Guru Spotlight: Jim

The MakerLab Gurus are an integral part of the lab, helping with day to day functions, completing orders, and running workshops. We've decided to showcase some of the personal projects that our Guru's are able to work on in their spare time. In this post, we will be looking at designs printed by our Guru, Jim.  

The Type-33 Guided Munitions Launcher, also known as the Needler, is an iconic weapon from the Halo video game series. It’s also an impressive 3D print. 11 Pieces, 14 needles, and 16 connecting pins. It is a scale model, around two feet tall by two feet long. The pieces were primarily held together with connecting pins and super glued to hold. The needles friction fit into the top. This is a great example of what spray paint can do for some cool 3D prints. This model was a thingiverse file by Ethan Newhouse. Printing time was around 40 hours. Another 10 hours for painting and drying and he needed only a few minutes to glue it all together.

The Type-1 Energy Weapon is a fearsome melee weapon wielded by the Elites in the Halo video games series. While generating plasma in the shape of a blade is just a little beyond our technology, it of 19 interlocking pieces and an 8 foot LED strip to make a great wall decoration. Get creative with your 3D prints at the UIUC Makerlab. The pieces all were glued together at their edges. I found this on thingiverse, by adafruit. Printing took around 15 hours, assembling took another 2 or 3, as the flat, thin faces were difficult to glue together.

Falchion is an Iconic hand and a half sword from the Fire Emblem universe. While it hasn’t received any post 3D-printing work beyond putting it together, it showcases a unique type of clear filament and helps to think outside the size of a build plate due to its eight pieces. It’s also a far less dangerous way to hang an interesting sword on your wall. Originally a thingiverse file by OnyxIbex. Printing only took 10-12 hours. Assembling was rather quick. Flat faces of the blade pieces were superglued together.

Guru Spotlight: Billy

The MakerLab Gurus are an integral part of the lab, helping with day to day functions, completing orders, and running workshops. We've decided to showcase some of the personal projects that our Guru's are able to work on in their spare time. In this post, we will be looking at designs printed by our Guru, Billy.  

First of all, for any fans of the Star Wars Universe, I have created a 5-piece replica (with my own iteration on coloring) of Obi-Wan-Kenobi’s lightsaber. Each piece took approximately 2-3 hours, which fluctuated with the level of detail. This is seen in the third and fourth Star Wars movies and was designed by thingiverse member falken76.

If you or anyone you know has an interest in aviation or commercial flight, then this model of the Embrayer ERJ 145. This design took about 5-6 hours and took a little bit of work to remove supports. However, this design by navy876 turned out very well and is a fantastic example of a scaled model that can be used for prototyping and design ideas.

With the new movie Star Trek: Beyond coming out, I HAD to create a model of the series’ flagship. This model of the USS Enterprise is comprised of 13 different pieces that each snap together to create this awesome model. A design by RealAbsurdity on thingiverse, this model is sure to be a phenomenal creation for any Star Trek fans.

Next up is a Halo-inspired piece. This quite small version of a covenant carrier was an interesting spin of video-game themed objects. This design uploaded by Anthalas9 on thingiverse was a game-accurate replica of this object from in-game. Took about 12 hours on a higher detail.

Anyone who has ever played Call of Duty: Zombies would recognize this Ray Gun from the game. One of the weapons of power can now be printed due to the 14-piece design by MrBlizzard. This can be made even better by adding details such as LED’s and switches. After about a day and a half’s worth of printing, this design came out really well and is an iconic item from the game.

This final design is a different, and very large replica of a Halo universe weapon. Dubbed the “covenant carbine” this was a phenomenal design by Daniel Schunemann on MyMiniFactory. It consists of 22 pieces and took roughly a week of dedicated printing to crank this masterpiece out. Each piece was designed to fit together and with a bit of work, this model came together and looks just like the in-game version! (I think)

Kids learning design thinking with 3d printing.

One of many workshops offered by the Illinois MakerLab over this summer was Project City X, an international education workshop taught by Ron Duncan from University of Illinois Extension, who manages the southern Illinois operations of the Illinois Marketplace and Maker Literacy project (https://immlp.illinois.edu/). The workshop was geared toward students ages 8 to 13 and taught problem solving using the design thinking process and created solutions using 3D printing.  

The workshop was based around the story of a group of travelers from Earth in the not-so-distant future who have been sent to a remote planet to build a settlement called City X.  However, soon the travelers encounter challenges and social problems that affect not only themselves but everyone in City X. That’s where the students attending the workshop came in, solving the problems in groups of two or three through a five-step design process.

The first of these steps was Empathy. The students discussed how the travelers must be feeling based on their individual problems, which gave them a better understanding of the challenge at hand. The next was defining the difference between social and personal issues including which major world issue aligned with their challenge. The third was Ideation or brainstorming with only two constraints. The students’ inventions could not have been something that already exists and the ideas must have come from the students themselves.

