Mind-2-Matter - Hard at work!?

This is how hard Pi works at The Gnomery!

I've been trying with ZERO luck to upload this video of what happens at night in The Gnomery. Blogger is a jerk, so it won't embed no matter how I try to upload it, so a link will have to do.

I haven't done a ton of creative work this week, but creative work has been going on in the Gnomery (part of the video above is "testing" the "TactiGnome SlugFire" - a LaserGnomes designed accessory for the NERF SledgeFire blaster).

TactiGnome SlugFire designed and manufactured by LaserGnomes

We're also getting ready to start testing some new materials. We typically print in PLA, but have some PET to test in the near future. Both are environmentally friendly bioplastics, which we use instead of petroleum based plastics like ABS.

It's been a full week of research and paperwork for me, but Mind-2-Matter is almost done with all of that. We have moved to a fantastic space in San Leandro, CA. We're sharing this space with Type A Machines and it's going great.

The City of San Leandro is committed to revitalizing and re-imagining American manufacturing and we are excited to be a part of it. San Leandro has a fiber loop (can't tell you how excited Justin was at the mention of this!), tons of warehouse and commercial space available (the building we are in was formerly a Ford, Chrysler and Caterpillar plant) and they are currently having a "holiday" from business license fees to attract new businesses to the area. This applies to almost any new business setting up shop in San Leandro, which is unheard of.

 As a "start up" company, that is a great incentive. For us, a very small business (3 people currently), the savings don't seem like a ton (about $300), but considering business licence fees are calculated on the number of owners and employees, that can quickly add up. Can't beat free, right?!

Keep an eye out for some of our upcoming projects. We are about ready to start casting in the new facility (we're up to 4 kilns) and we are expanding our 3D printing capabilities.

Here are some of the places you can find our services:

3d Hubs
MakeXYZ
Fictivmade

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Made In Space!?

We went to a really great 3D printing meet up on Sunday (it's been a busy week with Mind-2-Matter and getting ready for finals next week, so I wasn't timely in blogging about it).

It was hosted by Type A Machines and 3DHubs, who just recently unlocked San Francisco.

3DHubs is another print on demand service that required a certain number of printers to sign up in an area prior to "unlocking" a city. We had been watching for months for San Francisco to be unlocked but have been steadily using MakeXYZ to grow our business.

We spent a bit of time networking and one of the featured speakers was Made in Space!

What's Made in Space you ask?

Basically they are a group that is working on the first 3D printer in space!

How rad is that idea?

I can't say we're working on anything as ground (or space) breaking as 3D printing in space, but Mind-2-Matter getting to be a REALLY exciting project.

I'm working on the photography tomorrow morning before we head out to Half Moon Bay.

I went through the entire casting process on Saturday from spruing to pouring the investment mold to pouring the pewter! Justin took some video so I will get that posted up tomorrow as well as the photos of Gnorman in various states of being.

Here are a few of Gnorman from my cell phone (the real pictures will happen tomorrow!).

Brain Rot 

I really wanted to keep a golden Gnorman, but he had to go through the polishing stages!

Mind-2-Matter

You may remember Gnorman from earlier this year.

This was my free sculpture for my figure modeling class during the Spring 2013 semester at AAU.

This may be the piece of work that I am the most proud of ever. EVER. (and I've made a lot of art in the last 30 years). Needless to say I was most saddened when I was too busy to properly finish Gnorman and have him fired (I went straight from work/school to wedding prep/work and he dried out!).

I had been crossing my fingers that we could get him scanned before he was a total loss since June/July. Our method of scanning wasn't the easiest but Justin and I worked through a variety of methods using Kinect cameras for another project and I figured that we would, at some point, rig that set up again.

Well, we didn't have to.


The Gnomes (thanks to the Elder Gnome) have acquired the Sense 3D Scanner.

A few minutes time and we had a model to print. I was so excited I could barely contain myself last night! The original Gnorman is 8" W x 13" D x 24" H. New Gnorman is about 1" W x 1.5" D x 4" H!

So exciting!  

And it was just in time. Gnorman's ear fell off after we finished scan!

Stiff Neck (no more)

I have to admit I'm a bit of a nerd about ergonomics.

I think it stems from a combination of RSIs (repetitive stress injury) at an early age and a Human Centered Design class I took a few years back.

