For the past 2 months a team of makers has been frantically designing and building a glider for Redbull Flugtag.  It was one of the most fun projects I have ever had the privilege of working on.  Thought we did not place in the competition I wanted to share what we have learned and share some CAD files for future Flugtag builders to find and reference if they wish.

Team Flies at All:

When I put up the call to see if other members where interested in participating I was shocked when almost 20 people came to the first meeting.  At that meeting two opposing directions were posed for our entry.  One was a craft that would be as crazy as possible that would just be fun to look at and not attempt flight in a meaning full way.  The second was “team flies at all” who thought the fun part of the project would be the challenges of making a craft that would generate lift.  As the next weeks went on that second team was the only group that kept meeting and planning.  

Material choice and testing:

At one of the first design meetings Jon Drayna brought in a sample that he had worked on that week that would become the structure of our design.  It was 1 inch pink insulation board laminated on either side with 2mm strips of wood.  This made the normally flexible material very ridged while still being extremally light weight.

With this structure in mind I went to work in Fusion 360 and modeled up a craft.  Using a paper added to a google drive the team was sharing I was able to design a parametric air foil that would in theory provide high lift at low speed.  I even devoted the weekly Fusion 360 class to making an airfoil.  Below is a link to that class and the parametric airfoil Fusion 360 file will be in the link at the bottom.

We chose to cover our wings with window cling film.  I think this is one of the best choices we made.  Even though the film required lots of care it was cheap and light weight compared to alternatives.  On the day of the event we saw boat vinyl and lots of other materials but I stand by our window film.  Another decision that I was happy with on our craft were the ridged supports in the front and back of our wing.  Lots of teams chose not to do this and their air foil shapes were lost due to the shrinking material. 

Our biggest lesson:

If you have ever attempted to do something for the first time before you know that it usually doesn’t work.  We all had lots of optimism about our chances to “fly” but it takes practice to learn new things.  You can’t make an omelet with out breaking a few eggs.  On Flugtag our point of failure was the cart.  We knew that if the back of the cart were to push up on the back of the glider it would push the nose down right into the water.  We had taken care to design a two part cart that would we thought drop away from the craft with the use of a one way hinge mechanism.  The idea was as the front of the cart holding the glider went off the edge it would fall down bending at the hinge and not creating leverage lifting the back of the glider.  Maybe it was swelling due to humidity or jus the paint being sticky but this was our point of failure.   You can see in the video the cart breaking part of the tail as it forced it up and as soon as it fell away the wings started to work.  It was too late at that point though.

I use used a bad word in that last paragraph, failure.  At least most people think of it as a bad word.  Lets reframe that right now.  Failure is what happens on the path to success.  Failure is what happens when you are pushing your self far beyond your current capabilities and knowledge.  No one has ever learned something from success it is failure that teaches us and failure that motivates us.  

We failed to fly but we succeeded at working together to build one of the coolest projects to ever come out of this building.  It was so much fun working with everyone that pitched in for an hour or two or for weeks on end.  The bravest member of the Makerspace, Faith, got to stand on a stage in front of 50,000 people and answer questions about what a the Milwaukee Makerspace is.  I have zero regret except for maybe not jumping of the edge of the ramp…

Open Source Everything:

We learned so much.  You can take a look at our CAD files and build images and learn with us.  All are at the link below for you to copy and improve.

Open Source Project Link.

Ever get excited after seeing an YouTube video?  It happens to me all the time.  When I was Thomas Sanladerer‘s video on using an MSLA printer to make PCB’s I knew I had to try it.  In fact I have worked it into February’s Model Monday project.  This month we will be designing an Addressable LED strip control box electronics and all.  You might not know that Fusion 360 can do electronics design but after a few classes you’ll be up to speed and ready to design.

I have been looking for an excuse to learn more about the electronics design work space in Fusion 360 and I had a member request it as a project.  It’s great to be able to have electronics parts and cad design all in the same software.  This is going to be a fun one with lots of new things to learn for all of us.  Join us Mondays @7pm live or watch the recordings on YouTube at your convenience.

A few weeks ago a friend asked if I could help with a project for his wife’s new salon and I jumped at the opportunity.  I had been looking for a project that would mean using the big new 100W laser since it was donated.  My friend sent over a design and I got to cutting.

This is by far my favorite laser we have.  The software is easy to use and the laser makes aligning the uncut piece in the laser bed a breeze.  This project was also a chance to show off some of the new things I am learning in Blender to make a nice rendering of the final product.

Julie and Carl of Scoops Ice Cream & Candies of Kenosha, approached new Makerspace member, Brandon Minga, with their project. They were given recommendations from other projects he’s done in the are including Mike’s Chicken & Donuts and the Modern Apothecary. Scoops was looking to enhance and draw more attention to their new location with a large exterior sign. Going through the concept and design process Minga quickly decided that the sign design was also going to become their new logo. Once the final design was rendered he quickly learned how to CNC a template to hand plasma trace the design out of sheet metal. The middle of the sign was also hand cut, roll bent and broke to match the bubbly ice cream cone shape. With a little help from friends a the Makerspace, he ground down welds and drilled 44 holes for the light bulbs. After all the holes were drilled Minga fit the sign with sockets, wired up the sockets and tested the electrical. Working with Prodigy Sign in Kenosha he also coordinated the hanging of the sign.

