Huntsville Open Manufacturing meetup
From Makers Local 256
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Creator: |
Overview
This group is for those who have built, are building, or aspiring to build a cnc machine(mill/router/lathe), 3D printer(reprap, makerbot, etc), laser cutter, vacuum forming table, forge/foundry, etc. It'll be a great opportunity to share information, expertise, and resources toward using open hardware and open software to bring personal manufacturing to the masses or just for your own personal use.
Calendar
- January 24 2013, 7:00pm - 10:00pm: Huntsville Open Manufacturing meetup
- February 28 2013, 7:00pm - 10:00pm: Huntsville Open Manufacturing meetup
- March 28 2013, 7:00pm - 10:00pm: Huntsville Open Manufacturing meetup
- April 25, 2013, 7:00pm - 10:00pm: Huntsville Open Manufacturing meetup
Links
Post first meeting write-up
Sent to the rp-ml and open manufacturing lists at the requests of a few users following the initial announcement.
About seven people showed up for the meetup, which is not bad for something planned in a little over a week. One person brought their mostly functional Reprap Mendel made from a laser cut kit. He received some help with a heating problem he was having with his extruder head. Sadly I neglected to take pictures of the event. I was much do distracted by the excellent conversations happening all around me. Makers Local 256 already had a Mantis9 cnc, a large homebrew cnc, a Makerbot, the beginnings of a stock Reprap Mendel, an aluminum foundry/forge, and a vacuum forming table. There was much discussion about bringing the cost down on producing future RepRap Mendels by going with the Prusa design, switching to SAE measurements, and buying local. I asked everyone what they would like to see at future meetings,and a lot of people were interested in receiving some kind of instruction for getting into some 3D modeling so I'm going to work on that for next months meeting. I'm also planning on putting together a kind of open manufacturing cheat sheet designed to provide information at a glance along with resources for where to find out more. Both of these mailing lists will be included as they've been a huge asset to me. There was much discussion of distributed factories, sending people objects via e-mail or IM, working with different materials and how they behave under different conditions, and even some design improvement ideas for the machines represented at the meeting. Future projects include, powder based 3D printing, UV resin based 3D printing, even larger cnc machines, and even some food based 3d printing. Everyone had a blast and everyone left looking forward to the next meeting. We'll be holding ours on the fourth Thursday of every month. At least one person left the meeting with the firm goal of making a large 3 axis setup in the near future. It was unclear whether he was going 3D printer or not. Given the turn out of the enthusiasm I think running on of these type of meetings in other areas of the country/world would go over pretty well. I believe it will help the move the community forward in big ways and would love to hear about people attempting this in other places of the world. Feel free to drop me a line, whether it be words of encouragement, questions, or constructive criticism. Oh and be sure to work with your local hackerspace(s), they're a great hot bed for this kind of stuff. Raymond
