A 3D Printed Skyrim Digital Book!

"The year was 3E 405." This is the first line in a digital book found in the video game, Skyrim. Now, it is not only found digitally but physically as well. This book was 3D printed for maker Justin Williams. Our Guru, Jim, decided to make good use of our Ultimaker 3 and print the book using two colors. The two different colors allowed the text to stand out on the page. The hardest part when dealing with this project was making the spine of the book. The goal was to make the spine flexible, allowing it to open and close like a real book. In order to do this, we used a printing filament known as Ninja Flex. We have had trouble in the past getting the flexible filaments printing correctly. However, Jim, found that the best way to improve the print quality was slowing down the print speed to 1/5th of the normal speed. The final result looks amazing!

Check out our old stories or create a new one by stopping by the MakerLab. Having trouble making your design come to life? Contact us for help at UIMakerLab@Illinois.edu! And don't forget to like us on Facebook, or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

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!

Volunteer Spotlight- Dash Kosaka

dash

The MakerLab volunteers are a really important part of the lab. They help day to day welcoming makers, and assist with workshops and fixing printers.  Today, we will introduce you to one of our volunteers, Dash Kosaka!

Dash started working in the MakerLab his freshman year after being recommended to try it out. When he started working here, he had never before seen a 3D printer before. And he had no idea how a 3D printer even worked. He is now a sophomore majoring in Computer Engineering and is a huge part of the MakerLab team. Dash loves to work with the printers as opposed to the software or modeling. He deals with any problems that occur with the printer malfunctioning. Currently, he is working with our guru, Billy, to get the food printer up and running. Even though he works mostly behind the scenes to make sure the printers actually work, that does not mean he does not print anything. Here is some stuff Dash has printed during his time at the MakerLab.

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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