Hello everyone,
Finals Week is over! Congratulations to all of our students who finished exams and can look forward to a peaceful, beautiful, snow covered Winter Break. We ended the semester with a “fiesta” of activities including holiday craftmaking, wonderful food at MARRs Café, karaoke, a door decorating contest, and more!
Earlier this month, young community members from a local homeschool group visited the 3D Lab to learn digital fabrication and express their creativity! Lab staff Carter helped them create designs in Corel DRAW which were laser engraved onto balsawood bookmarks. They also learned the button press to make custom pin-on buttons and the solvent ink printer to make die cut stickers. Everyone had a great time and discovered how easy it is to make something beautiful!
Each year, budding engineers take the Tools For Engineering class where they learn free-hand, engineering, and CAD drawing; computer programming, computer applications, and engineering economics. But the most exciting part is the robot challenges! Student build custom robots using LEGO Mindstorms to accomplish goals, such as pick and place, the notorious stair climbing challenge, and most importantly, the Battle Bots tournament at the end of semester!
The creativity and engineering that went into this year’s tournament was quite a treat. One robot flung a whip while another other used spinning orbs to knock an opponent off-balance. One finalist (top-left photo, top robot) was built like a tank and flipped over opponents with hooked arm. The winning design (bottom right) had the best combination of size and mobility with an intimidating plow that pushed anything in its path! Congratulations to Gabriel for winning this year’s tournament!
Back in the 3D Lab, staff members Jeanette and Wendy had a great idea: make festive Wayne College sweatshirts and t-shirts! Wendy made an attractive holiday themed Wayne College design with Adobe PhotoShop while Jeanette learned how to print full-color vinyl t-shirt decals on the solvent ink printer.
Solvent ink technology differs from traditional inkjet in that the permanent ink fuses to the surface of material, whereas the latter is water based and soaks into it. This means a variety of material can be printed onto. For instance, we experimented printing the holiday design onto glitter vinyl which was especially pretty!
That’s a wrap for 2025! The 3D Lab will be ready in 2026 with a fresh set of stories, projects, and creative people! We look forward to welcoming students back for Spring semester in January! Enjoy the holidays!
Stay tuned next month as we reveal more interesting things happening in the Wayne College 3D Lab!
Until then,
Tom
Starbucks Opens Its First 3D-Printed Store
https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/04/27/2041226/starbucks-opens-its-first-3d-printed-store
3D Print Christmas: 15 Last-Minute Cookie Cutters You Can Make Now
https://all3dp.com/2/3d-printed-cookie-cutters-christmas/
3D printer build class at Wayne County Public Library
(January 17, 2026)Click here for more information
Laser engraving class
(January 14, 2026)Click here 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.