Friday, December 13, 2013

Big Red Wiring

We just received the wire for Big Red. Starting wiring during open workroom today. Come on down and join us if you want to pitch in.

Monday, October 7, 2013

Come One Come All

WOOF will be hosting a "Come One Come All" meeting to introduce UW Students to Washington Open Object Fabricators and the opportunity for hands-on experience in many different disciplines, including (but not limited to): mechanical, materials science, computer science, and electrical engineering.

If you are interested in the many opportunities available to someone with experience building, using, or developing additive manufacturing technologies, join us for our "Come One Come All" meeting; Wednesday, October 9th, 2013. We will start the meeting at 5:00PM in MEB 103, and follow up with a tour of our club workroom in MEB G045.

Project Mondays

The quarter has started and we're busy here in the WOOF room. We have 2 large format printers we are working on now: Big Red and the Kilobot.

Here is a part of the redesign for Big Red's z-axis. 
Mondays at 4:00 PM will be dedicated project time this quarter. Any experience level welcome.

Saturday, August 17, 2013

It's still summer... We're still working!

Here's a teaser of something that's been a long time coming...

Stay tuned... We've got some exciting stuff in the works!

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Moving Madness

Open Build Friday is cancelled tomorrow due to our in-progress move from MEB 252 to MEB G045. If you want to come help us move, we will have someone in one of the two rooms from 2:00pm until 5:00pm doing moving related things.

For those of you that don't know where G045 is, it's on the ground floor, which is below the 1st floor, near the rapid prototyping lab. Hope to see you there!

Sunday, July 14, 2013

Seafair was a huge success!

A huge thanks to everyone who came out to Seafair! We're working on getting a bunch of pictures all together, but for now, here's a notable one:


Way to go WOOF!

Friday, July 12, 2013

It's nearly boat time!

Hello all!

We just heard from the folks at Seafair, and we'll be showing our boats in the Parade of Boats at 12:30pm, and racing at 1:15PM after the military category. We'll be racing last years boat against the new boat from this year.

Come on down and show your support for WOOF and additive manufacturing. Wear your UW colors!

It's been a long process, and Big Red has become quite a bit easier to work with. We'd also like to thank everyone that helped out along the way, from our milk jug collectors to our sleepless printer operators, we couldn't have done it without your contributions.

Planning and pre-heating

The first layer needed a lot of pre-heating to improve adhesion.

Building the walls!

Once the walls were built up, the heating element alone was sufficient for adhesion. Much easier than last year's printer!

Even with the heating element, the HDPE would cool and shrink. Our boat's geometry changed significantly, so we used supports to continue printing.
Eventually the warping got too bad, and we had to stop printing. Our boat is a cool 9.5" tall, and looks great!



Again, a HUGE thank you to everyone who supported us. We couldn't have done this without you! We'll see you at SeaFair!

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Two Important Things

First:

Due to our focus on printing the boat this week, we will not have open workroom hours this Friday.

Second (and more important):

WOOF is relocating. We have been reassigned to room G045 (just two floors down in the MEB). Beginning next week we will be moving to our new work space. This is a great opportunity for us to "clean house".

There are many of us who have property in the room (tools, printers, printer kits, etc.). We know many of you aren't around for summer quarter, but if you are local we ask that you come in and remove your stuff ASAP. If you aren't local (or can't make it in soon) please contact the officers so we can account for everything. The new room is smaller so we simply don't have the same capacity for storing things that aren't being used. Also, the less clutter we have to deal with the easier it will be for everyone during our transition.

I hope you have been having a good summer so far and don't forget to be awesome.

-Mark

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Summer Workroom hours

Hey you WOOFers! Our summer workroom hours are still every Friday, from noon to five. Come in and work on your projects, help with the boat project, or just hang out!

Monday, June 10, 2013

Workroom Hours This Week

Hey WOOFers,

Some of you have asked about when the workroom will be open this week. We will have at least one officer in the room after noon on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If you need help finishing your Grawmet 2 or want to help out building the boat come on in and get some work done. Good luck with the rest of your finals.

-Mark

Friday, June 7, 2013

WOOFers,

This is to remind you all that Seattle Mini Maker Faire is this weekend! It is Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 6pm located at Seattle Center. College students qualify for the student discount which means a day pass is $10 at the door.