I had symptoms of carpal tunnel by the time I was 22. I had carpal tunnel release surgeries on both wrists by the time I was 25. I used to think that was pretty young, but people are showing more and more signs of RSIs at earlier and earlier ages. Like the 16 year old who developed carpal tunnel from her 100 text a day habit.

In addition to carpal tunnel, I've had DeQuervain syndrome (inflammation of the tendons in the thumb - also known as gamer's thumb or texting thumb. Or if you want to get really old timey, you can call it Washerwoman's sprain). My left thumb has never been the same, while my right thumb seemed to recover completely.

I've had tennis elbow (and I've never really played). I've had trochanteric bursitis (also known as dancer's hip).

While part of these issues stem from chronic inflammation and autoimmune issues, another contributing factor has been poor ergonomics.

The one size fits all approach to furniture (both home and office) doesn't work. We spend a tremendous amount of time being stationary in workstations or furniture that is not designed to fit our bodies.

I have to say that even after suffering from workplace related RSIs, there wasn't a lot of thought put into preventing these issues for others (or preventing flare ups for those who have already been affected). I worked in workers' compensation law for a while and the solution always seemed to be to find new employment for people who had been injured instead of really evaluating the workplace to see how it could be modified to prevent injury.

As the final project for my Human Centered Design Class, I built a workshop that was customized to be the right fit for me in a standing position. Here are some slides from my final presentation where I discussed how to determine the standing height of a workstation.

Factors in Determining Standing Workstation Height

Observations taken from my initial workstation

Analysis and Zone of Convenient Reach calculations based upon original workstation

Analysis and Zone of Convenient Reach for redesigned workstation

I have been working at a standing workstation since 2010 now and I love it. I no longer have my workshop, but my desk set up at home is standing. I have my monitor placed upon a shelf well so it is at eye level.  I do not have to look downward at my monitor, thus reducing strain on my neck. 

Okay, so you've made it this far and are probably wondering what the heck this has to do with art, design, school or 3D printing. It has everything to do with all four of those things. 

I started a new job recently and lets just say our furnishings are spartan. We are sitting at folding tables. We do have office chairs (though I've traded mine in for an exercise ball). A lot of people are working on laptops. Small laptops. Myself included. 

The first week was misery. A 13 inch MacBook on a folding table is a recipe for ergonomic disaster. I managed to procure a mouse and full size keyboard at the start of the 2nd week. I placed the laptop on a couple of boxes to raise the screen, even if just a little. I ended up getting a monitor shortly after that. 

It's better than it was, but by no means ideal. My monitor is still about 3-4 inches too low and I am looking downward, putting extreme stress on my neck. 

So this week, I will be designing a monitor riser that fits the foot print of my monitor exactly (as space is a premium and I don't have room for the standard monitor risers). I'm going to incorporate a bit of fun into it (at least fun for people who love office supplies) and include space for my post its and my pens!  

I'll post pictures this week of the design and the final product. 

It's awesome.

When you have an idea and make it happen.

Having a 3D printer makes it even more awesome because it can happen in a matter of hours.

We use a GoPro to create time lapse videos of our 3D prints here in The Gnomery. Well, it wasn't the most perfect set up having it sit on the edge of the glass we use as our print bed. It vibrated. It wiggled. It was unstable.

Justin had an idea. He decided to make a GoPro mount that fits on the printer itself.

Even better, he decided to combine that mount with the filament guide he had previously printed.

To TinkerCAD he went. To the Community Garden meeting I went. By the time I was back, he was done with the design and printing had commenced.

Here's the finished product.

Seriously. It's amazing to have the capability of idea to object in an afternoon.

If you don't have a 3D printer, it's definitely affordable to work with the LaserGnomes to get an idea rolling.

TinkerCAD - New Features!

I've proclaimed my excitement again and again about the return of TinkerCAD. Autodesk saved them from the abyss and they are making improvements.

TinkerCAD is currently free for everyone and allows multiple designs with a free account. Previously, a free account only allowed you to create and edit ONE design. I had upgraded to a paid account briefly to allow more than one design at a time, which had unlocked the Shape Scripts feature.

Well, I don't know squat about parametric programming so editing the Java Script to devise and edit shapes was a bit over my head. They do have some handy sliders that allow you to change the parameters of the shapes without knowing how to edit Java script. Here's a quick look at it.