Any project starts with a sketch.

Nothing wrong with learning a little g-code.

 

A post shared by Mingadigm (@brandonminga) on May 2, 2017 at 12:47pm PDT

Took that g-code and used the handmade CNC router to cut out a template (note to self, don’t use OSB for plasma templates).

Traced template with hand plasma cutter.

Hand cut, roll bent, metal break and tack welded the bottom shell.

Hand cut and used the break to bend my own c-channel for the stabilizing guts of the sign.

A little help from my friends!

 

A post shared by Mingadigm (@brandonminga) on Mar 31, 2017 at 3:33pm PDT

A little custom install and wiring….and we have lights!

Can’t forget the paint! Primed inside and out, the sign got coated with some retro color.

Installation day was very windy, they called two crews in to stabilize the sign as they anchored it to the building.

This is a Mingadigm.com by Brandon Minga

This project was done at the Milwaukee Makerspace,  thank you, gang!

Oh, and also because the wedding industry is crazy.

When I saw that the veil I wanted to go with my dress was just as expensive as the dress, I decided it wasn’t that important to me.  I saw a lot of Pinterest boards with DIY wedding veil pictures and tutorials, so I figured I would give it a shot.  If it failed, no big deal.  So, this is the story of my $15 wedding veil.

I started with some tulle that was donated to the Makerspace’s Craft Lab, and sorta followed a tutorial online.  The biggest pain was pinning the tulle folded in half, so that when I cut the rounded corners, it was even.  With Karen’s help, I used ol’ string-on-a-peg to make a partial circle cut line, which let the veil fall nicely around my head.

Using invisible thread I sewed the trim lace (bought via Etsy) to the edge of the veil.  If I were doing this again, I’d clean up the lace before sewing it on, but I did it at the end and it turned out okay.

While working, I laid the veil on a very large piece of fleece material, and also folded it up inside the fleece to keep it from sticking together (the eyelashes on the lace liked to cling to the tulle).

Take THAT, wedding industry people!!

Whether you think this looks like Darth Vader or Dark Helmet it’s still cool. Mark has been making fire pits and wood burning stoves out of used propane tanks for a while at the space. This is the first one I’ve seen him make that is meant to look like a character. As usual he’s doing a great job. Mark has also been giving some more one-on-one welding classes at the space. Don’t miss out if you want to learn how to weld from a master.The welding is only the beginning.  It can be easy to forget about the less sexy part of making.  Grinding and painting.  Though the natural look of rust is cool Darth Vader was black.  I am looking forward to seeing more characters represented in Mark’s work.  If you see him around the space suggest one to him.

Our 3 cars raced with 34 others in the biggest Power Racing Series event to date on the biggest track ever made.  It was great to see all the hard work paying off as the builders of the cars became the happy drivers of the cars. Both days of races were streamed live by our friends at Make Magazine to Twitch.tv where they can still be watched. Be sure to check out the race at Maker Faire Milwaukee September 24th-25th.

Check out the race from day one at the link below:

https://player.twitch.tv/?volume=1&video=v80805800&time=04h50m54s

Make sure not to miss this weekend’s Nerdy Derby at American Science and Surplus. Adrian and the rest of the nerdy team will be helping kids and kids at heart turn blocks of wood into rolling masterpieces of speed. If you have not been to a Nerdy Derby event this will be one not to miss.  3D printed wheels have been coming in from printers all over the city and from our Makerspace 80 at a time.

Building a car is easy and there will be a nice long track to race down once you’ve finished your creation.  You start by picking a block of wood and some wheels. After a bit of nailing its off to nerdy up your car from piles of amazing decorations. Makers are encouraged to decorate, test, and re-decorate. Everything that you glue onto a car affects the way it moves down the track. See you there!

I started by cutting the under carriage down and modifying it for a three point leveling system instead of the stock four point undercarriage/bed plate bending scheme.

Modified undercarriage mounted on the printer

The original heater was separated from the shards of glass and glued to the 12″ x 12″ x 1/4″ cast aluminum tooling plate using high temperature silicone.  3x #10 countersunk screws and springs support the plate on heat resistant teflon blocks.  The whole assembly stands about 1 cm taller than the original bed plate so I printed a small extension for the Z=0 set screw so it would trip the switch from the higher position.  I tested the heating time and found that the bed gets up to 110C in about 16 minutes- a little slow, but we probably won’t be printing much ABS with this open frame machine anyway.  Next- run PID autotune for the bed heater and adjust acceleration (greater moving mass means lower acceleration and print speeds).

New bed plate and undercarriage mounted on the printer

Some of you might ask why I would replace the glass bed with a piece of cast aluminum tooling plate.  Thermal performance is one good reason.  Here’s an IR photo of the original glass bed:

IR image of the Taz 3 printer with original glass bed.

Notice the hot and cool spots- 30C temperature variation across the bed.

Here’s what the new aluminum bed plate looks like:

Temperature variation is just a few degrees over the entire surface (the bright almost horizontal lines are not hot spots- they are reflections of the X axis guide rails).

I have run the PID tuning on the new bed and modified the firmware with the new constants.  It heats from 25C to 100C in about 9 minutes.

I officially declare the Taz printer ready for action.

Check out our pictures:

Cheers!