3d Printing and prototyping studio

General
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I wanted to continue the great discussion we had last night about the 3d printing and prototyping studio. I think we had a lot of discussion on the 3d printers, lasers and routers, so I wanted to touch on the electronics lab.

I’m excited about having a more robust electronics labs than the typical home setup and I think it would be a fantastic offering for the makerspace.

I took a look through the lab here at my work, plus my home lab and here’s my suggestion for just a basic setup I think we can put together for about $1,500.

Does anyone have some connections with Watlow or Benchmark in town? Maybe they would be able to donate a few used items? If anyone has a lead on some older equipment that would be great too, we don’t need cutting edge stuff here :slight_smile:

Soldering station: probably worth having a more precise unit for delicate work, then a generic one for most project. If we host classes, it would be easy to get a few more if needed.

  • Weller WE1010 70W $100
  • Weller WT1012 95W $150
  • Fume extractor - some cheapy amazon thing probably fine $50
  • Hot air station - 858D hot air station (or some clone, its cheap and works great) $50

Prototyping supplies: misc shared material for breadboarding and hacking stuff together

  • Ribbon wire
  • Breadboard ribbon wire with crimp pins
  • Set of stranded wire of various gages
  • Breadboards
  • Tool box, parts bins, etc..

Lab test equipment:

  • DC power supply - I have an old Rigol DP832 to donate :slight_smile:
  • Multimeter - basic Fluke or Klein $100
  • Benchtop multimeter - UniTrend or something basic $150
  • Oscilloscope - Rigol DS1054Z. A little fancy, but has 4 channels, a big display good for showing or teaching a class. $350. An used scope from ebay or something would be fine.

Misc tools:

  • Helping hands clips
  • tweezer set $10
  • screwdriver set $50
  • pliers set $50
  • xacto set $20
  • magnifying glass stand $20
  • Calipers $50
  • Flush cutters
  • mini needle nose pliers
  • Wire strippers
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I have a HP/Agilent 6 digit bench multimeter I can probably part with, and I can find a set of leads to send with it.

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Could reach out to the College Electronics depts to see if they’re doing any materials upgrades. There is potential to work out a possible donation or discount if they’re planning on getting rid of outdated or surplus inventory.

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It’s a good idea - I’ve gotten some business donations but not been able to crack any school donations. Sometimes those things get squiffy if they are required to auction it, but smaller things might be OK.

Anyone have a good contact in any engineering departments?

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I was talking to my nephew about upgrading my ram, and whining about wishing for wholesale prices and it made me wonder…

Is that something that we could consider? Or offer to members? The parts plans and walk through or talk through “building your ideal PC”

Or Upgrading your PC - hardware / software"

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I totally missed this thread! The room is looking awesome. I love the idea of kind of mushing computers into the mix. Maybe we could have a computer upgrade/update night in the coworking space, kind of like the fix-it clinics?

Edit: also the coop does a clothing swap once in a while. Maybe we could incorporate that idea too – bring some unwanted computers, get them in good condition and find good homes for them?

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PS Sorry I missed the last meeting. I ran home for dinner after work but didn’t make it back again in time… how did it go?

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Paul and I attended along with two others for their first time from Stewartville. They were interested in the basics of 3D printing so we mostly talked about topics in that area (and it sounds like they were interested in the Intro to 3D printing class scheduled for later this month).

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