Getting comfortable with our 3D printers

Group of 3D enthusiasts meet on a Saturday morning at the DFL.

Having been lucky enough to have won the 3DSystems national competition for the 2 Cube 2 3D printers, we also had an Ultimaker 2 in the pipeline, so now we are the proud owners of 3 3D printers for public use.

The Cube2s are small, a little finicky and do not have a heated build plate, which makes the end product a little rougher than the outcomes rom the Ultimaker 2.

Basically, though, operating the two different kinds of 3D printers is fairly similar.

Charlotte makes sure her designs sits flat on the workspace.

The most difficulty we have had has been getting the build plates to be level and the nozzle-build plate distance optimal.

We had old friend, Kevin Osborn, from Newton, come to give us a complete overview of how the Ultimaker 2 works and give us some tips & tricks.

Amy keeps an eye on the latest project.

The LED screen in the front is the control panel for running it. Projects are loaded up from either TinkerCad or AutoDesk Inventor, through the freeware program called CURA, which actually translated the CAD image into the instructions for the 3D printer to follow.

We're planning to run some CAD classes with our volunteer instructor, Paul Harhen, and then have some open studio time eventually whereby folks can come in to try their hand at designing and printing out projects.

Costs for filament are still being discussed. We don't want to charge too much for material, but want to be able to sustain materials costs for general public use.

As Kevin speaks, Dmriti and Andrew choose interlocking shapes.

We are hoping that the attraction of making actual objects will be a draw for girls and get them excited about modeling and coding for this exciting new technology.

Comments

3D Printing Signs for the Library Collection

Last weekend, I went to the annual Tee-Off mini golf event at the Brookline Public Library. As a first time visitor, I was mini-golfing with my phone at the ready. Special thanks to the AMAZING librarian rockstar Robin Brenner for so many great ideas. It truly is worth a visit just to see her teen room. Here are a few 3D printing/marketing ideas to takeaway: Having a 3D printer filtration cart would be wonderful in our library. Look at the price if you dare. Right now I have to go downstairs to retrieve prints because we are concerned about the fumes and little hands touching anything while the printer is on. I have a video camera set up downstairs using an iPad 2 and the free app called Presence for monitoring but sometimes I do forget to keep checking the presence website while I'm on the desk especially since it makes this annoying beeping sound to say, "Are you still watching?!"..As the sign reveals on the cart, the propensity to want to lean or...

When Makerspace Projects Come to Fruition

I love stories of patrons or staff who use our equipment to make something truly creative and original. We had two of those instances this week: Our first comes from our talented staff member, Karen, who runs a monthly knitting night at the library. She draws a big crowd as individuals work on solo projects, share their skills and troubleshoot with each other. These knitting nights have brought out some spinners and loom enthusiasts that have shared their talent as well. Using these new skills, Karen made her own sweater. It doesn't stop there though. Over the past year we have increased our collection of unusual items for circulation to include a polymer clay kit which Karen used to make her own designer button for her creation. I told her she could have her own couture business! Read more about this and other projects on her knitting blog. The second project came from a pair of siblings who won 1st place in the Pembroke Science Fair with the 3D printing help...

Our most popular makerspace/STEM/Library of Things

As of April 2018, we did a kit circulation report. We had 106 kits which have circulated 1,047 times since it's inception in 2015. Here is the top 10 list of most circulated. These include hobby kits, puzzles, cake pans, instruments, science robots/STEM, and American Girl dolls. The ukulele kits (we have one soprano and one concert kit) have been around the longest and have circulated 106 times total. Just remember someone should change the strings yearly and definitely include a tuner (we like the snark) as new strings on a uke take a while to break in. Surprisingly our meditation toolbox comes in second with 51 checkouts. It is just some CDs and a DVD. This one has also been around since the inception of our kits. Next up is our virtual reality headset toolbox. It is a Homido Virtual Reality headset. If that is too pricey, I recommend Google Cardboard. Our sewing machine comes in 5th. Knitting is a great idea fo...

LIBRARY AS MAKERSPACE

Search This Blog