UAWC3 Lab (Page 22)

Hello everyone, The theme for this week at the Wayne College Makerspace is recycling!  3D printing is far from a perfect process; a good deal of the plastic used results in failed prints.  To save costs (and the environment) we plan to recycle our waste plastic into usable filament.  Thanks to another grant from the Romich Foundation, we ordered a filament extruder and a plastic grinding machine:                                     Recycling filament is a relatively new idea in the 3D printing world.  In addition to recycling old plastic, we canRead More →

Hello everyone, We are planning to visit the Case Western ThinkBox Institute for Collaboration and Innovation tomorrow (Friday) at 11:45 a.m.   We will carpool to Cleveland, be given a guided tour at 2:30, then return back to Wayne by 5:00 at the latest.  After we arrive at the facility by 1:00 and get our bearings, we’ll find a place to eat, then come back to Case for the tour. Case Western Reserve University’s new invention center provides a space for anyone – especially students, faculty, and alumni – to tinker and creatively invent.  Housed temporarily in a 4,500 square foot space, this $25M project will beRead More →

Hello everyone, One of our engineering students, Jonnathan, designed a prototype rocket fin in Creo.  We loaded this object into the 3D printer’s “Makerware” software and will print it this afternoon.  Having a physical object in-hand now means they can visually inspect its properties, making first-time rocket launches more likely to be successful. Dusty is working on repairing a standing floor fan for E-Wing.  The plastic coupler broke that connects the curled metal pipe that sits on the floor and the vertical pipe below the fan itself.  As you can see, he is making good progress on it.  If the printed part breaks later, weRead More →

Hello everyone, Summer session hasn’t slowed down the activity at the Wayne College Makerspace.  Of particular note was a field trip to America Makes, a national 3D printing research center in Youngstown, Ohio. America Makes fosters engagements with businesses, academia, non-profit organizations, and individuals.  Members present challenges, projects, and direction in which AM researches, completes, and documents.  For instance, if NASA has a particular project that involves 3D printing, AM researches this project for them.  The University of Akron is a proud member of America Makes as well. The equipment at this facility is impressive.  They have almost a dozen consumer-level 3D printers.  They alsoRead More →

Hello everyone, Summer isn’t slowing down the activity at the Wayne College Makerspace.  All three of our printers are being put to good use.  Thanks to the Romich Foundation, we also recently purchased finishing equipment such as a Dremel tool for cutting/shaping/polishing, some table clamps, and a lighted magnifier.  Although 3D printing is dainty when it comes to plastic consumption, we print so much that we need to buy more spools sooner than we thought. A student who works for The Wilburt Company wanted to mount a webcam inside a piece of large equipment, so he designed the mount in CAD and brought it toRead More →

Hello everyone, Things are slowing down at the Wayne College MakerSpace, being the start of summer.  Engineering students enjoyed their second model rocket launch day during Finals Week.  Although I wasn’t present to witness the event, Jonny’s unique design (the “opening flower pedal” technique) allowed the rocket to descend gently without a parachute.  Congratulations for such an inventive solution! The new MakerBot has been repaired thanks to Dusty who installed a replacement extruder.  We now have a printer that handles PLA plastic allowing for larger, more reliable, and more complicated prints. Even though it’s summer and not many students are frequenting the MakerSpace, we areRead More →

Hello everyone, Students are having all sorts of fun and discovery with the CAD software and 3D printers in A-120.  There is never a dull moment (nor a moment of peace for yours truly), but that is a good thing. In the engineering department, our student Jonny is designing a new way for his model rocket to land.  Instead of deploying a parachute, his system will open the rocket body like flower petals, then the rocket will (hopefully) slowly descend to the ground.  His CAD skills and design are amazing! In the Chemistry department, our very own Dusty Ball solved a problem with the sinksRead More →

Hello everyone, On a cold, windy day, Dean Deckler and engineering students assembled in the softball field to launch model rockets, many of which were made from the College’s 3D printers.  Some rockets had 3D printed parts (such as nose cones, body shafts, and fins) whereas other rockets were entirely 3D printed.  Students used molded balsa wood, PVC tubing, and even machined aluminum.  It was an exciting day with one rocket exploding in mid-air thanks to an overly thin walled 3D printed rocket body.       Waiting for launch 3D printed rockets     A machined aluminum rocket Ralph’s rocket with a custom 3DRead More →

Hi everyone, It’s a busy week at the Wayne College makerspace.  Rocket launch day is Wednesday the 23rd (tomorrow), so students are busy designing and 3D printing rocket parts.  If you are free tomorrow morning at 9:30, come to the softball field to watch the launches. We find that designing a shape does not necessarily guarantee that it will 3D print!  The larger MakerBot printer works well with designs made in Creo, while the portable printer works better with SolidWorks.  This is because each printer uses a different “slicing engine” software program to process the student designs before printing. The MakerBot currently is printing fins,Read More →

Hello everyone, It’s a busy day at the Wayne makerspace.  Students are beginning to design and print model rocket parts for launch day on the 23rd.  Dusty and Andrew are tutoring engineering students how to design rocket bodies and nose cones in Creo, AutoCAD, and SolidWorks (thanks, Dan, for getting SW at Wayne!).  Students are learning not just how to design objects in CAD, but objects that will print well on a 3D printer. We are also trying something new, printing room labels that affix to brackets outside some rooms in the Student Life Building.  These placards are dual-color, an engineering challenge that involves creatingRead More →