3 years ago I started participating in the Grow Beyond Earth contest.  It’s a collaboration between NASA and the Fairchild Botanical Gardens in Florida.  The goal is to create a device that will grow food on the International Space Station.  That sounded like fun to me!  Year one focused on designing the growing area to take advantage of the 0G environment and fit in a 50cm cube.   I was fortunate enough to be a finalist and walked away with some prize money.  I was not able to participate in the 2nd year but I am back in for year 3. 

This year the focus is on creating a robotic harvesting and planting.  If you want to read all about it you can do so at the Make:Projects link below.  This has been a fun project and I learned so much.

https://makeprojects.com/project/0g-garden—year-3-professional-entry

Vishal has been working on the front panel for the battery electrical box for his boat. The panel displays the master fuse and (2) watt meters that shows inputs and outputs to the battery bank.

He used the laser cutter and Acrylic bender to cut and bend the pieces into brackets to mount the meters.

Ben finished a black walnut dining table (with the help of Wolfgang, Shane, Steve, Bill, Rick, and other members) and he also built some nice modernist lamps that he showed at Hover Craft.

Rich and Bill built a sign for the foyer of their condo building. The wood part of the sign is 43″ in diameter and constructed using walnut, cherry, 2″ rivets for accent and the letter “W” is 44″ x 34″ and is made from 16 gauge metal.

Isaac made this engraving guide you can use with the laser cutters. If you want a nice 1″ grid on the bed to see where you need to set your materials for etching, this might be useful!

Greg made this (literal) guitar amp as a gift. He got some help with the electronics from other members and put the rest together himself. It’s looking awesome!

Mat has been putting the large powder coating oven to good use to recycle HDPE scrap into blocks and sheet material. This is basically “plastic lumber” that is strong, durable, and ready to be cut, drilled, or milled.

Jake has been ramping up some of his Tesla Knight Productions projects and is almost done with a set of apple boxes for MKE Production Rental.

There’s a new group project happening in the hallway near the Laser Lab. Want to learn about aeroponics and grow some plants? Join the fun!

Check out these feet! Or least a Fusion 360 rendering of some feet…

After Billy spent some quality time with the CNC router…

He’s got some great looking feet for a lamp project he’s been working on.

Kathy H. upcycled some Knob Creek bourbon bottles into this lovely holiday decoration. She got the idea from Pinterest and used some old sheet music from a book she got at an estate sale. The letters were cut out using the laser cutter and then decorated and attached.

And last (but not least) is this wooden 3D vase created using the laser cutter. Marcin (one of our new Laser Lab Area Champions) has been doing some amazing work lately, and helping to keep the laser cutters running and well maintained. Thanks, Marcin!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this photo roundup… We’re already planning to do it again next month!

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!

This isn’t a blog post about modular synthesizers. This is a blog post about a wooden box. The wooden box pictured above is one of the first projects I’ve worked on at the Makerspace, and it’s the first wood project I’ve worked on since making a wooden trinket in shop class in high school. If I actually used a table saw back then (or any power tools), I have no recollection of it. I’ve always been more adept with a keyboard, mouse, or soldering iron than power tools, but I have been trying to expand my horizons over the years. Still, this was a more ambitious project for me than soldering together the electronic modules contained within.

The plan

Designing the box
Armed with a little bit of knowledge from the woodshop training (Thanks Steve!) and some mounting hardware to define the inner dimensions of the box to be, I went to work. I fumbled around with the “rails” which the modules eventually are mounted to, lining them up with some scrap plywood, marking things, measuring, deciding how the pieces will have to align so the front and sides look clean and consistent. I drew a diagram. A really bad diagram, but a diagram nonetheless. This diagram contained all the information I wasn’t going to rely on myself to remember. It’s pretty scrappy, and reviewing it now barely makes sense, but at the time it was enough to convince me that I was ready to start cutting wood.

Cutting the wood
I’m not going to lie, the prospect of using the table saw for the first time was a little out of my comfort zone. I once again put some time into watching videos and learning more about safe table saw operation. It probably looked silly, but with the saw powered off I rehearsed the movements I would need to make to cut my plywood to size. After a few such rehearsals, adjustments, and different configurations of where to hold and push the board to achieve the movement I needed, I was feeling pretty good about my first cut. I am typing now with all 10 fingers, success! By cut 3 or 4, I was cutting with confidence. The compound miter saw made the rest of the cuts after I had my plywood at the correct height for the 4 sides of the box.

Checking the dimensions

I aligned all the pieces of my box, tested that my hardware would fit, and to my surprise everything lined up… approximately. I made a few minor adjustments, tested, and knew it was now time to attach everything together.

Pocket hole details

Joining the box
I watched some videos a couple of years ago about pocket hole joinery, and thought maybe it would work for this project. It has the benefits of leaving the exterior faces of the box clean from screws, and also creates a very strong joint. What appealed to me the most about the process though is the involvement of a pocket hole jig. The pocket hole jig allows you to clamp your wood in place, and then helps guide a drill bit into the face of the wood to make holes for screws. Once the holes are drilled, you simply clamp two pieces of wood together and put a couple of screw through them. This was great for a beginner since everything I needed came with the jig kit, the appropriate drill bit, screws, and instructions. I did a few tests on some scrap wood and found that going very slowly was the key to getting a clean screw hole in the plywood. The process was pretty fool proof since the jig ensured screwing at the correct depth and angle. It made very short work of joining the box together.

The enclosure and the pocket hole jig.