After the students had their ideas they created prototypes using markers and paper, and then discussed them with peers and teaches in order to help them improve and revise their creations.

The final step allowed the students to use a simple 3D modeling software called Tinkercad to create 3D models of their inventions. They could then print their designs using one of the many 3D printers in the lab.

At the end of the workshop each group presented their creations to the staff and their parents, explaining the problem, a bit about their design process, and finally the solution. Upon their departure the students were rewarded with a certificate of completion from the Illinois Makerlab,  in recognition of their newfound skills in designing with 3D modeling and printing.

Autodesk's NEWEST Software - A first-hand account

 Autodesk 360 Fusion Boot Camp

My name is Scott Zelman, and I’m a Guru at Illinois Makerlab. This August I had the opportunity to travel to the Autodesk location in San Francisco, CA, to participate in a Student Experts Bootcamp and learn Fusion 360, Autodesk’s newest 3D modeling software. I spent four days in San Francisco with forty other Student Experts from both engineering and industrial design to both learn advanced modeling techniques in Fusion 360 and to learn how to teach the program to other students back at school. The group spent time in several locations around the city, vising the Autodesk space at 1 Marketplace, the Autodesk Pier 9 maker space, and San Francisco State ATC. I was very excited to meet with Carl Bass, the Autodesk CEO, and other industry professionals, and also had the opportunity to compete in a design competition for a new take on the traditional food transportation device. I was able to learn a lot from the Bootcamp, and here at the Makerlab we are happy to have such strong educational support from Autodesk.

During the trip I was able to visit Autodesk’s Pier 9 maker space, where employees and residential artists work to build prototypes and to stock the Instructables,com database, where tinkerers and makers can go to find cool DIY projects and step-by-step instructions on how to build them. At Pier 9, students were able to see Fusion 360’s computer aided manufacturing (CAM) capabilities in action on Autodesk’s impressive assortment of machinery. The next three images were taken at Pier 9 and exemplify some of the machinery there.

On the first day of the Bootcamp we were split into groups of three students. These were our groups for the design competition. The competition was to create a new, innovative food transportation system, model it, and pitch the idea on the last day of the Bootcamp. My group and I got to work. We decided to put a new take on the traditional lunch box and that we would target teenagers and young adults as our market. After several ideation sessions and product iterations, we finalized our product design. What we came to was a collapsible box that included a speaker, USB ports to charge a phone on the go, and a digital readout of inner temperature and battery left. We created an inner skeleton that allowed the box to collapse easily, and included a slot in the bottom for ice pack insertion. The product was named CUBE, and was marketed as an “on-the-go entertainment system that carries food” rather than a lunchbox with several different amenities.

I want to thank Autodesk for giving me the opportunity to attend the Fusion 360 Bootcamp. It was a lot of fun and I learned a lot about the program and how to teach it to others. I was also very pleased to meet many of the Autodesk education employees, who all seem like they love the company and what they do. Back at Illinois Makerlab, we will make great use of these newfound Fusion 360 skills as we set up a new workshop on modeling in software.

Maker Spotlight: MakerGirl

MakerGirl has been running sessions since November 2014. This past fall and spring 80 girls have gone through our MakerGirl workshops. This summer with our more frequent sessions we hope to quadruple the number of girls we can reach. Our mission is by 2025 there will be an equal number of women and men involved in STEM K-12 education programs and pursuing STEM degrees. We want to inspire and educate girls to show them what they are capable of as strong individuals. This summer through our innovative 3D printing sessions we are doing just that and the girls love it!

This summer MakerGirl has designed four new 3D printing sessions as well as a four day camp for the young participants. These sessions focus on teaching the girls about STEM as well as the forever changing 3D printing world. We start first by giving s short lesson so the girls understand what STEM is as well as how the 3D printing process works. Then the girls get started with the design process. They are able to create something from scratch on an easy to use website called Tinkercad.com. The girls are able to customize their creation which truly makes the experience one of a kind. As we walk them through getting their design onto the 3D MakerBot printers, we explain how the software and 3D printing works together. MakerBot printers have an open face, so the MakerGirls are able to watch the printer make their creation come to life right in front of their eyes.

Our new and exciting 4D camp allows the girls to dream, design, develop, and display their creation. The girls will be making a game of their choice and using their own imagination they get to design the game itself. We want the campers to get to know each other and to inspire each other while designing. They can then use the 3D printing lab to make the pieces of their game. The MakerGirl team will then work with the girl on making a type of presentation to show their game off to family and their new friends in camp. We want the girls to learn important skills while having fun and taking home an amazing piece of their own work to show off and play with.

