Hello everyone,
The Spring semester is flying by this year! Already halfway through the semester, students have been busy with midterm exams and projects. Spring is just around the corner, yet today’s blistery cold wind and snow took us by surprise!
This week was also our Disability & Mental Health Awareness event. Students learned something new about what it’s like to have a disability that interferes with learning and everyday functioning. In our personal and work lives, we all run into someone who is differently-abled than ourselves. This was a great opportunity to learn and develop empathy in a fun and relaxed environment.
Feel free to stop-by the 3D Lab to learn 3D printing and make stickers, buttons, and laser engraved gifts. We show you how to use the equipment; you make the stuff! Please click here for a list of things you can create in the 3D Lab. To plan a visit, please let us know the day & time of your arrival via tjh1@uakron.edu or 330-684-8722 so that we have staff available. People under the age of 18 need to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. Our hours of operation are listed here.
If you’re a maker with experience in metalworking, soldering, reading engineering drawings, and have an excellent attention to detail, Schantz Organ Company in Orrville would like to hear from you. They have a position available for a pipemaker. Please read the attached position summary for details!
Community member Laura and a friend visited the 3D Lab to engrave rough-cut wood planed into kitchen cutting boards. Lab staff Carter assisted them with operating the laser engraver for the correct power and speed to match the wood, resulting in a dark, deepened image. Engraving is a great way to personalize gifts!
Laura is very creative in the lab; she purchased engravable mugs that have a thin colored coating that can be lasered away to reveal the core color underneath to making attractive custom mugs!
Staff member Jenna had a great idea to commemorate a loved one, a photo plaque with a high-tech surprise! Next to the photo is a sticker made with our solvent-ink printer containing a QR code. When a viewer snaps the code with their phone, they hear a sample of the person speaking! The audio was uploaded as a YouTube video, the URL of which converted to a QR code. This idea would work with audio with video, too. Great work, Jenna!
For the past couple of weeks, staff member Wendy and lab staff Cait worked on transferring artwork to blank mouse pads using the lab’s dye sublimation printer.
The first mousepads came out too vibrant and more blue than green. They learned that “color mode” in PhotoShop is important to reproduce accurate color. “RGB” mode is best when the destination is a computer screen that use different intensities of colored light. But when outputting to printers that use ink, “CMYK” color mode is best as color is defined by layering of physical ink. They also learned that different printer & ink brands have variations of ink colors, so a “color profile” (aka ICC profile) for our ink was used. After those were figured out, the mousepads came out beautifully and with accurate color!