Finishing the box
At this point, I considered the box to be mostly done and was ready to write off my first wood shop test as a success. I was happily noodling around with my electronics, and I built a little confidence in myself to make bigger and better things down the road. After a couple of days with the enclosure I started to notice the plywood chipping at the ends and that it was awkward to carry around. I decided to finish the box to protect the wood and add a handle to make it easier to carry. The faux-leather handle was easy to source on ebay by searching for “guitar amp handle,” but similar to cutting and joining wood the concept of applying a wood finish was foreign to me.

Left side: unfinished plywood. Right side: Danish Oil (Medium Walnut)

I did some searching for beginner friendly wood finishes and found a general consensus that Danish oil is a very easy to apply and attractive finish. Danish oil can be applied rather haphazardly, a couple of times if necessary until you reach your desired color, and doesn’t require any additional sealing. I watched a couple of videos, but ultimately just went with the instructions on the Watco cannister I bought at Home Depot.

Staining in the paint room

I sanded the box by hand and then brought it into the paint room to apply the oil. I did a quick test on the inside of the box, and determined I was OK with how the oil interacted with my plywood. I did a couple of applications on the rest of the box and when I was happy with the look I wiped it dry with some rags I bought from the same section of Home Depot that I found the stain. 24 hours later, the box was dry. A few holes in the top with the drill press and the handle was on in no time!

Conclusions
I hope to build a bigger enclosure for my synthesizer, since this one is already full! It only took a few days to complete the enclosure, and I’m sure I could recreate it with half the effort using what I learned during the process. Sure, I could have spent some time at the belt sander to get everything flush, and if I would have finished the piece right away before carrying it around without a handle I might not have ended up with chipped edges, but overall I’m very happy with the final result! I’ll definitely be making more things out of wood in the future.

Being able to acquire skills that help you push your interests into new directions is one great thing about the Makerspace. I never would have attempted this project without having access to the equipment in an environment where I could work through things at my own pace whenever I could find the time or inspiration struck me. There are always other people around willing to offer advice if you get stuck on something, and since everyone is there to learn and build things, everyone benefits from helping each other out with whatever knowledge they bring into the space.

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!

I am designing and building a homemade telescope, loosely following designs from here. While a lot of their components are ingeniously designed, I wasn’t satisfied with the spider plans they provided. I decided to try my hand at designing my own spider in Fusion 360 (using their free enthusiast subscription) and 3D printing it.

The spider snugly fits in an 8″ diameter tube. There are 3 slots in the perimeter to allow rotational alignment along the axis of the tube. There are 3 additional screws in the central cylinder that tilt the diagonal mirror holder and provided height adjustment. The diagonal holder has multiple grooves to provide more surface area for the silicone to bond to. The surface the mirror mounts on is on a 45. The entire thing was printed in PLA on Mark’s SOM printer (huge thanks to Mark for helping out).

A similar design could be constructed in the machine shop with multiple operations and perhaps even some welding, but the ease of designing this in Fusion 360 along with the little setup involved in the 3D printing process made this an ideal path to choose.

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!!

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!

Step 1: Design.

I scoured the web for pictures of “grammar police” shields, but ended up creating this design in Microsoft Word, using clip art from the web, generic shapes from Word, and shaped text boxes.  It was pretty simple and used the software I had readily available.  The portions of the design that are solid black are the parts that will be etched into relief during the process.

Step 2: Create!

With much encouragement & assistance from a fellow Makerspace member, Jon (of Dalek Asylum fame), I crafted this badge using mostly jewelry-making tools & methods.  We first spray-painted a square piece of copper, then used the laser printer to burn away the paint from the sections that were solid black.  This gave us access to the “fields” that would be eaten away in the etching process, giving the piece segments of relief.

After some clean-up (note to self: don’t use abrasive cleaners at this step next time!  and maybe not industrial spray paint, either), we left the copper square to soak in ferric chloride for approximately 45 minutes.  We checked the progress of the etching every 15-20 minutes, and decided that after 45 minutes we had enough of an etch to give the details enough depth to stand out.

After more clean-up to remove the ferric chloride & remaining paint, I had a nice, shiny, scratchy piece of copper with an etched design.  At this point, I really started finding my way around the jewelry bench.  I used a small jewelry saw to cut along the outer lines of the badge, which was frustrating until I found the right rhythm for cutting.  My badge was finally starting to take shape!

From here, I filed the edges smooth & buffed the finish to remove some of those fine scratches.  I gave the piece some dimension by using tools at the jewelry bench to accentuate the “belly” at the bottom of the shield.  Once it felt reasonably even and I was happy with the general appearance, we applied a liver of sulfur gel to the surface of the badge.

The liver of sulfur settled nicely into the etched corners, giving the piece an aged patina and highlighting the small details.  I really like how it settled into the fine lines left by the etching solution around the perimeter of the main field!  The small striations in the copper there give it a very unique appearance.  The patina provided by the liver of sulfur also helped hide some of those fine scratches I mentioned earlier.  We wiped off the excess & applied a museum-quality wax, since the badge will be worn and handled like jewelry, to maintain the patina.

Step 3: Profit(?)

The badge was added to my collection of Grammar Police equipment, which included shiny aviator sunglasses, and a tactical belt (excess nylon webbing with a clasp) with a dictionary, thesaurus, red pens, custom grammar citation padlet, and toy handcuffs.  It was quite the fun costume, and even though none of my trick-or-treat’ers understood, all my friends did!

Thus ends the story of my first Makerspace project.  Oh, what fun it was!