Yes, we’ve again lost a week towards the end of the month, this seems to happen every month but no worries – just makes for a longer post:
Lots going on this week, we finally got a machine mounted near the door running Greg’s SMSMyBus custom bus stop to allow anyone realtime tracking on buses on Winnebago and E Washington streets:
Makerbot sent us over a sweet package of 3 pounds of 3mm ink as well as 7 LED light kits and a nice letter from our first meeting of the Southern WI 3D printers group:
The 2nd meeting this week went really well, we again had Dennis, Aric, and Nate here with their Makerbots cranking through parts:
Easily the strangest item printed yet, is a line of Sector67 cups and shot glasses. They’re exceptionally unusual because they’re watertight, but leak alcohol like crazy:
Joe took some high speed video of the machines in action (and gave the Makerbot a boost in ambient temperature):
All was well until Rob showed up with his FLIR camera whose previous life was power line and transformer inspection:
The camera was easily able to show the locations of every air leak and insulation missing in the building, in addition to finding rafters through drywall and steel beams hiding behind insulation it was really helpful in looking at temperature distribution throughout the Makerbots. It’s equipped with a black and white viewfinder but the real show is on the RCA video output that was hacked in to give color video output:
6061 Aluminum coffee tamper machined for the ultimate brew:
Who needs a plate when there are enough washdown rated motor controllers laying around:
Spring is officially here, apparently the entire building is host to a giant colony of ants:
Which was quickly resolved:
Speaking of spring, sunlight was spotted inside the hackerspace, efforts have been made to staunch future leaks lest the pale skin tone starts to tan:
Dougal’s Civic window was misbehaving, which turned out to be completely stripped off gear teeth. The decision was made to TIG weld additional material and grind in new teeth to restore functionality:
The missing teeth were in the middle of the shiny spot:
The power deadbolt door lock “access system” finally gave up the ghost, it was diagnosed as a blown H bridge driver resulting from the replacement of batteries. . . I’m not sure how much the company saved by putting in tiny H bridges that can’t handle the current from a fresh set of AA batteries, but there’s likely a reason there was no brand name on the entire device: (dead chip removed, was 8 lead SOIC package towards the center, now a big open spot)
DreamBike’s bicycle blender is coming along really well. A direct drive mechanical solution is currently implemented, initially a single power takeoff was installed relying on rack and wheel stiffness for blending capability. It was quickly realized that side-loading a bicycle rim was not ideal, and an idler would be necessary for good power generation. An old skateboard wheel and bearings was sourced and quickly installed. Performance goals are definitely met, barely pedaling quickly results in a fully blended ice treat:
