Saturday at 10Bits

[Don Smeller]

Next Sunday, Feb 19, is the Annual Family Build It Day at the Witte Museum.  Starts at Noon.

We practiced for the event yesterday, Saturday at 10Bits.

Ray brought in a collection of strong magnets and tubes made of non-magnetic metals (copper and aluminum).  The most amazing thing happens when you drop a magnet down a copper tube. Instead of free falling, it goes at a steady pace of maybe 5 inches a second.  What?  Why?  Science!  It’s called Lenz’s Law (Click for a YouTube Video).

Don found an ideal target audience (family with 2 kids) for his Witte cube demonstration.  They might be called the P-Family: Father Paul, Mother Peaches, twin dreadlocked 7th graders, Brother Padwa and Sister Paudrianna.  They’re into Pokemon at their Randolph Middle School so they picked these critters for their cube.

They also took a tour of the Thingiverse and chose this Game of Thrones dragon to be 3D printed on Gramps.

James had the week off from work (where he runs the 3D Printers) and, what else, he spent his time at 10Bit.  We now have the locks updated so that there’s only one key, and you no longer need a key at all to get out of the building through any door. (Finally, easy egress in case of fire.)  We now have rented the last bit of 10Bit, i.e. the central storage closet, and James has moved in the lathe and intends to move in the CNC mill.  It’s all about containing the noise and the mess.  James managed to tangle with the table saw on Monday and earned a souvenir dozen stitches on two fingers of his left hand.  Hence the fund-raiser for a new razzle-dazzle table saw was born.  

Randy posed an idea for the fund-raiser.  He would teach another welding class and charge a tuition fee this time and donate the proceeds.  Any interest?

We saw evidence that Chris J has been using his 24 hour access.  He seems to have added a plywood boat to surround the base of the wheelchair.  Recall  that the chair was hacked and welded 2 weeks ago during Randy’s class.  It’s going to be a stand-up Dalek robot.  It might look like this someday.

Craig took another step toward his humidor business.  He came into 10Bit Saturday with artwork for a finger-locked logo.  Here it is, laser-etched into a scrap sample of fine wood. The dba name is a play on Craig’s last name, Housley.  Ray G and Don S can pat themselves on the back for coaxing the dxf out of the artwork.  The tool chain involved Photoshop and Onshape and Slic3r and InkScape and don’t forget to unite the lines in RabbitLaser with a tinier-than-usual tolerance.  

There was supposed to be a 2nd Saturday Board Meeting but it got postponed for a week.  The treasurer’s report (thru January 2017) was ready.  It shows nice trends, and otherwise, as TR’s are supposed to go, ho-hum.

Additional cast of characters:  Peggy, Ken, Ariana, Chris H, John V, Kevin, Sue, Stevanie, Ray B  (18 in all)

Don

[GreenhouseBox Company LLC]

Im very thankful for 10bit. Ray and Don you are magicians!!!!