Take a break from studying for finals and check out what awesome things other local makers are doing.

Official website:
http://makerfaireseattle.com/

Hope to see you there!

-Mark

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Sustainability at UW!

One of our "things" here at WOOF is recycling. Big Red feeds on the delicious flakes of milk jugs that we collect from the community. But milk jugs are hard to deal with. They're mostly air, so you don't get very much material per jug, they shrink a lot when you print with them, and they smell terrible.

We have been quietly experimenting with grinding up the forks, spoons, and knives used on the UW campus, for use in large scale 3D printing. The iconic brown utensils are made from a biodegradable plastic, PLA (PolyLactic Acid), which lends itself quite nicely to 3D Printing. Our goal is to divert these utensils from the waste streams and into our workroom!

To this end, WOOF has partnered with the UW Garbology Team! They have a ton of experience with the waste stream on campus, and we are very excited to help one another out. We're hoping to use this material to print some composting bins, which will, in turn, generate more plastic for us to print more bins... A never-ending cycle!

We've got a collection bin set up in Ian's Domain, located in McCarty hall, and hope to expand to some other cafés on campus. Please consider dropping your forks and spoons in the box (And keep it clean of other stuff, too!).

We're very excited for what the future holds with this plastic. Stay tuned!

(Our first print with the forks. Not too shabby!)

Friday, May 31, 2013

Grawmet 2 Kits Are Ready!

The Grawmet 2 kits have finally been gathered and are ready for assembly. Today we will have our first assembly workshop. Here's our schedule:

12:30 - The workroom will be open. Pizza will be present. This is a great time to come in and familiarize yourself with your kit contents.

1:00 - The first intensive assembly session begins. We will lead you step-by-step through the first stage of the build (up to the extruder).

3:00 - The second intensive assembly session begins. Same as above. This is for those who can't make the earlier one. Like the first session we suggest showing up early to become familiar with your kit.

5:00 - Clean up.

It is highly recommended that you plan to attend an entire assembly session from start to finish. It will make things easier for you and us. This is not to say that you can't assemble your bot if you can't make it, but it will take more effort and initiative on your part. That being said, we're excited to see you today. Hopefully we can get all of these bots up and running before summer break.

Monday, May 27, 2013

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Any WOOFers adept at video editing?

Hi all,

While the parts for the Grawmet 2 continue to arrive it's time for us to create our video assembly guide. We will be doing a complete assembly of a Grawmet 2 from start to finish on video while explaining each step. We hope this will help in two ways. First, G2 builders will be able to view these videos before they come to build days to help them understand what they'll be doing (and hit fewer stumbling blocks). Second, any G2 builder who can't make it to the build days should be able to follow the video guide to finish their bot.

Here's where we need help. We need a WOOFer (or WOOFers) with video editing experience to edit the footage into easy to follow steps. It's a bonus for us if you can help collect the footage. It's a super bonus for you if you have ordered a G2 kit (just think how well prepared you'll be to fly through assembling yours).

So any of you who are decent at video editing and are willing/able, please reach out to me directly and we can discuss how to go about this. You can reach me at orlrogc-AT-gmail.com or stop by the WOOF room and see if I'm there.

Thanks and don't forget to be awesome.

-Mark

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Boeing Rapid Prototyping Lab - Take 2

Hello WOOF members!

We will be scheduling the Rapid Prototyping tour for a Tuesday.  Before I schedule a specific date with Boeing, I need to know roughly how many people are going and ride logistics.

In order to be eligible to come you must E-MAIL me (washuu-at-uw.edu) with:
1) You would like to go
2) Whether: you need a ride - or - you can provide a ride - or - you will meet us there

Deadline is: Monday May 13th

I will NOT count you if you vocally tell me this.  You MUST E-MAIL me.

 Cheers!
Bethany

Friday, May 3, 2013

Field Trip to the Boeing Rapid Prototyping Lab!

Hey all,

We are arranging for a WOOF field trip to the Boeing Prototyping Lab.  What I need from you all is what day would be best for you.

