Hello everyone,
It’s hard to believe that the 3D Lab began its life at Wayne College three years ago. If you peruse our blog, you will find well over a hundred posts of our growth, student projects, community outreaches, and the formation of a “maker” community, notably the Shantz Makerspace. We’ve come a long way and have much more growing yet to do! The 3D Lab is not about the varied equipment and machines (most all of which are provided by community), but about empowering people to be creative and making ideas possible. It’s about connecting people and resources together, coming back to this nation’s inventive roots. Don’t believe me? Check-out this directory of makerspaces all over the world.
We are proud to be involved with the Schantz Makerspace. Their group meets every third Monday at the Schantz Organ Company here in Orrville at 7:00 p.m. Just finishing their highly successful CNC machine project (14 machines built by community members), the group is now involved with Arduino microcontroller workshops and perhaps building robotic arms that members can eventually take home.
The group is exploring other workshop ideas, such as building toy cars that are 3D printed and play tunes as they are pulled along the floor. Members Norm and Rolf designed a bellow for moving air through the musical pipes using our 3D Lab rubber printer! It’s wonderful to see our makerspaces working together.
We are happy announce a new addition to the 3D Lab, a high-quality photo printer (Epson Stylus Pro 4880) that was donated by former Dean Neil Sapienza. This machine uses an eight-ink system for beautiful color reproduction onto 17” wide paper, canvas, and other mediums. This printer is free-to-use for patrons of the lab, as are 3D printers and most other machines in the lab. Come visit the lab and invite friends and family; we’ll be happy to show you around and help with your projects! We are thankful to Neil as students can now create high-quality prints of their creative works.
Late last year, Wayne College hosted a kick-off party to promote the upcoming Wayne County Mini Maker Faire in May. It was a wonderful turnout with many community members supporting the event. Many thanks to Lynette Boggs of the Wayne County Schools Career Center, Vic and John Schantz from The Schantz Organ Company, Samatha Chada from the Wayne County Public Library, Daphne Silchuck Ashcraft from the Orrville Public Library, Greg Barbu, Steve Nichols, and others who spoke at the event. Also thanks to Ellen Pill, reporter for the Wooster Weekly News, who wrote a wonderful recap of the event.
We are quite excited about the Faire in May! It will be an unforgettable experience, the first of its kind in Wayne County. It is also a large undertaking and we can use your help in the areas of volunteering, finding “makers” to participate, event planning, sponsorships, day-of-event operations, and simply spreading the word. Please let us know if you can help in any of these areas.
We hosted a number of “makers” during the kick-off party to get into the inventive, creative, and “festival” theme of a maker faire. Check out these wonderful participants, many of whom are coming back in May!
Mark your calendar for May 20th. For more information about participating and being a “maker” at the faire, please visit waynecounty.makerfaire.com and fill-out an application today!
Last but not least, we love it when our students embark on crazy maker projects of their own. See how Tristan builds the world’s strongest mailbox in the video below. Note that the welding gloves he wears are not for safety; they just make him look cool. 🙂
Speaking of our new photo printer, see how 2D paintings are transformed into 3D printed masterpieces:
http://hackaday.com/2016/03/22/mrrf-3d-printed-2d-paintings
Think that 3D printed objects are limited to one or two colors? Check-out this multi-color and multi-material demonstrated at a recent maker faire:
http://hackaday.com/2016/10/03/maker-faire-multicolor-and-multi-material-3d-printing/
Until next week,
Tom