Are you a boat or home owner? Do you wish paying your bills was more fun? Do you have stacks of cash sitting around just taking up space? Well this is the project for you! Over the next month we will be designing version 2 of the Rain Maker. It’s a tool that you load with cash and then launch at about the speed most of my project eat cash lately. Version 2 you ask? That’s right most of the longer projects we model in class take me several attempts to get right. Here is a link so you can see it in action.
The first draft lets me work out the ideas and see if I can get a working prototype. In this case I knew I wanted to try over molding like our favorite tool company here in Milwaukee and I was not sure if my cash accelerator device would work. About a hundred hours of printing later I can tell you it does and I learned a lot of do’s and don’t when over molding on 3d printed parts. I do really like the feel of the urathane rubber in my hand and it is so much fun to see money shooting our the front of the tool. This is going to be a fun one so join us Mondays @ 7pm or watch the series on YouTube.
Last minute decisions work out once in a while. For example, I was going to be at the Makerspace booth at the Milwaukee Maker Faire for the weekend and wanted some examples of the sorts of things you can use a 3D printer to make, so I grabbed the usual collection of sample prints, and then I thought, “sure, why not?”, and loaded the Van de Graaff generator into the car. It sat on the floor in the booth for about 1/2 of Saturday and I was getting a little bored, so I moved it closer to the foot traffic and plugged it in. Wow! Kids and adults with stunted emotional development went nutz! They were zapping themselves and each other as if it were more fun than painful.
Sparks! The VDG produces about 400 kV.
Then I found a plastic bucket and the fun really started. We had kids and many adults who were definitely much too heavy, standing on the bucket and making their hair stand up with moms, dads, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives, partners all taking pictures. I had to move one gentleman who was breathing oxygen from a tank away from the machine. Fortunately, no one fell off the bucket or caught on fire, and next year we’ll do it right and take a block of styrofoam for people to fall off of to stand on.
Kylee was ready to join the Makerspace just for this… and with that shirt, she’d fit right in!
Blondes really do have more fun!
Even Gordon couldn’t resist!
Last year Son of MegaMax (a 3D printer built at the Milwaukee Makerspace) went to the Faire. This year he had two companions to keep him company- an extra-beefy printer being built by Erich Zeimantz: MiniMax XY. MMXY isn’t complete yet, but promises to be a super high quality, high speed printer. He’ll be operational at next year’s Maker Faire. SoM also brought his big brother, Ultra MegaMax Dominator, named that because he is ultra, mega, maximum, and he dominates.
MiniMax XY at Milwaukee Maker Faire
Ultra MegaMax Dominator and Son of MegaMax at the Milwaukee Maker Faire
UMMD and SoM rotated between the booth and the dark room where the both printers’ UV lighting and fluorescent filament was a big hit.
UMMD in the Dark Room at Milwaukee Maker Faire 2017
We had a few things besides 3D printers at the booth. Tony brought in some Bismuth crystals to give away, and surprisingly, they didn’t all disappear in the first hour. Tony thinks people left them because the Makerspace logo on the info board on which the crystals were sitting looked a lot like the skull and crossbones that usually indicates poison. The crystals do have an other-worldly toxic look about them. Oh well…
Bismuth Crystal
Marcin’s LED signs on the table at the booth and hanging above the entrance to the Dark Room were also very popular and hard to miss, though I managed not to take any pictures of either. The one above the Dark Room was so bright that if you saw it, you’ve probably still got its image burned into your retinas.
Everyone involved had a great time and we’ll be there again next year with even more cool stuff!
The photo above was taken in March of 2013, just two months after we moved into the building that is now home to Milwaukee Makerspace. Before January of 2013 we were located in the Chase Commerce Center, and Royce was the President, and Willie came to Royce with the idea of using the space to build a boat.
On the left side of the photo is the frame that Willie would build his boat upon. For the next (nearly) five years, anyone who came through the space for a tour, or showed up for an event, would at some point be told “And this where Willie is building a boat.”