 

Another really cool new feature they've added is "Edit Grid". Previously they let you choose between metric and imperial and the snap tolerances.  Time for an upgrade.

You can now choose from several popular 3D printers so your grid is set to your bed size.  They started out with Makerbot and Objet (both of which are owned by Stratasys). I hopped on their blog and requested Type A Machines Series 1 (the LaserGnomes preferred printer). A few of the members of the Series 1 forums hopped on as well.  Well, that was July 18th. It's currently July 20th.

And they've added Type A Machines Series 1!!!!!!!!


If you haven't given TinkerCAD a go, I suggest you do. It's pretty awesome stuff.  Perhaps you have an idea of something you want to make but don't have the CAD skills to make it happen (don't worry, most people don't have the CAD skills!).  TinkerCAD can make that happen.

We make it happen (all the time)

Justin is hard at work.  He's acquired several NERF blasters and accessories over the last two years of LaserGnomes that are missing parts.

Well, he finally got one of the missing pieces and is hard at work reverse engineering it.  As I type, the first iteration of this battery cover is printing.  I'm pretty sure Justin hadn't even started work on the model for this piece when I got home at 7 p.m. today.  In a matter of 4 hours, he's gone from idea to model to print.

For those of you who don't know about the origins of the Gnomery and LaserGnomes, it started almost 2 years ago for a school project when Justin was finishing up his degree at AAU.

He was taking a green marketing class and was struck by the idea of trying to save NERF blasters from the thrift stores and landfills.  He began repairing and refurbishing used. It quickly spread to me scouring stores for NERF for the holiday rush (picture me driving my SUV filled top to bottom with NERF) and we've been going strong ever since.

I've done a bit of cosmetic modification, but nothing like Justin has been doing.  I wanted to know if girls would play with NERF just because it was pink, so I created the Princess Power Up.

Girls (and boys) loved it everywhere we went.  But the Firefly is kind of a crappy blaster.  It's cool because it lights up and shoots glowing darts but you really have to be close to hit a target of any sort. 

There have been quite a few iterations of the MasterKey in the NERF community. Many of them involve hot glue, duct tape or zip ties.  Well, those materials aren't quite up to Gnome standards.  Enter Justin. Super clean, barely noticeable integrator piece engineered and printed all in the Gnomery. 

Super clean cut job on the Rough Cut and a Gnomes designed and printed trigger mod as well (A few people were using screws to hold the Rough Cut trigger in place).

Justin's made a few improvements on the integrator (including clip retention) since the original iteration of the MasterKey. Behold the MasterKey 2.2 Extreme LG edition.

Here's a photo one of our customers sent us of the cosmetic mod they did after receiving their MasterKey from the Gnomery!

Nice Work Oliver! 

We wear a variety of hats here at the Gnomery.

We're here to help people achieve their dreams.

Have an idea?  We can help it happen.

Garden Party!

I've been working feverishly on a new project: 3D printed garden markers.

I saw this image featured on the Shapeways blog:

And thought to myself, WTF!!!!!

How is that a feature worthy print?  The design is boring (and the print quality is the SUCK).

A garden needs character. That garden says "Meh. I'm here and I can tell you what else is here with me."

While I know we ultimately DON'T want Peter Rabbit and company hanging out in our gardens, we should at least want our garden to be inviting enough for a cast of woodland characters to want to have a tea party amongst our plants. (But then again I imagine Pi has tea parties with the mice that we are trying to run out of the house.)

While my personal garden plot is only 5'x4', I'm utilizing square foot gardening and packing as much in as I can.  I've got a variety of herbs including mint, savory, fennel, sage, garlic, chives, lemon balm and catmint. I've got several types of greens including Swiss chard, kale, spinach and lettuce.  I've got a few larger plants in there too, including zucchini, lemon cucumbers and rhubarb.

My current (and long time) favorite font is called Charlie.

If it looks familiar, it's the font we chose to use for our wedding invitations (a future blog post will be dedicated to the entire wedding stationary and Save the Dates).  It's wonderfully reminiscent of the Arts and Crafts movement and makes me think of the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh.

Here are some of the results.

The last photo includes the Rogue Rabbit Gardens sign made for me by Justin.  It is also printed from PLA (as are all of the markers featured) and has been in my garden since March.

