Idea development for Widening Participation Schools Workshops 2015

Laura and Matthew our ArtLab Undergraduate Research Opportunity Students (UROP) tried out the littleBits kits in preparation for our summer Widening Participation Workshop series at local schools.

They were developing ideas for Creature in a Cup exploring how to create movement and sounds with the Synth kits.

Matt described this as a Zombie in a cup.......

Lauras cat in cup.....

Laura makes some interesting scifi sounds with this one

Animating drawing as cutouts

UROP Student Workshop for laser engraving and cutting

We planned on giving our UROP Summer placement students some time in the ArtLab so they could try some of the equipment (e.g. the laser cutter, 3D printers and 3D scanner), as they are directly involved with the WP workshops that start this coming week. On Wednesday this week they were given some time using the laser cutter. The workshop started with a simple example using a digestive biscuit, on which Laura etched an image. The settings used for the biscuit were the same as for a light engrave for Birch plywood, and the biscuit engraved well.

On reflection, perhaps a biscuit without so much surface texture would give a better output ... we'll keep on experimenting. Note: we placed the biscuit onto a clean sheet of paper before engraving so you could eat the biscuit afterwards.

Laura also cut out a basic keyfob which she had designed with the laserCut software, using fluorescent yellow acrylic:

Setting up the start point for cutting.

Then Matthew created a simple design for a keyfob (for his dog) using Birch plywood. In both cases this illustrates three basic  processes using the laser cutter: engraving, inner cut and outer cut.

Laser Cutter workshop 2

On Tuesday we held another session using the LS3060 laser cutter so that staff members in the Art Department at Reading University could try out the laser cutter. Those present were: Tina, Wendy and Nick. To kick off, there was a short demo to illustrate the basic process in which we engraved some text on a digestive biscuit, just for the fun of it:

The each participant at the workshop created a simple keyfob to illustrate three basic processes: engraving, inner cuts and outer cuts. Unfortunately, nobody took photos of them at the workshop (including me), so we'll have to add them later!

Note: we'll be doing a few more workshops for staff in Dept of Art if anyone reading this is interested. It can be anything from AutoCad basics, 3D Max, laser cutting and etching, and 3D printing.

Unblocking the print head on the CubePro

The CubePro is shown in the image above on the left. The week before last one of the extruders became jammed, which meant that it had to be removed, dismantled and then examining to see where the blockage came from.

Here's what I had to do according to the procedure supplied by Cubify:

1. Level the plate and uninstall filament from the other extruder.
2. Switch off the machine, unplug the circuit board form the rear of extruder #1, and then remove the plate that holds the filament tubes in place.
3. Remove the torx screw holding the extruder in place.

It came apart quite easily, and was easy to dismantle the extruder. The filament had snapped in the filament tube (which I already knew about) but this then became lodged in the extruder itself, and prevented new filament from being installed. The blockage was removed and the extruder refitted.

Then came the fun part of levelling the plate using the setup program. It seemed to work okay, but then you also have to go through the procedure of calibrating the plate (z-gap) so that the filament dispenses evenly, and this took over an hour to get right. The big problem with this is that Cubify rather stupidly chose coarse threads for the machine screws that are used to adjust the print plate. The upshot of this is that you need to turn the screws a microscopic amount to calibrate the plate properly. A fraction of a turn too much and the filament either does not fuse properly, or overlaps too much. It takes a lot of effort of trial and error to get this right.

After finally getting the z-gap correct (well as near as I could get it) I did a test print for a tooth paste dispenser. Here is the result:

[Image to be added later]

I don't think the quality of print is as good as the little Cube 3. It should be better, so I guess it still needs work to get it right.