Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab

I engraved the name of my employer on the 13" MacBook Pro that I use for work.

I used the 50-watt Epilog Mini, with the following settings:

• Raster only (vector cutting disabled)
• Raster speed: 100%
• Raster power: 60%

CUCFL Friends Committee Meeting

30 June 2011
Notes by Robert E. McGrath

Attendance:  REM, Betty, Mercedes, Lauren, Virginia

(Please see also the attached PDF.)

The meeting focused on planning for several upcoming events.

1. Presentation at PechaKucha CU event on July 22

Lauren signed up to present the CUCFL at PechaKucha CU.  The format is a very short talk, with 20 pictures for 20 seconds each.

CUCFABLAB Friends General Meeting: 6:00P on June 30, 2011

The Champaign Urbana Community Fab Lab “Friends” committee will have its next general meeting at 6:00 on June 30, 2011.

The meeting is open to anyone who is interested, or who think they may be interested.

The June 30 meeting will focus on the following topics:

1. (From Betty B.) Proposals for two events, to be organized and held at the CUCFL:

We had two people show up for the "Rock my Ride" summer class. All and all, I think they were quite pleased with the end results with their bikes. One placed green flames down the side of the bike and glow in the dark tubing along his handle bars. The other guy cut out two "superman shield" inspired designs that were attached to the bike.

Hopefully in the future we'll have more events like this and have a few more people show up to them.

On May 1st, the Fab Lab community celebrated a whole list of things: Johann, Anna, Bryan, and Yi all graduated. Mercedes got her citizenship (and had a birthday). Gary's birthday was also part of the party. It turns out that it was also Dean and Winifred's anniversary which is why they brought the May Pole which they used at their wedding!

Photos below the fold.

Here are the winners with the respective prizes.

Please contact mercedes.mane@gmail.com if you need to set up time to use the lab (1st and 2nd price winners)

You can come and pick up the prizes next Thursday, 4-9pm at the Fab Lab.

1st prize: Colten Jackson (4 hrs in the lab)

2nd prize: Whitney Street (2 hrs in the lab)

CUC-FABLAB Electronics Summer Workshop (Lead Instructor: Mercedes Mane)
July 9th, July 16th, and July 23rd from 9am-12pm

Join a series of workshops this summer at the Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab and learn how to use Eagle to design circuits, use the Modela milling machine to cut circuit boards and use an Arduino and FabISP to program your “Hello World” board to blink and play music. The sessions are independent and you can pick and choose any of them or do them all.

See attached flyer for details.

To enroll, please e-mail Mercedes Mane. 

CUCFL Summer Sessions:  2011

The Champaign Urbana Community Fab Lab is pleased to announce a series of classes for Summer 2011.  Classes will be taught by Fab Lab experts.   Send inquiries and enrollments to Betty Barett (bb1@illinois.edu).  Fees will be collected at the class. Please notes these classes are all pilots so the enrollment is limited. 

Squishy Circuits  (Lead Instructor: Lauren Semararo)

June 4 – from 10:00 to noon for kids aged 8 to 12 (limit 8) 

Squishy Circuits is a fun introduction to electricity and how it works. We will use playdoh and electronic components to help kids begin to learn how electricity works and what it takes to create a basic circuit.  Each child will receive two kinds of playdoh and the components needed to create their own project that lights up. 

Class fee (includes materials) $20.00

Hey! That’s MY  water bottle (Lead Instructor: Steve Holt)

June 11 – from 10:00 to 12:00 for kids from 8 to 17 (limit 8)

Create a personalized  aluminum water bottle by making your own design and engraving it on the laser cutter.  In addition, staff will help the students make vinyl stickers or a water bottle holder to take home.   We will provide the bottles and other materials but you have to provide the ideas! 

Class fee (includes  materials)  $20.00

Rock your Ride

June 18 – from 10:00 to 3:00 for kids from 13 to 17 (limit 8) (Lead Instructor: Luke Scharf)

Wash your bike and bring it to the lab.  We’ll help you make it even more awesome with reflective materials to create decals and striping as well as a couple of varieties of lights.  Kids will create a theme and then design the electric and visual components to make their bikes safer in the dark and really cool.  We will have a variety of high and low tech materials to choose from as well as the tools needed.  Each student should bring a lunch and we’ll provide some snacks and beverages. 

Class fee (includes materials and snacks)  $40.00

Autdesk hearts makers, and wants to sell us CAD/CAM software.

Open Sessions for Summer starting May 15, 2011:

• Sunday afternoon from Noon to 6 pm
• Monday evening closed
• Thursday evening from 4 to 9 pm
• Available for scheduled classes and activities in addition to the normal operating hours

My brother turned 30 this year so I wanted to make him something special (his birthday was January 1st). I got busy so the project fell behind. But thank God his wife's birthday is coming up soon (May 28th) so I can make her one as well and kill two birds with one shot. 

The monthly meeting of the CUCFL Business/Operations Committee will be held at 5:30 pm on May 2, 2011 at the fab lab.  Join us if you can!

Betty Barett writes:

May 1 is the Great Fab Lab Sandwich Fabrication Event. This is a D.I.Y. Event to celebrate several wonderful events in our community. Johann Rischau and Anna Gutsch are graduating. Mercedes Mane became a citizen. Mercedes and Gary Watson are having birthdays too! We want to celebrate.

The GFLSFE is our chance to have some fun and say congratulations. The event starts at 12:00 and ends at 3:00 when the lab opens. Please bring some sandwich fixings, salads, chips, or beverages to share, if you wish. We look forward to seeing everyone.

Lori and Zeb created laser cut wedding invitations in the Fab Lab, as part of their local green DIY wedding.  Here's a video greeting card that describes the whole thing. :-)

Video on YouTube - http://youtu.be/R70Ee8rWh8g

Hat tips to Johann and Mary K.

The fab lab will be closed Sunday, April 24th in observance of Easter.  See you on Monday!