Joe was featured on Thingiverse for a revision of a popular printed gear heart:

A epoxy coated beaded spool table was sanded down to get a nice rounded off edge:

Work began on the electrical solution to a bicycle blender for Dream Bikes:

With the mechanical contingent’s blender design already nearly finished:

The mill was caught “making chips” for a new 4’x4′ router/cutter build in progress (and the machine shop was busy):

The pathway towards enlightenment (or maybe just a better system of learning) was being plotted out on the giant whiteboard:

Lots of learning in the TIG welding class:

The Makerbot was kept busy creating clones of itself by printing more Wade’s Extruders:

And more importantly, a Victrola horn for the iPhone4:

The Victrola horn led to some experimentation with ABS glue, also known as acetone with dissolved ABS bits which works remarkably well:

A little flame goes a long way when it comes to testing out a new gas fired kiln for aluminum casting:

Alex stopped out with a Mandli Communication’s survey van to pick up some electronics components we stock:

We finally got back into the swing of casting, with the casting cart complete and a new smaller kiln to accommodate up to 10# pours we’re ready to go:

Yet another week has flown by:
Joe’s taken the time to document a few of the prints from Thingiverse.

And the MakerBot is now rocking some lights and a teflon coated nozzle so we can see what’s going on:

And lastly, Rick has some great pictures from the last MakerBot session.

Scott brought in the fruit carbonating chamber, and with some tweaks and a spare regulator we were a regular fizzy fruit manufacturer:

While the oranges appeared unchanged, the grapes very clearly caught CO2 under the skin and the blueberries exploded as they were depressurized. We were using a standard CO2 tank with a regulator capable of 120psi output. Leaving the cold fruit in for 30 minutes resulted in a nice bite.

Lenses were cut for a modified Mag-Lite dive light which turned into a full on Mag-Lite modification mission:

Note the shortened and rethreaded Mag-Lite body:

Backpack strap hacked to allow set positions using some rivets:

Finally got the Xbox Kinect working great:

Lastly, an attempt at ferrofluids:

Here’s some real giant neodymium magnets:

Important upcoming deadlines! If anyone needs any help with their entries for these competitions please stop in, we have multi-year winners on hand to lend help and suggestions:

Governor’s Business Plan Competition Deadline – Executive Summaries Due