I will have these markers and others available for purchase in the next few days.  Follow my blog for the announcement when they will be available (the announcement will go up on Facebook as well).

I have a few really awesome ideas for garden accessories that I will be working on in the coming weeks.  Stay tuned for those as well!

TinkerCAD. You're leaving me?

Last week I had started reviewing TinkerCAD, including the paid version. 

I did a brief overview last week, giving you a formal introduction to TinkerCAD and I had been playing around with it more in depth and taking extensive notes to share with you. 

Today, it was announced that TinkerCAD will be no more.  

What does that mean for users? Well, here's the "shut down timeline" that was provided: 

• Effective immediately we have closed sign-ups for new users
• April 30 2013 - All free accounts will be changed to read only
• August 31 2013 - All academic accounts will be changed to read only
• December 31 2013 - All paid accounts will be changed to read only
• June 31 2014 - Read only access for all users will be discontinued

I had really hoped to get more people on board and get them started modeling using TinkerCAD through this blog. Unfortunately, it's now closed to new users.  

If you had signed up prior to today and had a free account (which means only one design at a time is available to you - that was what I had prior to getting the paid version last week), you've got a little more than a month of working time left. 

At this point, I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I will probably cancel my paid account and move on to another software and outline it here. It's disappointing, though. I had hoped to use TinkerCAD to teach basic 3D modeling to the kids I work with.  

In fact, I took a few prints to work today to share with the kids. One of the kid's dad REALLY wants to get a 3D printer. This kid knew a lot about 3D modeling and the basics of how the printer worked. He started describing "this thing you can go to on the internet that lets you design anything you want. And they have really cool rabbit ears." TinkerCAD. 

Even kids know about it!  (and it was going to be a great teaching tool!)

I'm on the hunt for a user friendly 3D modeling program to learn and help others learn.  I'll keep you updated on my progress.  

Get to work R2 D0NT

Okay, so last time we checked in with R2 D0NT, he had his own facebook page.

Well, he's been forced to get a job now.  R2 D0NT is available for commission work!

LaserGnomes is pleased to say they have joined the MakeXYZ community.

What is MakeXYZ you ask?

MakeXYZ is a community of 3D print operators that are available for hire to print your 3D objects.  Printer operators list their available materials/colors and cost based upon volume.  People looking to have their objects printed can look based upon their zip code to have print jobs done locally.  After your object has been printed, the printer can ship the object to you OR make arrangements for pick up/drop off.

Currently R2 D0NT is printing at $1.00 per cubic centimeter for PLA.  We currently offer Black, Blue (translucent) and White.

We will be offering additional colors soon.

We are also going to begin testing on using the dual heads of our machine so bi-color printing will be available as well.

Stay tuned for a fantastic project we've been working on.  I can't share it just yet, but I have to say I'm very excited about it.

R2 D0NT

R2 D0NT (our TAM 3D Printer) now has a Facebook page.  He started behaving and has started receiving rewards for his behavior modifications.

One reward R2 D0NT received was thumb screws for bed leveling.  Thumb screws don't sound like much, but considering that having a level bed is priority number 1 for good printing and the previous method involved tiny tools and a lot of patience (hex wrench and wrench to adjust very small screws), thumb screws are a god send.

The original tools for the bed leveling process
Hex Wrench and box wrench

The original plate mount assembly (adjusted using the above
hex wrench/box wrench combo)

The plate mount assembly removed from R2 D0NT

The Thumb Screw Assembly (adjusted just with your thumbs!)

Another view of the thumb screw assembly

Previously leveling the bed was a very tedious process that made the dentist seem like a good time.  The thumb screws have made it so much easier.  The guys at TAM listened to user feedback and came up with a great solution for bed leveling.  

Unfortunately, our bed is warped.  The print bed is made from acrylic which can be warped by high heat or any other number of things.  We've ordered a new bed and Justin has printed a rail mount for a Z Limiter to help make leveling the bed even quicker (it is also how we confirmed our bed was warped).  

I'm most excited in that we have worked out a lot of the bugs, we're getting proper extrusion temperatures sorted (it varies by color) and we're actually printing!  

We went from this (pulling our hair out all the while)

To THIS! 

And THIS! 

And THIS! (yes it's glowing in the dark!)

 That's right!  We're printing GLOW IN THE DARK PLA.  That means it's awesome and glows but it's also a biodegradable plastic!