Hello everyone,
A lot has happened in the 3D Lab since the holidays. The space got a good cleaning, de-cluttering, and reorganizated. Did you know that we have an abundance of free-to-use material for the laser engraver, dye sublimation printer, vinyl cutter, and CNC mill? Choose from clear acrylic, plywood/MDF, cardboard, foam, and foamboard to support your projects. And not to mention the interesting materials donated by P. Graham Dunn!
A soon-to-be addition to the 3D Lab is a new poster printer! The previous one, donated by Smith Foods, has mechanical problems that are too expensive to repair. The new printer will be a Canon Pro 4100S, capable of 8-color printing onto paper, canvas, and vinyl up to 44” wide. It is mostly for indoor posters as its ink is water soluble. If you are interested in using the poster printer for your projects, please let us know!
Family Visit
A couple of weeks ago, we were visited by two families who were interested in making custom t-shirts, laser engraved gifts, and exploring the 3D printers. The young adults made an impressive two-color shirt design using thermal transfer vinyl. The designs were cut by color, separated, then placed in correct positions on the shirt before pressing.
The younger family members were interested in 3D printing and making interesting gifts and plaques on the laser engraver. One of them has a 3D printer at home; it was neat to see him showing the younger ones how to use our printers. They all had a great time and made some useful things besides!
Battle Bots Tournament
The annual Battle Bots Tournament happened at the end of Fall semester, right before the holidays. Mechanical Engineering students in the Tools for Engineering class worked all semester, inventing robots to perform defined tasks. Some of these were moving to waypoints along a path, locating and harvesting colored balls, climbing a staircase, and of course, the tournament.
And this tournament was not one to disappoint! The robots are controlled from phones with Bluetooth. The tried and true weapon of choice is attaching a plow made from LEGO bricks to the robot’s front, effectively pushing the opponent off the playfield. But one creative student 3D printed a 360-degree dome that shielded his robot from all sides! It also could plow in any direction. It was easily the king of the competition!
LED Lights Class
The Schantz Makerspace offers a variety of “maker” classes, such as building a 3D printer, CNC machine, computer aided design, and more. This February, they are offering a class on animated LED lights. Using an ESP32 “brain”, the lights are animated via your phone, laptop, or tablet.
Participants will learn how “pixels” work, soldering, using the built-in animations, and creating your own with the free xLights software. Lights are attached to various substrates such as a present, candy cane, snowflake, star, heart, even a matrix that can display text and images.
If you are interested in attending, read the fill-out and mail the attached application! Class begins February 11th and runs two sessions.
Stay tuned next month as we introduce interesting folks who participated in the Maker Faire last May!
Until then,
Tom
3D Printed Orthotics- Most Promising Projects in 2023
https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printed-orthotics-most-promising-projects
Make a 3D model from a 2D photograph!
https://www.instructables.com/3D-CNC-Relief-Sculpture-Fusion-360
Wayne County 2023 is happening on Saturday, May 20, 2023! Be part of the action, sign-up here with your hobby, invention, craft, or anything that people would be interesting to know about! Signup deadline is April 1st.
The next Maker Monday is February 20th at 7:00 p.m. at 13875 Cleveland Road, Creston, Ohio 44217. Please check www.schantzmakerspace.com for information.
Be sure to attend Make-it Monday, a monthly open meeting every second Monday at 6:00-8:00 p.m. Visit https://applecreekhistoricalsociety.com/maker-space for more information.
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.