Every week, or month, you’d see some progress. Willie would be working diligently on the boat. He thought it would be done in 2015, and then he thought it would be done in 2016, and finally, In August of 2017 the boat (named “LOY”) was ready…
And on September 2nd, 2017 Willie, along with his family, and friends, and members of the space, celebrated, and launched the boat into Lake Michigan. It was a beautiful day, and I’m not just talking about the weather. It was the culmination of years of work, and a testament to what Milwaukee Makerspace can be.
Royce, one of the Founders of Milwaukee Makerspace, said a few words about Willie, LOY, and the space. Royce doesn’t get to the space as often as he used to (kids, life, etc.) but it was great to see him talk about Willie and the boat, and how it all came together to happen at the space.
Willie pours champagne on the wreath at the bow of the boat. Much better than smashing a bottle against the hull!
It’s nearly in the water! Wolfgang mans the lines and keeps things steady for the moment LOY touches the waters of Lake Michigan for the first time.
It floats! Willie made a joke that most boats only sink one time. He then got to work doing all the rigging necessary for a sailboat. There’s a lot of setup involved for the masts, sails, rudder, etc.
Captain Willie in command! Ready for the maiden voyage of LOY.
And they’re off! Seeing LOY sail away was an emotional experience. Many of our members know what it’s like to build large and complex projects, and some members know what it’s like to work on a project for years, but seeing that beautiful boat, and knowing all of the hours Willie put into it… it was something to behold.
Also, check out Carl’s video of the launch. It does a great job of compressing the morning into a few minutes, and hopefully you get a feel for the excitement of the day.
Finally, if you want to see LOY in person (and you should!) Willie will have his breathtaking creation at Maker Faire Milwaukee on September 23 & 24, 2017.
This week I attempted the first test of the chocolate printer cooling system. The cooling system is intended to solidify the chocolate just after it leaves the extruder nozzle so that by the time the next layer is started it will have a solid layer to sit on. The cooling system consists of a centrifugal blower with a brushless DC motor blowing room air into a styrofoam cooler containing a block of dry ice. The air passes over the dry ice and gets chilled as the dry ice sublimates directly into very cold CO2 gas. The chilled air and CO2 mixture exit the box through a port with a hose that will ultimately blow the cold air on the chocolate. At least, that’s how it is supposed to work. It blows air at -12C as measured via a thermocouple, but unfortunately, the air exit port ices up in about 2 minutes and blocks the air flow.
There are many possible solutions. I can add a heater to the exit port to prevent formation of ice, or dry the air going into the box using a dessicant cannister or maybe just use water ice instead of dry ice if the higher temperature will still cool the chocolate adequately. Maybe using an old miniature freezer with an air hose coiled inside would do the job. It would be really interesting if I could use the waste heat from a freezer to keep the chocolate liquified and flowing. Back to the drawing board!
Chocolate printer progress continues. This week was devoted to the print cooling system. The chocolate will come out the extruder nozzle in a semi-molten state. It needs to solidify by the time the next layer of chocolate gets deposited on it, and I’d prefer it doesn’t drip or sag, so it needs to be chilled right after extrusion. The current plan is to blow chilled air over the chocolate just after it leaves the extruder. The chilled air will come from a foam insulated box containing a block of dry ice. There will be a blower pushing air into the box and a hose delivering the chilled air/CO2 to the print.
A couple weeks ago I got a blower from American Science and Surplus and this week I got it running by using a model airplane ESC and servo tester to drive its brushless DC motor. It appears to be capable of blowing much more air than I’ll need. There are many unknowns yet to test. How much chilled air/CO2 will it take to solidify the chocolate after it leaves the extruder? How long will a block of dry ice last when used this way? Will ice build-up inside the chiller box adversely affect its performance?
I designed and printed three parts for this system- a mount to attach the blower to a foam box up to 1.5″ thick, a hose coupler to allow delivery of the chilled air/CO2 to the print, and a hole saw to cut holes to fit the other two parts. The printed parts fit as if they were designed for the job!
