Show and Tell September 2023

[jast]

Post here a picture and description of anything you are working on this month at the 'Space!

It can be anything from a small craft project to a large CNC router project to building a table to 3D printing to a science experiment and so much more. There are lots of people doing cool things at DMS all the time, but most of us don’t get to see it. Post it here and share the interesting things you are doing at Dallas Makerspace this month!

Posting here helps not only promote Dallas Makerspace, but could inspire others to make something. It will also help PR post a monthly look at what can be done here on a blog post or other social media (with attribution to each maker of course).

NOTE: Please try to include the following on each post, to help make for richer social media content!

• a decent QUALITY photo
• a notation about WHAT you’ve made
• WHO you are (for attribution on the blog)
• HOW you’ve made it
• and WHY

[ChrisCreamer]

Thanks to DMS, I’ve recently completed a long term project: A 3D Printed One-Handed Game Controller. It’s powered by a Sparkfun Arduino Pro Micro (DEV-15795), features as many buttons as an XBox or PlayStation controller would, and even comes with a USB-C port for ease of connectivity. It’s designed for use with the left hand, although I’m sure a right handed version could be produced with relative ease. The easy part would be mirroring the Printed Parts, the tricky part would be how to flip the electronics…

I had been working on this project since last year. However, for various reasons it had been stalled, so I reached out to some people at DMS. @ozindfw in particular has been instrumental in answering all my stupid questions about electronics, I could not have completed a fully functional prototype without his help.

I did the 3D Design, 3D Printing, iterative design, etc. mostly at home, however it was at DMS that I learned to solder (again, under the watchful eye of @ozindfw ), and I soldered all of the circuit boards at DMS. I even crimped my own JST Connector Cables (at home).

The odd shape of each PCB is a consequence of the odd shape of the controller itself. I actually started with a clay model, made with feedback from the intended recipient… we came up with a design that conformed all the desired controls to her left hand. I then used photogrammetry to scan it, produce a rough mesh, then use that as a base to form a proper mesh. From start to finish, all printed parts were modeled in Blender. It has its disadvantages, of course, but it’s what I know, and I made it work.

Here’s a closer look at the bottom shell, with the Main Board mounted inside. It took a few iterations just to get the positioning of the USB-C connector just right. Anyway, I’d be happy to answer any questions about this project. I plan to make another copy soon, a demonstration unit that I’ll keep for myself. It’ll help with input mapping, troubleshooting, and other questions that arise from the first prototype, now that I’ve delivered it to the intended end user.

[ozindfw]

@ChrisCreamer

my stupid questions

There is a difference between ignorance and stupidity. None of your questions were stupid, they were merely the result of being mis or uninformed.

This was an amazing first effort, and I don’t use that word lightly. This is really good work both mechanically and electronically. I encourage you to submit to Hackaday for the current contest and Make magazine

[coloneldan]

Here’s my latest simple little creation on my Ender 3 Pro using:

https://www.amazon.com/Gradient-Multicolored-Silver，3D-Printer-Filament/dp/B08FLK7JQZ/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?keywords=tty3dt+rainbow&m=A1K1ELLAK2YBEU&qid=1693782298&s=merchant-items&sr=1-2-fkmr0

rainbow filament. It is a simple little vase or pencil vase. Actually, it was a test to see what the pattern would look like. I resized it from here:

Fantastic Planter "Spiral" version by rwmech

It took over 7 hours to print.

[levi]

After same training on the Thor from @dryad2b, I finally have some sand bags to hold down fabric when patterning.

[TBJK]

Made another spray can holder for my garage. It is cut out of 18 gauge mild steel on the Dynatorch. After cutting it out, I cleaned it up on the fixture table with the surface conditioning tool. I took it to the brake, formed it with @Mrholthaus supervision so I wouldn’t screw it up. I then took it to the spot welder in Metal shop to weld the tabs together.

[HankCowdog]

After 186 bags of concrete (11,400 lbs w/out the added water) and three days feeding the cement mixer, I now finally have a concrete floor for my tack room.

Next up: walls and a ceiling.

[ozindfw]

I’m curious; this seems like a large enough pour that a mixer delivery would be more economical. Was it location or something else that drive you to bags and a local mixer?

[got_tools]

Made this for: https://leiaskids.org/

I make their thank you plaques which they give to the companies and individuals who donate portion of there sales to help kids and family’s battling Cancer… it’s a great organization…

The last photo is from the event it was used at…

[dougbcave]

Very cool HB!

[some1likezou]

How cool!! Now I want to take metal classes

[Anachronite]

ok that’s awesome!

[HankCowdog]

@ozindfw

I’m curious; this seems like a large enough pour that a mixer delivery would be more economical. Was it location or something else that drive you to bags and a local mixer?

Location, location, location.

My place is 40 miles and 2,500 feet in elevation from the cement plant. Delivery is often as much as the materials cost. Mixing it myself also allowed me so spread the work over three days, budgeting my expenditure of effort as well.

[ozindfw]

Yeah, I figured location. I spent several days doing this at a remote radio site one summer. Tower bases use a LOT of concrete. We had a pretty large mixer, but still had to hump and heft bags.

[HankCowdog]

The walls are coming along nicely:

[Lordrook]

Some recent things I’ve made for birthday gifts.

[Mrholthaus]

I did this restoration mostly at home but I did Powdercoat the blue parts at DMS.

This is a fairly rare sheet Metal machine from the 1940s. It has a USAAF tag on it which means it predated the Air Force(WW2 era). This machine very likely was used to make parts for planes during the war effort. I am not 100% sure which factory used it but it was probably local since the man who sold it to me said his dad bought it 50+ years ago and let it sit untouched since.

When I bought it:

Prep/bondo the casting (original castings are really rough):

Primer:

Paint:

Final assembly(I had to replace the missing jaws to get the machine operable):

If you are interested in what this machine and others like it do, search kick shrinker in YouTube. I personally like MP&Cs videos. I have met him on several occasions and his work is phenomenal. Also if you want to learn more about sheet metal work pm me or sign up for a class or just come find me. I am usually at DMS weekly evenings in the machine shop or metal shop or roaming about.

[John_Marlow]

Amazing work Max! Do you plan to use the machine for your own sheet metal endeavors?

[Mrholthaus]

Yes I intend to. It wasn’t originally on my list of machines to buy/build but it popped up on Facebook marketplace and it was such a good deal I couldn’t pass it up. Believe it or not, Lockheed and other defense companies are still using these machines to build/repair aircraft. The company who sold me the jaws for this one told me that they bought a few of these machines from him recently.