.
Again, the 3D Lab is open throughout the summer from 8:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, so feel free to stop by to make something creative! Please call ahead if you would like to invite a group. Stay tuned as we have more interesting stories to tell.
Until next week,
Tom
Your next rental home could be 3D printed:
https://newatlas.com/eindhoven-3d-printed-housing-project-milestone/54875
This dog was given a synthetic bone by 3D printing:
https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/dog-given-synthetic-bone-3d-printing-technology-116821
Learn how to make custom shipping boxes with recycled cardboard and a laser engraver:
https://hackaday.com/2018/06/19/laser-cutter-turns-scrapped-to-shipped
Turn 3D dimensional images into papercraft objects, no 3D printer needed:
http://www.instructables.com/id/Create-faceted-paper-objects
We are pleased to announce Wayne County Mini Maker Faire 2019! Stay tuned as we will note the day and time of next year’s event soon.
Last month’s Maker Monday was an incredible event with Village Plastics talking about 3D printer filament. Don’t miss the next Maker Monday which is Monday, July 16th, 7:00 p.m. at The Schantz Organ Company. Everyone is welcome.
We offer a free “listserv” that allows to you ask questions to members in the makerspace. It’s great for sharing ideas, forming friendships, and helping & advising each other. To join, send an email to listserv@lists.uakron.edu with
“SUBSCRIBE MAKERSPACE-GROUP” in the subject line.
Until next week,
Tom