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BONDS Robotic team member milling precision holes in aluminum stock |
I failed as your intrepid Minister of
Propaganda last week. We had a nice turn out for Makerday, but I
left both my camera and cell
phone at home. No way to document the goings-on. So this week I
made certain both were with me.
Dell hails from
Indiana and is new to the area. He is a maker, and typifies the kind
of person who finds a home at Dayton Diode. Living in an apartment
poses challenges to us makers, especially so when there's a
spouse-in-the-house. Limited space at home means working around the
people we love who don't particularly share the joy when we take over
the living room to glue-up a woodworking project, or commandeer the
kitchen to assemble and debug the latest electronic thing. The Diode
is the answer to that dilemma and he liked what he saw. Welcome
aboard, Dell!
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Steve making adjustments to the parameters for the CNC cut |
The dirty area was
thrown into organized chaos by yours truly as I began the
implementation of the new layout for this section of the makerspace.
This did not affect most members who, conveniently, were working over
in the clean area. The one member who was working in the dirty area,
Steve, was using the CNC router, the one item in the dirty area not
being moved around. The new layout will be in place by next Saturday
– probably earlier, aside from 120 VAC electrical service for the
west end of the area.
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Jesse voids the long-ended warranty on the Black & Decker circular saw |
I asked Jesse for a
second opinion on the handheld circular saw from the Tool Library.
Given (I) its age, (II) the unavailability of an OEM replacement for
the trigger switch, and (III) the fact that we have K-12 circular
saws available for use, we decided to decommission the Black &
Decker “Sawforce 100” saw and consign it to the demill pile. If
the Dayton Mini Maker Faire holds Power Tool Racing this year, we
have something to turn into a competitive racer!
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Claire & her son working to get 3-D printer #2 completed |
Claire and her son
worked on the other 3-D printer and made a significant amount of
progress. When operational we'll have two nice printers available.
(I borrowed her son for a bit, putting him to work driving the pallet
jack to maneuver the welding workstation to its new spot.)
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Worth saving - an HP plotter from the days when HP gear was worth the sacrifice! |
Jesse is
overhauling a Hewlett-Packard X-Y plotter. Particularly vexing in
this endeavor is the thin braided cable that drives the pen carriage
in the two dimensions. The cable needs replacing, and this is no
trivial matter as one must take into account the flexibility (spring
factor) of the cable. I predict he'll be spending a lot of time on
the Web looking for a vendor.
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FIRST completed cut from the CNC router since the move! |
Steve continued his
adventures with our CNC router. Progress! He swapped the end mill
we had been using with a 3/8” router bit and was able to complete
the first complete cut-out of a thing on the machine since the move –
a push stick for the table saw. We had far less chip-out of the
plywood material, but we still have some chatter. The chatter appears to be
depth dependent – that is, the lower the router is along the
Z-axis, the more chatter. As the router mount did lose some tiny
ball bearings during the move, and there is observable play in the
mount when force is applied by hand against it, we suspect the
assembly will require servicing. I'll get with the maker who built
the machine (currently inactive – new wife & baby will do that
to ya!) and get the specifics of the design for next week.
Speaking
of next week, THE Monthly Makers Meeting will be held at the Dayton
Beer Company bierhall next Sunday, February 11thbeginning at 5:00 pm. All makers, hackers, nerds & geeks,
curious individuals, and spies of all kinds are welcome. Diodians
are urged to attend. Our plan is to have everything in place to hold
March's MMM at the new Diode makerspace. Keep your fingers crossed!
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