Hello everyone,
The 3D Lab weekly blog was on hiatus over the holidays, given that Wayne College was closed. We are currently cleaning, reorganizing, and purchasing supplies to be ready for the Spring semester. Even with classes not in-session, students and community members are dropping by the lab to work-on projects, create handmade gifts, and more.
We are pleased to announcement financial contributions from the Wayne Insurance Group and Gary & Martha (Hagen) McGuire. This support allows the 3D Lab to remain an open resource to students, the community, and local organizations. We are very thankful for your support!
A new feature implemented in the coming weeks is an electronics area. Thanks to generous donations from the community, lab patrons can build circuits with a learning kit, wire their own electronics, learn how to use Arduino microcontrollers, and create projects based on Raspberry Pi.
One of our community members is especially gifted with inventing ideas to make life easier. Being an avid bird watcher, Norm used CAD software to design an adapter that attaches his smart phone to a spotting scope. This allows extreme close-up photos to be taken on his phone.
The original design was 3D printed as one piece. Because of various recesses in the adapter, much “support” plastic needed removed after printing. Norm later revised his design as two parts that lock together. Individually printing each part does not require support plastic, therefore no cleaning up! The improved design prints faster, too.
A few weeks ago, the 3D Lab made another road trip, this time to Orrville Middle School. Students from three class sessions learned how 3D printing works, its many applications in the real world, careers in engineering, and watched a cowboy boot being 3D printed right before their eyes! The demonstrationwas a big hit with many questions during each session. It is exciting to see a growing number of secondary schools building makerspaces of their own where students can learn digital fabrication skills that can continue into college. Thanks, Mike, for inviting us!
In addition to the upcoming electronics area, funding from community members allowed the purchase of a small drill press. It supports pieces up to 8” tall and various speeds for drilling metal, wood, and other materials. Our resident student engineers had it assembled and running in no-time.
One of our staff members received a smartphone stand from the Orrville Area Chamber of Commerce. It was a nice design, though it was accidentally broken during use. After taking measurements and reproducing the broken part in Corel DRAW, a replacement part was easily created on the laser cutter using donated acrylic from The Wooster Glass Company. The replacement fits identical to the original!
Stay tuned as we report on more interesting projects next week.
Laser cutting isn’t limited to just flat material. Given 3D printing is very slow, see how custom software converts 3D objects to laser cutter designs than can be quickly cut and assembled:
http://hackaday.com/2015/04/30/3d-printering-laser-cutting-3d-objects
Have you ever wanted a LEGO figurine of yourself? This company 3D prints just that!
http://mentalfloss.com/article/73186/3d-print-your-face-lego-minifigures
Until next week,
Tom