Hello everyone,
The summer break ends in just a few more weeks. A steady stream of community members and students visit the 3D Lab on a daily basis, which amazes me given the slower pace of the summer season. Even though a number of K-12 schools include 3D printing in their curriculum, what makes the Wayne College 3D Lab unique is that is open to everyone and most of the equipment is free to use and explore. We’ll show you how to use 3D printers, laser engravers, and other fabrication machines, then you can set your creativity loose!
We’ve spent most of the summer fixing aging 3D printers, installing new ones, and updating software in the lab in anticipation of a busy fall semester. Come check-out our new Prusa i3 MK3 printers, easily the best looking prints that we’ve seen in a filament based 3D printer! It also supports five-color printing with water soluble supports, so we’re quite excited.
Earlier this year, a community member inquired about creating a candy bar mold using equipment in the 3D Lab. His grandfather owed a candy company now out of business. His grandson (John) obtained a two dimensional drawing of a original candy bar design, so he loaded it in to his computer to convert into a 3D design suitable for 3D printing.
We printed a high resolution version of the design with the FormLabs resin printer provided by the Romich Foundation. John placed this resin candy bar on the wooden base of a “box” surrounded by thin-walled plastic coro panels. He then poured liquid silicone into the box, creating a negative mold. Chocolate was then poured into the silicon mold to make the actual candy bars. In the photo below, the pink mold is the final silicon mold where the gray and green positive molds were created by resin and 3D printers, respectively. The white and brown candy bars were made from real chocolate.
The candy bars turned out perfectly! Needless to say, John’s grandfather was surprised and pleased to see nostalgic, edible “Temptation” candy bars once again.
Earlier this summer, community member Ken crafted a mobile mount for his car stereo. His first iteration started with wooden base with a generic, commercially available instrument holder, modified by rough cutting a larger hole in it. The quality of the finished result was not quite suitable, so Ken wondered if 3D printing could help.
We reached out to Norm, another community member in our area, an excellent CAD designer and who offers Fusion 360 lessons to members of the Schantz MakerSpace. He worked with Ken to create a similar design from scratch, yet a custom fit for his stereo receiver. It is a wonderful example of community members helping each other with the 3D Lab bringing folks together.
We are excited to see the final, 3D printed result when Norm has the design finalized!
Last but not least, students from Hiland High School in Berlin, Ohio visited the 3D Lab for a tour and to try-out the equipment, led by instructor Roche Harmon. We had a wonderful time with the students, teaching them the basics of 3D printing and discussing careers in engineering. Then we went “hands on” to use the laser engraver to create personalized water bottles donated by P. Graham Dunn, design custom decals on the vinyl cutter, and how to 3D print a variety of objects from Thingiverse. The Hiland students had a fun time.
The Wayne College 3D Lab is a free to use, open to the public makerspace for students and community members. The 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! Group tours are welcome, but let us know the day & time your group plans to arrive to ensure staff availability.
Until next week,
Tom
Lockheed Martin creates its largest 3D printed space part to date:
NASA contest finalists show off their Mars habitat models:
https://www.engadget.com/2018/07/29/nasa-mars-habitat-contest-finalists/
Learn how to make your own 3D printed custom slide puzzles:
https://www.instructables.com/id/3-Dimensional-Sliding-Tile-Puzzle
Like clocks? 3D print this fascinating Marble Clock:
https://www.instructables.com/id/Marble-Clock
Last month’s Maker Monday was an incredible event with Dale Atchinson discussing his kit-built CNC machine. Don’t miss the next Maker Monday which is Monday, August 20th, 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.