Every week we want to let folks inside and outside the space know what has been happening and what is likely to happen. We started this in week 3, but I didn’t get around to posting them until now. We’ll try to keep these coming more regularly in the future!
Anyway, onto the Weekly Snippets for 2011 – Week 3 (jan 14-20) (full details after the jump)
Kevin:
Last Week:
– Disassembled the stage from our Psuedo-opening party
– Made frames for two pieces of art.
– Upgraded my storage-palet by adding shelves.
– Built a support structure for my Giant Evil Wind Chimes so I can hang them from the wall while I work on them. I’m working on cutting stainless steel wire rope and crimping on ferrules to attach the ~5 foot long pipes.
This Week:
– Finish hanging the Chime pipes and make a striker and sail so that wind can actually ring them.
– Work on brazing bronze rod into a sound generating sculpture/instrument.
– Hopefully help Tom and Sean move Tom’s kiln into the makerspace
Sean:
Last Week:
– Last Thursday I started making an intrusion alarm from MAKE Electronics book. Today I finished cleaning the lathe and the laser cutter.
This Week:
– I will be working on the intrusion alarm this week. I would also like to start working on my power wheels car in the next one to two weeks.
Adam:
I had a good week in the makerspace. I was able to mold and cast my
magnetic spheres up to airsoft diameter with passable results. I had
a moderately successful test of my sensor as a shooting target. And I
figured out a way to mass produce my sensor coils using only metal
washers and business cards (and of course magnet wire). So I tried it
out and made ten sensors at once. I am not satisfied with the
performance of my sensor at this point, it has only about a 50%
success rate. I will be concentrating this week on getting the signal
amplified and thinking about other analog signal processing
techniques. I am going to have to learn a thing or two about
electronics.
Matt G:
Last week:
– Introduced a few new folks to the Makerspace and the group. Word of
mouth seems to be a great advertising tool so the thing I’ve learned
is to give as many tours as possible.
– Began working on several camera rig projects with my friend David
Overbeck. (RC motorized dolly, pan/tilt head, action camera rig, etc.)
– David has agreed to help us shoot some promo / how-to /
instructional videos every Tuesday night or so, with is pro-grade
equipment & professional editing skills.
– Helped Brant and other members over the weekend – mostly watching to
learn ;)
– Built and flew a kite-camera rig at South Shore Park with Kevin and
David Overbeck. Preview pic: http://twitpic.com/3qzmfl
— We’ll have an edited video that we can associate online with the
Makerspace soon; David is cutting it together.
– Built a chassis for an RC Rock Crawler from a $12 Walmart RC toy.
Preview: http://twitpic.com/3qs6oe
This week:
– Finish the chassis of my rock crawler.
– Work on the actual code for the Internet Coffee Pot.
– Beginning planning a handmade music / musical-electronics group (and
maybe a class on guitar pedal building) with Kevin.
– Get certified on a few more machines.
Tom Gralewicz:
Got the pin ball machine cleaned and working (sound is still a problem)
Lots of work on my 18V NiCd battery charger circuit for the Harbor Freight Drills. The new circuit works but doesn’t reset after you disconnect the battery, I have an idea how to fix that and have a 2nd version of the circuit and board ready for fab.
Worked with Royce building pallets to store the power wheels cars, tried to have a power wheels build Saturday but got distracted :-)
Looked at the lathe and scrounged most of the parts necessary to rewire the starter.
Ben:
My snippet – work on a wood tool box.
I didn’t actually build it, my father did, based on a very old design. I did some sanding, then photographed it (while still unfinished) and then stained it with a primative-style colored stain.
What I think is interesting about this box is how simple and practical it is. It could be easily mass-produced or designed as kits for other people to assemble, etc, etc.
I posted photos to the Makerspace page in the “MISC” album, but frankly, the blogging feature on the Makerspace is not super-user friendly in terms of adding in photos, etc.
I also posted it to Instructables. http://www.instructables.com/id/Simple-Wood-Toolbox/
Ron:
I finished the base for the CNC router.
The next step is to find 3 or 4 guys to help lift the slides onto the
base (they’re *really* heavy). I plan to do this on Tuesday night, when
people are there for the meeting.
After that: brackets for the steppers (need training on the mill), and
a workholding table on top of the slides. Z axis will be the last step.
Also: designed a simple “wedge” to incline my bed by 15 degrees.
Supposedly better than sleeping flat (we’ll see). Need someone to help
transport plywood (although I could build it from 2’x4′ sheets, which
fit in my car).
Pete (member in spirit):
• Tweaking Matt’s code for the Drawbot:
– http://rasterweb.net/raster/2011/01/12/friday-night-drawbot/
– http://gist.github.com/778622
• Perl + Arduino + ShiftBrite fun…. I’ll have another post and a real-world application if I finish the enclosure I’m building.
– http://rasterweb.net/raster/2011/01/17/perl-arduino-shiftbrite/
• I’ll have a write-up about the iPad stand I made… will publish tomorrow.
• Looking into some bristlebot ideas…
– http://www.instructables.com/id/Solar-Cockroach-Virbobot/
• And today I’m modifying my drill press to hold a branding iron…