Hello everyone,
With the 3D Lab soon entering its second year of existence, this polytechnic initiative and service to the public shows no sign of slowing down. It is exciting to see designs become reality for our engineering students, community members inventing useful things that you just can’t find in stores, and mentors visiting the lab to provide teaching, advice, encouragement to our students.
Wayne College is grateful to the many donors who make this lab a success, notably the Romich Foundation, Laura B. Frick Charitable Trust – PNC Bank, Trustee, Wayne County Community Foundation, Orrville Area Boys and Girls Club, P. Graham Dunn, and others. It is your support that makes the 3D Lab a success and provides a collaborative, free resource to our community. Your continued support makes this service possible. Please visit this link for a complete list of supporters. Thank you!
Speaking of community members, I am always surprised and impressed with the ideas from our visitors. Lately, Norm had the idea of adapting a smartphone to work as a spotting scope. Normally, these are small, portable telescopes with added optics to present an erect image, optimized for the observation of terrestrial objects. They are used for birdwatching and other naturalist activities, for hunting, verifying a marksman’s shots, surveillance, and for any other application that requires more magnification than a pair of binoculars. Norm’s design looks like this, designed with the free, excellent AutoDesk 123D Design CAD software:
After the on-screen design work was completed, he printed prototypes on our newest 3D printers, the Taz 5 models provided by the Susanna Congdon McIntyre Memorial Fund.
After a couple of design tweaks, the final version fit his phone perfectly! We are interested to know how the spotting scope works out-in-the-wild, so Norm will let us know in the coming weeks.
While not directly related to the 3D Lab, the Case Western Rocket Team held a “launch day” event in Marshallville last Saturday. They are like-minded undergraduates, Masters’ students, PhD students, and alumni that participate in high-power rocketry competitions and other aerospace-related events both in the greater Cleveland area as well as elsewhere in the nation.
On a blistery cold, windy day, over a dozen students launched their rockets in the middle of a recently harvested farmer’s field. These are not rockets that you buy at Walmart; they use “J class” engines that send its payload 1,300-2,000 feet into the air! The rockets were assembled from kits, some including accelerometers, gyroscopes, and other electronics to record in-flight information and to stop the rocket at a certain altitude when in competition. It was a thrilling afternoon!
Seriously large model rockets, requiring certification and approval from FAA to fly them
Preparing rockets for flight, mounting the engines
Properly packing a parachute
Launch time!
If you are interested in model rocketry, please visit the Wayne College 3D Lab in Spring 2016 where engineering students will design custom rockets using 3D printing and laser cutting.
Last but not least, Barnes & Noble is offering a country-wide event this weekend, a Mini Maker Faire! If you’re a tech enthusiast, crafter, educator, tinkerer, hobbyist, engineer, science club member, author, artist, student, entrepreneur, or maker of any kind—please attend! The faire is being offered in all of their stores across the country, including Fairlawn, Ohio. There, Wayne College 3D Lab will demonstrate 3D printing and careers in engineering, so please visit to learn more about our lab and its offerings. Please visit the link above for the schedule of activities from Friday through Sunday.
3D printing continues to make strides in the biomedical field. See how a student 3D prints life-changing baby bottles for preemies:
http://blog.stratasys.com/2015/08/20/3d-printed-preemie-bottle
3D printers are perfect for customized projects, tailored just for you. See how new 3D-printing tech is set to enable patient-specific medical devices:
http://www.gizmag.com/new-3d-printing-tech-could-produce-patient-specific-medical-devices/40232/
Until next week,
Tom