Hello everyone,
The 3D Lab is a hopping place as of late. What started as a quiet Friday morning got busy from visits by handful of community members, a student, and staff with different projects to complete. Engineering students in particular are busy printing weighted objects for the upcoming “robot toss” assignment, always entertaining.
With Christmas arriving soon, keep in-mind that the 3D Lab is a great place for making personalized, custom gifts for your friends and loved ones. We have donated material provided by P. Graham Dunn and you can discover wonderful laser engraved gift ideas here. Bring yourselves, friends, and kids to the 3D Lab to make fits and learn how to “draw” fall leaves with our 3D pen!
Community member Dale enjoys woodworking of all kinds from making furniture to woodturning. Using power and hand tools to finesse the wood in to different things is a great hobby and release from the day in and day out grind of everyday life.
Just like many other things, from using hand tools to incorporating new technology like CNCs, woodworking has changed a lot over the last few years. Learning how to embrace technology and work smarter not harder has become the norm, but there are some things that machines just can’t do and for that we must fine tune our skills as a craftsman. This is what Dale loves about woodworking.
Dale visits the 3D Lab to engrave wood plaques that are later trimmed and painted. His latest project involves laser-cut bookmarks. He purchases small sheets of 1/16” wood of various makes (cherry, walnut, etc.), creates cutting patterns with a vector art program, then cuts the wood with the lab’s laser engraver. We find that solid wood sheets cut better than plywood as the latter contains laser unfriendly glue. The results are beautiful!
Scott visited the 3D Lab today to try making a “cookie press” with the laser engraver. Stamping the press into cookie dough leaves behind a concave image that survives the baking process. Normally, laser engravers etch an image on top of material or cut completely through material. But repeated etching passes with high power and slow speed allows the laser to “dig” an image into the material.
We chose thick, cast acrylic for this project donated by Jay’s Glass Service here in Orrville. 3D printing wasn’t an option as it wouldn’t be detailed enough and the printed layers create crevices where dough cannot be cleaned from.
The cookie’s image was created with the free InkScape vector art program. It took about six passes with the laser to produce a deep-cut image, but it turned out well! Scott will let us know it works with dough (and will hopefully bring some cookies for us to view and sample). ? Good job!
A few weeks ago, the Orrville Public Library hosted How-To Festival, a free family-friendly event. Visitors learned how to do something new at the interactive stations staffed by local experts. Various local artists shared their unique skills, too. What a wonderful assortment of activities including essential oils, a coin display, mountain dulcimer music, painting, cartoons, a pottery wheel, fused glass jewelry, and water color painting.
The 3D Lab participated in the festival, showing community members of all ages how 3D printing works and how engineers use them at Wayne College. Kids especially found the demonstration fascinating! The Orrville Public Library also participates regularly in Maker Faire Wayne County with educational, interesting, and interactive projects.
Stay tuned next month as we reveal more interesting things happening the 3D Lab!
Until then,
Tom
NASA Plans To Build Houses On the Moon By 2040https://science.slashdot.org/story/23/10/04/0439245/nasa-plans-to-build-houses-on-the-moon-by-2040
The 45 Best 3D Printed Board Games of 2023https://all3dp.com/2/best-3d-printed-board-games
Maker Faire Wayne County 2024 is happening on Saturday, July 27, 2024 at the Wayne County Fairgrounds! Space is limited, so sign-up soon! Click here for more information.
Be sure to attend Make-it Monday, a monthly open meeting every second Monday at 6:00-8:00 p.m. Visit applecreekhistoricalsociety.com to learn more and for a list of upcoming classes.
Be sure to attend Make-it Monday, a monthly open meeting every second Monday at 6:00-8:00 p.m. Visit applecreekhistoricalsociety.com to learn more and for a list of upcoming classes.
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.