This Week of Making- Week 6

With Valentine's day right around the corner, stop by the MakerLab to print something for your loved one! We have plenty of red filament and there are hundreds of options to choose from on thingiverse!

Don't know how to 3D print? That's okay! The MakerLab gurus and volunteers are here to help you make your ideas come to life. Better yet, attend our 4 workshops to obtain your digital maker certificate! These workshops include Basic 3D Printing, Basic 3D Design with Tindercad, Basic 3D Design with Fusion 360 and 3D Scanning. These workshops introduce you to a broad spectrum of how to 3D print and are a great way to get introduced to 3D printing! And afterwards, you could be 3D printing like a pro! Check out what some of our pro makers printed at the lab

Stay tuned for MakerLab updates by liking us on Facebook, or following us on Twitter or Instagram. Want to be featured in a blog post? If you have an interesting story that you would like to tell about making at the lab, share it with us by emailing UIMakerLab@Illinois.edu!

This Week of Making- Week 4

Welcome Back!

The MakerLab is now open for the Spring 2017 semester. Be sure to come in and check out all of our new stuff we have. But before you come in, make sure to check our new hours!

Monday: 11-2, 5-7:30 Tuesday : 2-7:30 Wednesday: 2-4:30 Thursday: 2 - 5 Friday: 11 - 7:30 Saturday: 2 - 5

Remember, Wednesday is our 1 hour free print day. Meaning that if your print is printed in one hour it's free! Who doesn't like free?

Speaking of free... If you don't have a lot of free time to stop by the MakerLab don't worry. You can now order your 3D prints online! The MakerLab is happy to announce that we have partnered with 3D hubs. 3D hubs allows you to send in your print file in STL format and we will print it for you. We will even ship it to you if you live out of state! If you are a Illinois student or have an email ending in .edu be sure to register at https://www.3dhubs.com/students to save 25% on our online rates.

Want to be a volunteer at the MakerLab? Apply to join the Spring 2017 MakerLab team! And don’t forget! Like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram to get the latest news.

This Week of Making- Week47

Update on Max (our 3D printed man):

On Wednesday, November 9th we took all 88 printed pieces on Max and assembled him! It took about 3 hours to fully build the 6'1" replica.

Deloitte Chairman:

We had the honor of showing Deloitte Chairman Mike Fucci around the MakerLab.

Food Printer:

We now have our food printer up and running. We can now print using Nutella! Shout out to our guru, Billy, for getting it operational.

This Week's Prints:

We had a lot of interesting prints in the lab over the past week. The prints ranged from a geodesic dome being printed by an architecture student to a trumpet mouth piece being printed by a Marching Illini to a birthday card! The birthday card was printed using dual colors on our newest addition to the lab, the Ultimaker 3! Check out the video of the trumpet player playing our fight song with his 3D printed mouthpiece.

Stay tuned for MakerLab updates by liking us on Facebook, or following us on Twitter or Instagram. Want to be featured in a blog post? If you have an interesting story that you would like to tell about making at the lab, share it with us by emailing UIMakerLab@Illinois.edu!

This Week of Making- Week46

Update on Max (our 3D printed man):

We have officially finished printing all parts of Max!!! All that is left to do is to assemble him! If you would like to help assemble Max come to the BIF Atrium on November 9th from 2:00-5:00pm!

Workshop:

We had a group of people come down from Chicago to participate in an all day workshop. They completed all 4 of our workshops offered: Basic 3D Printing, 3D Scanning, TinkerCad, and Fusion 360! It was a blast to have them here at the MakerLab. They were so excited to learn about 3D printing and the different softwares you can use to 3D print. They made some amazing stuff here at the lab!

Ultimaker 3:

Showing off our new dual color printing by honoring the Cubs on them being World Series Champions!!!

cubs

Stay tuned for MakerLab updates by liking us on Facebook, or following us on Twitter or Instagram. Want to be featured in a blog post? If you have an interesting story that you would like to tell about making at the lab, share it with us by emailing UIMakerLab@Illinois.edu!

This Week of Making- Week45

Private Workshops:

We had multiple private workshops this week. A private workshop means that your group rents out the whole MakerLab just to yourselves. One such workshop was for Business Council. Business Council is a student run organization on campus that works on networking within the business world. They donated their prints to a children's community in Champaign, Illinois .

Our other workshop was for a class of high school seniors. They came in on Tuesday and Thursday to print their models made on TinkerCad. TinkerCad is a 3D design software that allows you to physically build your object from scratch. Check out some of these seniors' prints!

Sign up for a private workshop!

Fast and Furious:

We had one visitor come in and print miniature car parts! He can then use these 3D printed car parts to replace the ones that came with the car originally. This allows him to change the color and make his own type of car.

Coming Soon!

Our guru, Billy Malak, is currently working on getting our food printer up and running. Once operational, we will be able to print using nutella! Keep in touch to see our progress with the food printer!

food-printer-2

Stay tuned for MakerLab updates by liking us on Facebook, or following us on Twitter or Instagram. Want to be featured in a blog post? If you have an interesting story that you would like to tell about making at the lab, share it with us by emailing UIMakerLab@Illinois.edu!

This Week of Making- Week44

Update on Max (our 3D printed man):

We have 8 parts left to print of Max! If you would like to help assemble Max come to the BIF Atrium on November 9th from 2:00-5:00pm! Here are some pictures of the MakerLab team holding various parts of Max.

Unboxing the New Ultimaker 3!

Out with the old and in with the new! The MakerLab has just installed its first Ultimaker 3! The Ultimaker 3 looks very similar to the Ultimaker 2+ in the MakerLab. The difference lie not in looks but in other features of the machine. The Ultimaker 3 features a build plate that is lighter and stiffer as well as a new and imporved optimized cooling system. Both of these new features allows for a smoother, cleaner and faster print. But, in my opinion, the coolest feature of the Ultimaker 3 is dual color printing. You can now have 1 print be made of 2 different colors!!! Stop by the MakerLab to see this new printer in action!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQSv3tE4HRQ&w=600&h=338]

3D Printing Campus buildings!

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about how the MakerLab printing iconic buildings around campus for the Provost's Office (This Week of Making- Week42). Here are some pictures of the iconic buildings at the fundraiser and the Column I that we printed for them!

Hardware Demonstrator:

Every wanted to make one of your classes easier to understand? Allison Nowak is doing exactly that! Allison is a senior in Agricultural and Biological Engineering. She is specializing in Food and Bioprocess Engineering with a minor in Food Science.

She is printing a hardware demonstrator called a PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) Control. She is working on an Independent Study project with Dr. Grift in the Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department. Dr. Grift hopes to integrate these demonstrators into his ABE 425 course: Engineering Measuring Systems.

What is a hardware demonstrator and how does this make the course easier?

A PID Control is a way to bring a given input to a desired output. All of this is based upon parameters and weights given to each of the three types of control it exhibits: Proportional, Integral, and Derivative. Currently, a PID Control is taught using very complicated mathematics. Using things like differential equations and Laplace transforms. This can be very hard to conceptualize.  These demonstrators show how the PID works. Students can see the results without having to visualize the complicated math.

Allison has made a prototype of this PID Control and is right now working on printing eight complete demonstrators.

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