Student Projects.

Lots going on in the dorkpunch garage lately, both mine at home and the school shop.  Students have been working on all kinds of things.  Been fighting the 3D printer lately but it seems (knock on wood) that I have it figured out.  Had some issues with a sticky z-axis and loosing steps in the y-axis.  The y-axis thing as been going on since nearly the time I built the printer- I had it narrowed it down to a bad control board but thought I would try a few more tests on the y-axis stepper driver.  Tried lowering the voltage- that seemed to work great for about 3 days.  Adjusted and tested it at several different voltages and it seems to be working very well at a slightly higher voltage than its supposed to be at.  Suppose that means it's going to melt here any day now...

Anyways, here's a couple of recent prints with several more to follow.  A headphone stand, and a piston / connecting rod.


Our school has been doing a "FLEX" program- kind of a recess on steroids where the kids that need help can go see their teachers or go do something fun if they are all caught up.  I've had several kids coming in to weld and do lots of other things like these custom Hot Wheels.



The silver one is just a paint and wheel swap- but it's a replica of one of the cars in a Fast and Furious movie.  The other one had the roof chopped off and a new paint job.  Didn't quite get the tape stuck down for the stripes, but not too bad!

Have another kid working on a new body for his R/C truck-


And then there's the welders...



They're getting better.  Have some really good welders- for sure all of them are WAY better than I was at that age. 

On another note, January is almost over.  Time to shave the beard and get ready to drag the bikes out- as long as we don't have the nasty fog / black ice covered roads we had today...