Here's a quick update on what is happening in and around AS220 Labs at the beginning of March, 2009:
New Equipment
Back in mid-November we held a fundraising event to raise money for the "Fab Lab" fabrication equipment. In January we purchased the first large piece of equipment, an Epilog laser cutter. We also did some minor electrical improvements and combined two of the studios on the second floor of Empire Street to accommodate the Fab Lab equipment.
Brandon Edens has done some great work on modifying the CUPS Epilog driver (get the source code here) so that we can use the laser cutter from Macs and Linux workstations using free software such as Inkscape. The CUPS driver uses Ghostscript to process files to be sent to the machine, so it is pretty easy to get anything in Postscript to cut or engrave on the printer.
We've also been exploring the use of the laser cutter to engrave plastic relief plates for our Print Shop, with impressive results. Read more about this process on the Briar Press forums.
Upcoming Workshops
Our short-term goal is to have two workshops a week in the Labs. We're not quite there yet, but here's what's coming up:
- Build a Noisekit at the Cranston Public Library (Shawn) -- March 10th
- Make and Break: All About Motors (Tom Sgouros) -- March 25th
- Make and Break: Microphones and Mixers! (Shawn) -- April
- April is international Laser Month: weekly laser cutting and etching workshop
- 3d modeling with Blender (Brandon and Will Brierly) -- April
- Physical Computing with the Arduino (Lutz Hamel) -- 4 sessions through May
- Build a Poor Man's LED fixture (Holly Ratafia of lightswitch.net) -- May
Other workshops are in the pipeline, as yet unscheduled.
Projects
We've been working hard to bring a couple of projects "to market" and help bring in some income. Two that are finished are the 555 Noisemusick Kit and the Fluxamabob Audio kit. The first is a kit that grew out of a workshop we did back in December. The second is an Arduino-compatible audio development board.
Good news: The Maker Shed will be carrying the Noisemusick kit!
Around the Lab
Our trusty old vinyl cutter.
In January we built this little partition and moved some nice parts drawers from the Mercantile building.
Kim Kazan's awesome "Mouse activated surveillance" mural hangs above the laser cutter.
The fulfillment center for 555 Noisemusick Kits.
We're getting slightly more organized...
...and putting some systems in place.
