UAWC3 Lab (Page 21)

Hello everyone, The Wayne makerspace lab has been busy since the start of the semester.  There is always someone in the lab, printing, drawing, testing robots, or just hanging out.  The printers are almost constantly running and the students have no problem with figuring them out. Our portable printer (affectionately named “Polly”) exhibited platform heating problems for over a month now.  A heated platform is important when printing with ABS plastic as it needs to cool slowly to reduce the risk of warping.  As the printer was under warranty, the vendor sent a replacement heating element.  It worked for a little while, then failed again. Read More →

Hello everyone, There is rarely a dull moment at the Wayne makerspace; the printers seem to be printing something all of the time.  But not without problems, as each printer usually has some kind of issue to fix or workaround.  The build platform on the portable printer does not heat, the first printer is knocking down the object and needs its second extruder height adjusted, and the newest printer does not extrude filament consistently.  Thank goodness for technical support and service plans! But apart from difficulties, we are having much success.  Students in the Tools for Engineering class are churning out new robots each weekRead More →

Hello everyone, It was another fast week at the Wayne College makerspace.  New faces keep dropping in, trying out the 3D printers and dabbling in CAD design.   We encourage anyone to learn and use the printers, giving them the freedom to use the machines for whatever they like.  The technology is not fail-safe and we usually have hardware problems with each model.  Like copy machines, we have services plans to keep the printers in regular working order. Last Friday, kids from the Orrville Boys and Girls Club arrived for their second CAD and 3D printing workshop.  We spent two hours learning how to design modelRead More →

Hello everyone, Now the third week of the semester, things are hopping at the Wayne makerspace.  Our portable printer (Polly) came back from repair; now all three printers are functional again.  To make sure Polly is working well, we are printing a 17-hour object on it and are hoping for the best! As mentioned last week, we invited a handful of kids from the Orrville Boys and Girls Club to teach them CAD, 3D printing, and how to design their own model rockets.  What a fun time that we had.  At the start of the session, Dusty explained the laws of physics, including force, drag,Read More →

Hello everyone, The Wayne Makerspace is bustling with activity since the start of the semester.  Students spend time doing homework, work on engineering projects, drawing & designing, and just hanging out.  Students taking the Tools for Engineering class are busy creating their first Lego Mindstorms robots, testing software programs that control motors and wheels: A couple of months ago, a community member brought a plastic window clip that frequently broke due to poor design: Dusty re-created the clip in CAD, close to the original yet improved to reduce potential stress and breakage. While the clip is small and looks simple, printing it was quite aRead More →

Hello everyone, With the start of Fall semester this Monday, we are busy at the Wayne makerspace to be ready for the upcoming engineering classes.  Dusty is assisting  Professor Gold with student teaching the Tools for Engineering class.  He is fervently at work, designing a moving piston system.  Designing a complex system requires a fair amount of math knowledge, computation of angles, movement ranges, etc.: In a couple of days’ time, he designed a working piston in CAD.  Not only that, but he also learned how to make assemblies, which combines multiple parts to form a working, moving part, right on the screen. Check outRead More →

Hello everyone, It has certainly been a busy past couple of weeks!  We offered our first workshop in the new 3D Lab, composed of four days and 16 hours of training on CAD design, 3D printing, 3D scanning, building a makerspace, and more.  We hosted around 10 Northwestern Schools faculty & staff, community members, and a student or two.  Thanks to Dusty’s excellent lessons, the attendees really enjoyed the experience and will soon teach the concepts to their own students.  Thanks, Debbie, for taking photos! We hope to visit the Orrville Boys and Girls Club soon to offer lessons to their kids on CAD designing,Read More →

Hello everyone, The summer has not slowed down activities of the Wayne College makerspace.  Thanks to Dean Deckler, the Maintanance Department, and Technical Support Services, we now have a full fledged makerspace room!  Please visit A-121 (outside  the previous location) to check things out and receive a tour.  We have plenty of room for our existing 3D printers, scanner, extruder, and expansion for future equipment.  There is a sink for chemical cleanup and a fan for future machines that need an exhaust.  And there is an eight-computer class area for offering workshops.  We have big plans for this room. Dusty’s R/C car design (based onRead More →

Hello everyone, There is quite a bit going on at the Wayne College makerspace.  The summer has not dampened the activities going on; it will be exciting to see what the fall engineering students will do here.  Those classes involve using Lego Mindstorms robotics, where students can create 3D printed supplements to their robot designs. Will from our Technical Services and Support department is busy rebuilding our filament extruder from the ground up.  We received a replacement nozzle in the mail; as the previous nozzle used a metal mesh as a filter which clogged easily.  We plan to vertically mount the extruder, allowing filament toRead More →

Hello everyone, Things were too busy for a blog post last week, so this post will catch-up on what’s been happening at the Wayne College Makerspace. The most exciting announcement is the arrival of the filament extruder kit.  Once assembled, we can make our own filament in addition to buying it in spools.  That will save us 8-10 times the cost if the make the filament ourselves.  It works by feeding plastic pellets into a hopper which is pushed to a hot end via an auger.  The hot end melts the pellets and pushes out filament through a hole. Initially we had trouble with it,Read More →