This summer MakerGirl is participating in the Entrepreneurship at Illinois Fellowship. We want to thank the University of Illinois, the members of the fellowship and the fellowship leaders for this amazing opportunity. From this fellowship MakerGirl is learning how to further develop as a startup company so we can keep improving ourselves and our sessions. The fellowship has also allowed MakerGirl to continue its relationship with the Chicago Innovation Exchange as well as Southern Illinois University. MakerGirl wants to reach as many girls as possible and working with other places in Illinois is a great start. With the fellowship funds, MakerGirl will hopefully become mobile! Our sessions will be able to be taught in venues without 3D printers, but the participants will still get the experience of using one as well will have our own to travel with. We are currently developing sessions new sessions for the future when MakerGirl is fully equipped and prepared to do this. We want to thank the Entrepreneurship at Illinois Fellowship again for this truly amazing opportunity.

MakerGirl is doing a lot of great things this summer, from sessions to camps and expansions. Of course this would not be possible without the help of the Illinois MakerLab so we thank them for their help and support along the way. To find out more about what MakerGirl is doing this summer visit our website makergirl.us. There you can find information about our sessions and you can see what is coming up for MakerGirl.

Meet the Maker : Arielle Rausin

Guest post by Arielle, Mark, Sebastian , students from the first Digital Making class in Spring 2015 We were already well into the first month of class, and I still couldn’t decide what I was going to do in my semester long project . Then Vishal told us we were taking a field trip to the Beckman Institute of Advanced Science and Technology, with the assignment of bringing an object to 3D scan. I racked my brain for a while trying to come up with an object that was interesting and maybe held potential to be turned into something more.

Then later, at track practice, my coach suggested trying to scan one of the handmade gloves we use to race. Usually the gloves take hours and hours to make- custom fit for each racer, not to mention their 350.00 dollar price tag. One pair will last a long time, but since they are so unique they can never be exactly duplicated. This sounded like the perfect kind of item to try and scan, because having a 3D model that you could print over and over again would open up many possibilities.Sebastian and Mark were also interested in this project, so the three of us set out to try and make the world’s first 3D printed wheelchair racing glove! After Travis (from the Visualization Lab over at Beckman) completed the scan and cleaned up the glove file, we were off to work! We were incredibly lucky and barely had to manipulate the design at all in Geomagic because the scanner was so precise. Surprisingly, the very first time we tried to print our glove, it worked! Afterwards, when trying to make duplicates, we had a lot of trouble positioning it correctly on the raft so print would not fail, but eventually we figured out the best angle and direction to place the glove in order for the prints to continuously be successful.

Once we had our first printed glove, we got to work testing it. I added the additional materials needed to generate grip when pushing at high speeds- some suede and rubber- and encountered a little trouble getting these materials to stick to a different kind of plastic than I was accustomed to.

Once I discovered that using contact cement was the best method, I started putting the glove to good use! We were very excited that the glove held up after just using it for one training run, but we’re happy to announce that the glove is still working perfectly after over 200 miles of force and exertion.

The next step was mirroring the 3D glove file in order to print another glove for my right hand. Once we figured that out, I added the same extra materials and used the gloves to race in the 2015 Boston Marathon. They worked beautifully!

The things that make this project so successful though were all of the benefits we discovered after the prints proved their durability. For one thing, the plastic that we printed with is incredibly lightweight. My original gloves weighed 174 grams each, and the printed glove only weighs 70 grams. It may not sound like much, but this, I’ve noticed, makes a significant difference when using the gloves to climb hills and push at high speeds. Their lightweight quality also aids in injury prevention. It is common among wheelchair racers to get tendonitis in the wrist from overuse, but the 100 grams that the printed gloves shave off put less stress on the tendons and hopefully decrease the risk of injury. The cost is another great advantage! To print a single glove cost only 4 dollars, that’s a lot of green left in your pocket from the original pair costing a minimum of 300 dollars. The repeatability is probably the greatest benefit here though. The fact that you could print multiple pairs of gloves for different weather conditions could be a huge advantage when racing. Some of the world’s best athletes lose important races because they weren’t prepared for the conditions, whether it was rain, humidity, or even snow. Now that we found a way to print the perfectly fitting glove, it is possible to make many, many varieties.

Here is a short interview where I am talking about this project with Vishal, the Director of the MakerLab.

https://youtu.be/AhLMsJ3Pdvg

Our next step is to help everyone on the University of Illinois’ Wheelchair Racing team to get their own pair of printed gloves! We’ve started scanning more and more pairs and the team is getting excited. Eventually we would like to discover a process to create a pair of gloves from scratch- just by scanning an athlete’s hand. Over the summer we will continue to explore different methods so potentially people all across the world could buy a pair by simply sending us a file of their scanned hand.

We are very excited to continue pursuing this project, and hope to see it keep growing into the future! The uses for 3D scanning and printing are endless, and it is so thrilling to be a part of discovering why!

Update 10/17/15 : Watch Arielle in action with the gloves in Chicago!