HackRVA Makes: January 2015

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Chompers Lives!!!!!!!!!

Chompers (The creature formally known as Hack-Ness-Monster) lives!!!

Today I came in to finally learn some Autocad. I attended the Cad Dojo and made some of my first sketches. From there I learned how to format the sketch into g-code and run the CNC router. The first sketch I intended to use wasn't going to work well for the CNC. Thus Chompers was born. It was the fastest original shape I could think to draw. I spent the afternoon using and helping others use the CNC. Another member suggested an articulating lower jaw. Sketches were made. Arduino's were commandeered. A simple servo-fishing wire-hot glue-biting monster was born as a collaborative effort. Inappropriate jokes were made. I learned quite a bit. My innate curiosity quenched; I felt the satisfaction of creating something original.

--Kramer

Torque Wrench Calibration

by Aaron

The metal hardware for this torque wrench calibration tester was made in the Fab Lab at HackRVA. The metal bracketing and all-thread combo creates constant controlled force while the measurements are taken.

3D Scanning - Is and Isn't a Bust

by Aaron

Sweet bust! (is that a large robot arm in background? oh my)

HackRVA member Andrew recently had his head scanned and printed. Yes, you can do that! Read more about it at his blog here. Later he brought in his bust and scanned it on the HackRVA 3D scanner. It came out really well he reported. He said the trick was probably the matte white finish.

If you wan't to take a crack at scanning, it's all set up on the Digital Design Station.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

3D Printer Extruder Upgrade

by Aaron

HackRVA member Chris printed and installed this upgrade to our 3D printer. This is supposed to be a significant improvement and should make for less failed prints. Happy printing!

Maker Monday Leads to Scarf-Splosion

by Aaron

PUBLIC ALERT!!!
After recent Maker Monday knitting lesson, a local area Scarf-Splosion occurred. Beware of flying needles and gigantic yarn balls. To join in the mayhem, checkout Maker Monday on the HackRVA Meetup site.

New HackRVA Code/AV Computer

by Aaron

Dustin doing some initial setup. Got help from Lyod and John too!

HackRVA has a new computer. It's positioned in the main room as a machine to develop code, print reliably, and do audio visual tasks. Some programs installed are QT Developer, MS Visual Studio, Unity, Blender, Gimp, Audacity, and more to come.

We've also attached an Oculus Rift for fun and learning. We hope to add additinoal interesting and useful peripherals such as mics, cameras, graphics tablets, and whatever other sweet stuff we can get our hands on.

See the wiki entry for hardware stats and other info.

Jon enjoying breeze of virtual beach with augmented wind interface (fan)

Paper Cut Maps - From CNC

by Aaron

The outlines were traced in AutoCAD from a map image of HackRVA neighborhood, Scott's Addition. After tracing, I loaded the drawing in the CAM program. I set my cut depth to 0.05" for paper because of thinness.

When starting the CNC, I had to back it up to restart several times to get it just right. Too shallow a starting point and it didn't cut the paper. Too deep, and it was cutting into the spoil board at an unacceptable depth.

Here's a link to the design files on thingiverse.

Acrylic Bender from Old Kitchen Appliance

by Aaron

This is an acrylic bender made from an old sandwich bag sealer I picked up from the thrift-store for a couple of dollars.

I routed a grove in the board to mount the ceramic heat resistant piece below the nichrome wire. Did a little solder/re-wire job, stapled, screwed, and got a new tool.

Press the acrylic to the nichrome heating wire while holding the "on" button. After 10 or 20 seconds some melting begins, then take the acrylic off and bend it over an edge before it cools.

Saturday, January 17, 2015

Take-Apart Party

by Aaron

Insides of an *old* 3D Printer

This is more of an event than a project, but I wasn't sure where else to put it. Anyway, we came, we saw, we destroyed things in the name of learning, recycling, and fun.

Hopefully some cool projects will be made from the parts we stripped out.

This was posted on Meetup, to find out more about such happenings signup and follow.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

2015 HackRVA Tricopter Build - Prototype Complete

by Aaron

Andy has completed the tricopter prototype. Now we're getting ready to start the build group. This thing is awesome!

See the photo album for pics.

Learn about the build as we document it on the HackRVA Wiki.