Chattlab Updates 8/2/2017

[Jeff Johnson]

For those that missed the meeting last night, here are some updates.

• Member count is up to 32 regular members and 2 student/family members.  We're in the black and making rent/insurance payments, but just barely.  If anyone ever wants to see the "books", just let me know and I'll make them available without any issue.
  
• Shout outs to Tim, Michael R, Lee, Jeff, keith, Dave A, Rudy, Ben, Colin and Joseph for kicking in for some needed purchases and new equipment.  These donations will go a long way in terms of adding additional functionality to our space.
• Another shout out to Alex for making a nifty clamp rack (see picture below). It will go a long way to getting many of the long clamps out of the way and with easy access.
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• We have a new 28" vinyl cutter.  It will cut vinyl stickers, window decals, T shirt iron on stuff AS WELL AS act as a pen plotter. (pic below).  Now it's on me to work on figuring this bad boy out so I can show others.  We also had enough money to get a base set of tools and vinyl.  Once we get set up, we will figure out a per foot price on the vinyl for members use. It'll be on the honor system, but we're thinking that if you donated, take 10% of of your contribution as "credit" towards vinyl.
• For an interesting article on the benefit of a cutter at a space, check out this hackaday article.
• Jason and I should have the RFID system working on the BDC hallway door this week. We have the materials and need to do some more work on the door to get it to fit. Your same RFID will work on this entry way.
• Last week's introduction to Python workshop went well.  We had about 8 attendees.
• Special thanks to Joe who successfully calibrated the Rostock (sp?) 3D printer that is on loan to us from our friends at the Fourth Floor. It was late by the time he finished, so we may have some test prints soon. Feel free to try it out if you know how.
• Our CNC is making progress, but Jason still needs to fabricate some custom pieces. I've inquired if there's anything we can offload to help, but unfortunately not at this point.
• We have a new sander, an oscillating spindle sander (see picture below)
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• The shaper table (thing attached to the table saw) now has a vacuum shroud underneath to catch the bulk of the chips that get thrown on the floor. If you plan on using this device, contact me (Jeff) for instructions on how to use.
  
• This Saturday, I'm trying to organize a work party to get some space stuff moved. If you can spare 1 to 2 hours of your Saturday, I'd appreciate it. We're making room for more metal working stuff and setting up the office to have more room for vinyl cutting.  I've committed to bring brownies and free soda for anyone that pitches in. Please try to help if you can.  The more people we have the quicker it will go.
• The Mini Sumo meetups have been cancelled out of lack of interest, and likely the Movie Fridays will be cancelled as well, unless others want to take this over.
• Progress is happening on our wiki page.  Though it is currently only on my laptop, we'll be publishing it to our chattlab.org site soon.
• An asset tracking system has been found and we are in the process of documenting our equipment.  Since much of our equipment is on loan, this will help document who owns it, as well as serial numbers, etc.  There will be a tag that you can scan with a phone app to get information on the equipment including manuals, etc.  Cool stuff.  I demonstrated it last night during the meeting.

Thanks.

Jeff