Hello everyone,
It’s hard to believe that half of the semester is finished. Our engineering students are building wind tunnels to test the aerodynamics of their soon-to-be-built model rockets, others are building LEGO Mindstorms robots for the upcoming tests and competitions, while various students are printing interesting stuff in both the 3D Lab and 3D Lounge.
Apart from the engineering projects and assignments that involve the 3D Lab, students and community members work on a variety of personal projects. That’s half the fun of a makerspace; it is a place where ideas are made. Tristan, a long-time frequenter of the lab, recently used resources at our Electronics Station to build a custom sound generator.
With resistors, capacitors, and 555 timer chips available at the Electronics Station, Tristan’s generator creates adjustable tones reminiscent of 8-bit computers from the 80’s such as the Commodore 64. It’s fascinating to listen to; check out the brief sample video below:
Tristan also designed and 3D printed custom case for the generator, complete with a clear acrylic top using the laser engraver. Well done!
A community member’s great-grandfather owned an ice cream company from the 1920’s. John wondered if the 3D Lab could produce a candy bar mold, a positive mold which he would pour food-grade silicone rubber into for the negative.
The 3D Lab is certainly up to the task! Lab staff Josh printed a rough mold using a 3D printer, to test the design of the CAD file. Next is printing a high resolution version of the mold using our resin 3D printer. The final, silicone-ready mold will be carved from wax using the Roland CNC mill, also in our lab. The mill will provide sharp designs and perfectly smooth surfaces. Stay tuned as we pursue this interesting project!
Last year, Tristan explored the use of Reuleaux Triangles. These are a shapes formed from the intersection of three circular disks, each having its center on the boundary of the other two. A picture is worth a thousand words:
Even though they are acorn shaped, when several are placed under a surface, they roll like perfectly round bearings! Tristan attempted to 3D print a bearing system using Reuleaux Triangles, though ran into problems with it when physically tested.
Can these triangles make efficient bearing systems? Here is an interesting video that explains the science behind it:
Heartland Point is a community center in Orrville that offers a wide variety of creative workshops throughout the year. The 3D Lab offered workshops at Heartland where folks built candy dispensers and rubber band powered cars. Participants learned CAD and vector design software at Heartland Point, then visited the 3D Lab at Wayne College to 3D print and laser cut their designs.
This year, the 3D Lab entertained 10 young community members to make custom fidget spinners! And what an excited group they were. We taught them how to use InkScape, a free vector art program.
Their designs were cut from colored acrylic pieces using the laser cutter, then bearings snapped into place to finish the spinners. Kids customized their spinners with their names and see-through cutouts of stars and other shapes, creating one-of-a-kind spinners! The workshop was a big success and we are thankful to Heartland Point for organizing it.
Stay tuned as the semester heats up, quite literally! Students will begin building robots, rockets, and all sorts of interesting thing in the 3D Lab, so there will be plenty of stories to tell.