Author Archives: Pete Prodoehl

The New Milwaukee Makerspace

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Lenox

When Milwaukee Makerspace started in August of 2009, Tom and Royce gathered a group of people who had a common interest in starting a hackerspace/makerspace in Milwaukee. A group met at Tom’s house for the first meeting, and then moved to the local Culver’s, meeting each week to discuss current projects, and plans for a space. By November 2010 the group acquired a space in the Chase Commerce Center, and with 13 founding members they launched at our current location, and then added two more members before a soft opening party in January 2011.

We’ve gone from 15 members at the start of 2011 to over 70 members near the end of 2012. We’ve seen our capabilities expand, the list of equipment grow, the number of projects explode, and we’ve also gotten involved in the community. It’s been pretty amazing the last 20 months… and we’re ready for the next step.

We’re about to start the process of moving from our present 6,000 square foot space to a new 16,000 square foot building. Don’t worry, we’ll still be in Milwaukee (and still in Bay View) and in fact, we’ll be moving more into the heart of Bay View, into an entire building at 2555 South Lenox Street on the corner of Lenox and Otjen, one block off Kinnickinnic, next to the McDonald’s. If you’ve been to the Bay View Library, The Hi-Fi Cafe, or Rushmor Records, then you know the area.

So what does this all mean? It means that instead of exclusively working on our own projects for the next month, many of us will also be working on building out the new space: having a Sawzall party on the roof, knocking down a wall or two, building up several new ones, etc!

We hope to offer a lot of new capabilities at the new space, things we’ve wanted to do but may not have been able to due to limitations of our first space. We’ll also be looking at hosting classes and other events at the new space.

If you’ve been interested in joining Milwaukee Makerspace, you’ve got two options… join now, and help with the move (and have a hand in what the new space will be) or wait until we’re all moved in. That second options sounds sort of boring though, and I’m sure you’re more interested in helping us create an amazing new space here in Milwaukee, because you’re a bold maker with great ideas.

Lenox

Nerdy Derby ReCap

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Derby Car

It’s been a few weeks, but honestly, it took that long to recover! Yes, we all survived Milwaukee’s First Nerdy Derby race (well, a few cars may have been damaged) so here’s a look at some of the coverage.

Ed put together this great video of the race…

Kevin put together a car that was deemed too dangerous (or was it ‘too awesome’?) but you can read about that here.

Sling Shot

Collin’s car won the “Longest time” category, and here’s a video of Rolling Thunder in action…

Have Blue put together a super-detailed blog post about his car, which definitely won the speed competition, and also won the “Run backwards up the slope and launch” category.

There’s more car photos on Flickr. I’ve been told a few people want to have another race, and this time we may even need “motorized” and “non-motorized” categories as multiple cars sported propellers, motors, ducted fans, etc.

I’m not sure if anyone bothered to keep track of all the winners in all the categories (we created about 8 categories you could win) but the main thing most people will remember is the fun we had. Kids and adults were cheering and laughing during the race, and also had a fun time just building cars out of all the scrap we supplied. It was probably the most awesome thing that happened at BarCampMilwaukee this year.

I’d also like to give a big thanks to Buggs, Vishal, and Brant for providing the track and running the race. A little organization goes a long way!

Ada Lovelace Day

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Ada Lovelace Day

October 16th, 2012 is Ada Lovelace Day, and it’s about sharing stories of women… women who are makers, engineers, scientists, technologists and mathematicians. Women makers inspire us with their accomplishments, and we should let people know about it.

My own list of women who I find inspiring include Limor Fried (of Adafruit Industries), Jeri Ellsworth (all-around hacker), and Erin aka “RobotGrrl”. My own daughters also inspire me with the things they make, and I want to make sure they’ve got some great female role models to look up to.

Here at Milwaukee Makerspace we’re used to people calling us “a bunch of guys” because, well… we do have more male members than female members, but it’s not by design. Currently we have just a few female members, but we also work with many talented women in the community, from Kompost Kids to Wrapraround Milwaukee, we have plenty of women stop by the space for help with projects or just to find out what we’re all about.

We’ve never made a distinct effort to get women makers to join Milwaukee Makerspace, as our mission has always been to get makers to join Milwaukee Makerspace. Men, Women, Robots… as long as you love making things, you’re welcome at the space. If you’re curious about what we do, or the tools we have, just stop by any Tuesday night at 7pm for our weekly meeting. And what better day to stop by than Ada Lovelace Day!

Find out more about Ada Lovelace Day, and how to encourage women to take part in STEM-related activities at findingada.com. And don’t forget to check out the stories!

Comm Badges for Artemis

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Artemis

So there’s this game called Artemis, which is a multi-player video game where six people play the roles of helm, communications, science, weapons, and engineering stations and follow the orders of a captain aboard a starship. It sounds like the sort of thing Star Trek nerds might love. (And yes, I’m a Star Trek nerd!)

Comm Badges

There will be a game of Artemis at BarCampMilwaukee7, and I thought that people who play the game might like to make things a bit more realistic, so I made some comm badges I found on Thingiverse. I made them on my RepRap, but let’s just pretend I made them on the Replicator we have at the space, as that would be so much more awesome… (Did I mention I’m a Star Trek nerd?)

Robotics @ UWM

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Robot

We’ve got a number of robot builders at Milwaukee Makerspace, but we’re not the only robot-lovers in town… via Frankie’s blog, check out this video about Tom Consi and the robotics work he’s doing at UWM.

(We’ve seen some renewed interest in the Milwaukee Robotics Club recently, so we’ll probably start up regular meetings again in the next few months… that way everyone can show off what they’ve been working on.)

