Champaign-Urbana Community Fab Lab

From Steve Holt initially

Neat story of a small company start-up based on laser cutters making “Pibow”, a case for a small computer.

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/2098

A new woodworking shop is opening up over by Parkland. Some might be interested:

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/miscellaneous/2012-09-04/woodworking-school-open-champaign.html

See https://docs.google.com/document/d/1O5C9uFRjP6rburHBaidCXOk2VyW_10yH99EL3Y_y-EI/edit

Learn how to use Blender for 3D modeling:

https://www.youtube.com/user/cgboorman/videos?view=0

(start with tutorial 1, obviously)

I was very excited to see that the new Up 3D printer was set up and running when my daughter and I came to the lab today. A month or so ago my son asked to make the Mendocino Motor that was featured in Volume 31 of Make Magazine. It requires making several parts using a 3D printer. We tried making the rotor using the cupcake printer, but it broke loose from the platform when it was about 75% complete. We decided to wait until the new printer was in before trying again, and now it is here.

A pictured step-by-step for how to engrave on an alumninum water bottle:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/82047188@N05/sets/72157631339568586/

Learn to engrave on glass by using a cheap picture frame:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/82047188@N05/sets/72157631339448696/

Betty, Andrew and I visited Blackline Supply this past week, a locally owned art and architecture materials shop on campus. They have all kinds of construction materials, but what was most notable to me, was their affordable and high quality wood. I believe a 3x24 inch sheet was around 3$, which means a full sheet to fill our laser bed would be about 12$. They're pretty close by, located in the basement of the McKinley Foundation on campus - go pay them a visit!

Posted on Behalf of Nicholas Möller.