Category Archives: Fab Labs
Fab Lab of the Week: Fablab Amsterdam in the Netherlands
This week’s featured Fab Lab is called Fablab Amsterdam in the Netherlands. They are offering classes on how to build your own 3D printer.
Fablab Amsterdam offers you the opportunity to build your personal 3D printer and learn all there is to know about 3D printing. After an introduction of the Fablab and the basics of 3D printing, you will learn how to set up a model for printing (day 1). In the next three days you will build your own printer, this is a model based on Orca (RepRap Mendel). On the last day (day 5) you will be printing your model(s) and get a hands-on troubleshooting on operating your 3D printer.
The summer school is available for maximum of 16 participants. You are to bring your own laptop and a 3D model, that you would like to print. Summer school only continues when it has at least 8 participants!
When? From 6 to 10 August 2012, 10.00 AM till 18.00 PM
Where? Fablab Amsterdam, Nieuwmarkt 4, 1012 CR Amsterdam
Learn more about Fablab Amsterdam from Fablab.nl or this article.
Fab Lab photo by TonZ used under Creative Commons license.
Fab Lab of the Week: 3D Printing Providence Interest Group
This week’s featured Fab Lab is 3DPPVD, or 3D Printing Providence. Although 3DPPVD is more of a meetup than a Fab Lab, it is spreading the interest and adoption of 3D printing.
We are pleased to announce the first meeting of 3DPPVD, a monthly meetup for MakerBot, RepRap, other 3D printer operators and anyone who’s interested in digital fabrication. Even if you are not an owner of a 3D printer this will be a great opportunity to learn about the emerging field of desktop rapid prototyping. If you do have a printer feel free to bring it down and show off your mods and prints.
Our first meeting will be on Wednesday July 11th at AS220 Labs (AS220 Mercantile Block, 131 Washington St (Entrance on Lucie Way), Providence, Ri) from 7pm until they kick us out. Since this is the inaugural event, there won’t be a theme so we have time to get to know each other and find out what kind of topics we would like to discuss at future events. This event is free and open to the public so please bring your friends and family.
Via MAKE.
3D printer photo by makerbot used under Creative Commons license.
Fab Lab of the Week: Massey University Centre Hosts New Zealand Event
This week’s featured Fab Lab is Massey University’s College of Creative Arts and the Affect Research Centre, which is hosting a seminar in Wellington, New Zealand in collaboration with the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms.
Fab 8 NZ is the 2012 incarnation of the annual international Fab Lab meeting, bringing field practitioners and laboratory researchers from the international Fab Lab network and beyond, for a week of hands-on workshops and a one-day public symposium on the principles and applications of digital fabrication. For designers with some basic maker experience, there’s also a two-day “Fab Foo”, a chance to rub shoulders with the best in the world.
Expect talk on a mind-boggling array of subjects, from prototyping in outer space to 3D printing of human organs.
Among those attending the conference will be Fab Lab founder Professor Neil Gershenfeld, Director for the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT. Professor Gershenfeld has been named one of Scientific American’s 50 leaders in science and technology, has been selected as a CNN/Time/Fortune Principal Voice, and by Prospect/FP as one of the top 100 public intellectuals.
Fab Labs were originally initiated as an outreach project from MIT, and provide widespread access to a modern means for invention through 3D printers that can make almost anything, and can be put to use in communities, businesses and industries around the globe.
Fab Labs have spread around the world from inner city Boston to rural India, incubating projects like solar and wind-powered turbines, thin-client computers and wireless data networks, analytical instrumentation for agriculture and healthcare, custom housing, and rapid-prototyping of rapid-prototyping machines.
Via idealog.
Fab Lab of the Week: Dickinson College Media Center Adopts 3D Printing
This week’s featured Fab Lab is the Dickinson College Media Center, located in Carlisle, PA.
In their own words:
The Media Center is your media mecca. We help you create multimedia projects from simple graphics to short films. Our equipment office is available for students, faculty and staff to check out cameras, mics, audio recorders, light kits, green screens, dollies & much much more. We help you along your way from novice to expert and the center helps not only students working on class projects but anyone who needs assistance starting a project.
Recently, the Media Center has added 3D printing equipment to their selection of tools that students can use. The first 3D printer to arrive was a MakerBot.
The Media Center’s newest member, The MakerBot Replicator, is finally available! After several weeks of troubleshooting and trials, it is now fine tuned and ready to print your designs! Here is a look at the phases of the tuning process, through the creation of a unique Media Center keychain designed in Google Sketchup 8.
The MakerBot uses an Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic, which is fed through the top of the extruder. The extruder is heated to ~220C or ~430F, which turns the ABS plastic into a viscous liquid. The extruder then positions itself just above the warm print surface and begins the expel the plastic in the formation designated by the 3D file. Each print begins with a “raft,” which is nothing more than a thick grid of ABS plastic, that allows for the MakerBot to ensure that the rest of the object is built upon a stable foundation. Below is a snapshot of the raft creation process.
It is great to see colleges embracing the future of 3D printing and giving their students a chance to innovate with the technology. Way to go Dickinson!
Fab Lab of the Week: Milwaukee Makerspace Adopts 3D Printing
Milwaukee Makerspace is part social club, part hackerspace. They held their grand opening party in April 2011 and have been growing ever since.
At its heart, [Milwaukee Makerspace] is a social club for people who like to build, invent, tinker and/or collect new skills and expand their minds. We have a wide range of skill sets in our membership and you’re likely to find someone who can talk about most any technical concept with you in a meaningful way. We are also a physical space where you can come, 24/7 as a full member, and have access to wide array of equipment you are not very likely to have at home. Plus, there are folks around the space that can give you tips and pointers on operating that equipment effectively. (About page)
The space is home to a variety of equipment and tools, from woodworking to electronics to robotics to metal working to photography. Unfortunately, their only 3D printing equipment, a MakerBot CupCake is not currently in the shop. But it looks like this is about to change.
In May, some members came together to showcase 3 different 3D printers: a MakerGear Prusa Mendel, a MakerGear Mosaic, and a Printrbot.
In June, they are expecting a visit from MakerBot to “show off their Replicator and talk about 3D printing.”
And in July, the Makerspace is hosting a 3D printing meetup:
3D Printing is getting more and more popular, and we’ve got a bunch of members who have built printers, or are building printers, or just know a heck of a lot about 3D Printing, so we figured we should meet up and discuss the topic.
So if you’ve ever wondered what in the world a MakerBot was, or heard of RepRap or Printrbot, or just wanted to see an actual 3D Printer laying down molten plastic to make a real-world object, well… we’ve got just the ticket.
We’re excited to see the Milwaukee Makerspace adopt 3D printing!
Want to learn more? Watch the video below to hear from the founding members of Milwaukee Makerspace.