Who wants a Junk Car?

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Junk Car

Don’t feel bad for Junk Car… Junk Car does the best it can with the parts it’s been dealt. As we prepare for our Nerdy Derby, we’ve been working on our own cars, but we also want people to bring the cars they’ve made, and we know that some people will show up, and say “Damn! I wish I had a car!” so for those people we’re assembling a box o’ parts. We’ve got some bodies and wheels, and I’m sure the folks at Bucketworks can dig up some crafty materials for decorating the crap out of your crap car. (Remember, there are awards for style as well as speed!)

Spare Parts

And hey, don’t feel bad for Junk Car, it’s just a name. In the hobby robotics world people often use the term “Junk Bot” to describe any robot cobbled together out of spare parts they had lying around, so this is pretty much the same thing.

(And yes, those are laser-cut wheels, and 3D printed wheels you see in the photo.)

Bay View Gallery Night at Alterra

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Bay Viw Galery Night 2012

Milwaukee Makerspace is proud to be a part of the Bay View community, and we’re also proud to be a part of the arts community, and when we can combined those things together, it’s even better!

So join us on Friday, September 28th, 2012 at Alterra Coffee, 2301 S. Kinnickinnic Ave. in Bay View for BGVN.

Besides our craziness, there will be over 25 different artists and crafters and makers at Alterra, showing everything from printmaking to painting to jewelry to clothing. There will also be live music and it’s a family friendly event. There’s a heap more info (including who is going) over on Facebook.

And what exactly will Milwaukee Makerspace be doing there? Well, we don’t want to ruin the surprises, but there may be art, or robots, or lasers, or fruit, or plastic filament… or all of those things and more!

So join us on Friday, September 28th, 2012, any time between 5pm and 10pm and see what sort of creative projects we have to show off this time. :)

Moar Power!

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DIY PSU

Power? We always need more power! Many months back Joel had an old computer power supply that he modified to use as a cheapo bench power supply. Sure, it doesn’t have all the bells and whistles (and adjust-ability) of a real bench power supply, but since we hate to waste, and love to recycle, it’s a good use of an old power supply.

I learned a lot about power supplies last month when I destroyed the one I use(d) with my RepRap, and in the process I ended up harvesting a few PSUs from old computers we had in the server room at work. I ended up using one of them to build my own project power supply with 5 volt and 12 volt outputs. I grabbed a pair of resistors from the component library to put a load on the supply, and drilled four holes in the case to mount a few posts I got at Radio Shack. I’ve now got plenty of power to power all sorts of powerful projects!

DIY PSU

Here you can see it powering up an LED ring light that requires 12 volts. I can also use it to run a small fan when soldering components. The uses for such a power supply are endless! (Well, within the supplied voltage and current anyway.)

Milwaukee’s Nerdy Derby

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

The Nerdy Derby

One of the things happening at Maker Faire New York this year is the Nerdy Derby, which is described as such:

A no-rules miniature car building and racing competition inspired by the Cub Scouts’ Pinewood Derby. With a larger, more undulating track and no restrictions on the size of the cars or materials participants can use, the Nerdy Derby rewards creativity, cleverness and ingenuity.

We thought this looked like fun and decided to get in on the act and hold our own Nerdy Derby right here in Milwaukee. There’s been a bunch of talk around the space about car design, melting lead, putting the new lathes to work making wheels, and of course, laser cutting cars.

I’ve actually finished my first car, which has a body make entirely of laser cut Baltic Birch plywood, and is filled with sand for weight, which I call “Poundin’ Sand”.

Poundin' Sand

We’ve also got interest from people outside the space, in the greater maker community in Milwaukee. Here’s the amazing progress of Frankie Flood, who is building a replica of a “belly tanker” for his car.

Frankie's Belly Tanker

I can see this thing winning on style points alone! :) (And yes, there are multiple categories you can win,not just “fastest car.”)

There are other cars in progress, and lots of ideas being thrown around the Makerspace about what people are planning to build, so it’s just a matter of time before we start careening down the track. Speaking of the track, we’ve got a regulation Cub Scout track so far, which we may try to modify to match the “official” Nerdy Derby track before the big race.

And when is this “big race” you ask? Well, we’ll probably do a good test race at the space this month, and then if all goes well, we will have the big race at Bucketworks on Saturday night, October 6th, 2012 during BarCampMilwaukee.

And we want you to join us! All you have to do is build a car, and show up. I know we said “no-rules” but we do have two semi-rules: don’t damage the track,and don’t make anything so dangerous it could easily injure someone. Besides that though…. anything goes! Don’t have all the parts you need to build a car? We’ll do our best to provide some parts at the race so you can make one on the spot.

See you at the races!

60 Watts of Lazzor Power!

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

Laser Training

Last week we got the 60 watt laser cutter “officially” online and working. We even got a bunch of people trained on using it. There’s still an issue with homing, but if you follow the instructions, it works fine.

And by “works fine” I mean it “works great!”

I ended up cutting my Nerdy Derby car last week, and I also did this laser-etched coaster, which is about 3.75″ in diameter and 3mm thick. There was a little bit of scorching at the bottom, but I may be able to sand that off easily. I was still playing with the cutting settings a bit. I may also play with the masking tape idea to prevent scorching the surface when cutting.

Laser Etched and Cut

The artwork for the coaster is a mathematician from a NASA coloring book, and I found it on OpenClipArt.org which is a great source for public domain vector-based artwork.

(Oh, we also ended up connecting the PC that was on the 25 watt laser cutter (which is down for maintenance) because it’s got a newer version of CorelDraw.)