Hi everyone,
I was wondering what we are planning for this coming year at DMS? The info I’m hoping for is at the commitee/interst group and board level.
I think if we make a goals list, we can check back and follow progress through the year.
Current Goals:
Wood Shop: Bringing in the router table - So far the plans seem to be delivery and setup in Q1 of 2015 and coordinate training with the manufacturer. Machine Shop: Continue training on HAAS and expanding options in machining area Metal Shop: add a Safety Training Course and start some Welding Courses. Bio Committee: Continue to organize and tweaking the Aqua-ponics setup. Electronics: Choose new committee head and continue expanding options for the room Board: Elections in March. VECTOR: Bringing in new machines for restoration and learning, Figure out what we are taking to Texas Pinball Festival. Lemons Car: Work on getting Lemons Car race ready and decorate it to look like a spiky turtle shell from Mario Kart. Auto Committee: Make lemons car a success, keep work area organized and full of needed tools, have more classes, start another group project to work on in summer / fall. Laser Committee: Continued training and planning for possible purchase of another laser. 3D Fab: Expecting more growth in the 3D printing options at the space, this may be the year for a UV printer. Also, hoping to see some member built machines finding a home in the 3D Fab room. Mitch’s Build a 3D printer course. Embroidery: More Classes and figuring out a consumables option to make use of the machine easier.
This is all I can thinkof for some of the larger goals at the space, please comment with any adjustments or additions. I’m excited for another great year at DMS I hope the rest of you share the excitement as well.
Laser Committee: My goal is to get the Laser Committee to own and operate more lasers and more types of lasers. I would like to see the Laser Committee expand beyond just a single shop tool, and become an educational and experimental resource in photonics.
Bio Committee: I would like for Bio to run organized experiments (recording names, dates, and quantifiable parameters of plant growth) and maximize crop yield from small units.
Metal shop - would like to see more effort on training for the individual machines (mill, lathe) than the HAAS. Not my area of expertise, but HAAS seems to be more production oriented and is a lot to remember if all you want to do is square up a block of metal or turn a metal rod. 3D fab - I think the next printer should be going larger rather than smaller. There was a thread a while ago on this. Seeing how some prints are taking 8 hrs to do a piece taking the entire x-y printing space on the Poly printer, how about a low res but large format printer that would open up a whole new world of 3D printing at DMS. Bio - I want to introduce some more electronic oriented bio projects like physiologic signal acquisition and processing - EEG, EMG, ECG, etc.
We shelved the idea of getting a car lift for now due mainly to lack of interest.
Current goals for Auto are probably: make lemons car a success, keep work area organized and full of needed tools, have more classes, start another group project to work on in summer / fall.
VECTOR - Huuuuge opportunity coming up to promote DMS at Texas Pinball Festival. Many thousands of visitors/local families/hobbyists/etc. will be in attendance. I am committed to bringing Surf Side and Flipper Fair to the show (both officially sponsored by “Dallas Makerspace VECTOR Committee”).
What we need is signage for DMS/VECTOR. I’m thinking sign toppers for the backboxes with LED lightstrips underneath. Also would be good to have business cards & brochures handy for guests to take.
On the local front, we gotta get that MAME cabinet running. William, I know you’ve been busy but we need to at least get it to “playable status” since active restoration has stalled. Steve says the two slots are on the way out. Flipper Fair is also “mostly done” so it is also headed out.
In their place I have three machines to bring in from different eras (50’s, 60’s, and 80’s) for various refurbishments during “Restoration Thursdays”.
Nick… do you think King Pin will make another TPF appearance?
I’d totally encourage people to build their own 3D printer, I plan for the class to bring in 1 if not 2 more RepRap 3D printers into 3D fab. Definitely join the class.
Larger printer, less time would require a few things; bigger nozzle, faster extruder and gantry, most likely using PLA or other materials less likely to warp when not inside an enclosure. The Mendel 90 can be scaled larger but you have to account for structural integrity, inertial mass, and overall footprint.
Double wide PolyPrinter would be great but it would have to justify the cost to 3D fab and DMS.
Metalworking Shop Committee is focusing their efforts on the HAAS Mill since everyone has been asking for it. If you want to be trained on something else, you need to email them and let them know!
That’s the link that Mitch posted in 3D Fabrication. I thought of copying it here, but then I decided that it is just the extruder. I don’t know what machine it fits.
What’s the current thinking on a two head machine capable of dissolvable filament? It seems that could open the door to a lot of shapes or structures which are impractical or impossible with the kind of ‘same filament support material’ you have to trim away with a knife…
@cottjr, I’ll try and bring up your idea next time I’m talking with the other 3d fab members. a dual head printer may be a better next printer than a larger printer when you think about the options it would add to 3d fab.
@rice81, From what I know about the manual machines, is it is kind of a get in there and learn for yourself. I know this isn’t ideal, especially with the danger of hurting something. Be cautious, if you are super new to it all, I would try and reach out to Chuck Graff, he gave me an introduction to the lathe, and is a great resource to know around the space. There is another member that has been referbing the vertical mill, I can’t think of his name off the top of my head, I would try and chat with him if your interested in that machine. He is often in the machining area.
I was hoping to have more committees pipe in on this, if you spot some of the committee leaders around the space, please tell them about the thread as they may of missed it.
There doesn’t seem to be a great solution. Here is an Austin company that got $0.25M kickstarter to create a big 3D printer . . . and they did, but it isn’t as awesome at it might appear.
It’s a good review of the product that is about $6K in kit form. But here are a few excepts that summarize:
“Bigger is not better when it comes to the gargantuan Gigabot 3D printer. This machine lacks the speed and reliability needed to live up to the promise of its massive size.”
“Currently, the Gigabot retails for nearly $6000 on the re:3D website. For this price point, the Gigabot needs to be able to reliably fulfill its promise of creating monster sized 3D prints. If this means making sacrifices, like massively increasing the layer height so prints can be completed in a reasonable amount of time, then that might have been an acceptable trade-off. Instead, it exacerbates the issue of long print times, one of the greatest weaknesses of desktop 3D printing.”
“This product lacks the key innovations necessary to mitigate the print time and reliability issues associated with its large build volume. When taken into consideration with the other quality and usability issues it becomes difficult to recommend this printer to anyone. The reality of the current state of desktop 3D printing technology is that considerable development is necessary before a printer like the Gigabot can become a viable product.”
Re: machine shop - @bscharff - thanks for the comments. I didn’t want to seem like I was whining about the HAAS. I love the bigger and fancier stuff, but I frequently want to learn the most complex equipment, machine or software when all I really needed was a screwdriver. So I have to remind myself of that. I thought I could recall much about the basic machines but after watching some youtubes, I realized there is lots to know even with the mill and lathe just to do the basics properly and not cause any damage to tools or equipment. There are tons of instructional videos on these machines. Perhaps we can put together a recommended collection of them and / or a basic class for the metal shop like the wood shop has.
Re: Bio - @Opcode - I’ll try and collect and dust off the parts (instrumentation amps, isolation amps and filters) for biologic signal aquisition and processing and perhaps put together a small lab area for its use and / or maybe a class. There is so much new stuff for that now (ASICs and single board monitors) that I’m not sure where I would start these days.
How about a color viewing booth? This could help improve workflow from Photoshop thru hard copy prints - and go a long way to deal with the otherwise poor lighting in the room with the PhotoShop PC and wide format printer…
I would love to see more classes on the lathes - wood and metal.
I would love to see us eventually get a second laser, since the existing one is used so much. Maybe a smaller, less expensive one for smaller projects?