On the WOOF chalkboard has been set up a small poll.  Leave a chalk mark in the column for the day(s) that work best for you.  The "Poll" will be open Today (Fri May 3) through next Thursday (May 9).

Cheers!
Bethany

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Finishing Your Grawmet 1

Hey all,

There are a number of you who have not finished your Grawmet kits. We realize that there a few reasons this has happened like classes, schedule conflicts, and/or uncertainty of how to proceed. We want to help you finish up so we're trying something new.

On Mondays after the general meeting, we will begin having structured intensive build seminars. What these will consist of is a few experienced Grawmet teachers leading a group of builders through a specific stage of the build.

The general meeting starts at 4:30. After club business is taken care of we'll start to rock on the builds. Our schedule is as follows:

6 MAY - Base
13 MAY - X carriage
20 MAY - Extruder

After all of these seminars you will be ready to start printing and calibrating. You'll finally be ready to start printing off your own parts on your own machine!

Monday, April 29, 2013

How to get a Grawmet 2 kit.

Hi WOOFers,

The time has finally arrived for us to assemble a club order for Grawmet 2 kits! I know many of you are chomping at the bit to get one. Here's what you need to know:

> The kit cost is $325.

> The money is due by 5:30 pm on Friday. We start writing the orders on the weekend so if you miss the deadline then we can't order a kit for you this time. You'll have to wait until Autumn quarter at the earliest.

> The preferred tender is check. Checks must be made out to Washington Open Object Fabricators. If you don't have checks then we can take cash, but we'll need to have an extra witness to sign off that the transaction did take place.

> The only person who can accept payment is Mark Hanson (the treasurer). He will be in the WOOF room all week. The times are as follows:
TUE:   9:30 - 1:30
WED:   9:30 - 11:30, 12:30 - 3:30
THU:   10:30 - 12:30
FRI:   9:30 - 11:30, 12:30 - 3:00, 5:00 - 5:30

> We anticipate a lead time of 2-3 weeks.

This time around we aim to have a quicker completion rate than we experienced with the Grawmet 1. We're excited to get more club printers to our membership to spread the good work of 3DP. Keep being awesome!

-Mark Hanson

Sunday, April 28, 2013

WOOF's a Hit at Engineering Discovery Days

I want to start off by thanking all of our volunteers for helping out Friday and Saturday.  You guys did a fantastic job and we had many a child leave that room with 3D printing sparkling in their eyes.

Thank you
Bethany







WOOF saw several hundred children and their parents come through the workroom over the course of the two days.  We got to show off some of the printers that our member's built, a frostruder that prints in playdough, and Big Red setup as a poster plotter.

Some pictures from the event:




Wednesday, April 24, 2013

This Friday (April 26)

Hey WOOFers,

This Friday is Engineering Discovery Days.  As WOOF will be participating, there will be no open workshop that day.  You are more than welcome to come by, hang out, and/or help out.

Volunteering:
I will be taking the first 10 people who sign up for time slots on the Doodle poll:
http://www.doodle.com/vteu4z467f9zv9fn
as official volunteers for Discovery Days.  Official volunteers get a t-shirt and pizza - so sign up soon!

Beth

Monday, April 15, 2013

Engineering Discovery Days Volunteers Needed!

Hey Fabbers,

WOOF is participating in this year's UW Engineering Discovery Days and need volunteers to help out.

Discovery Days is April 26 & 27 and we will need at least three volunteers every hour:
Friday April 26:
     Setup: 8:30 - 9:00
     Event starts: 9:00 - 2:00
     Clean-up: 2:00 - 2:30
Saturday April 27:
     Setup: 9:30 - 10:00
     Event starts: 10:00 - 2:00
     Clean-up: 2:00 - 2:30
http://www.engr.washington.edu/alumcomm/openhouse.html

I have created a Doodle poll with each hour option.  Please sign up for times that you will be helping out.  No need for any prior 3D knowledge, we are happy to teach you everything you need.  I have limited the number of people that can sign up for each hour to three obviously the more the merrier, so if a slot is full just show up.  We MUST have three volunteers every hour.
http://www.doodle.com/vteu4z467f9zv9fn

After you have signed up, please send me an e-mail with your name and the time you signed up (so that I know who to hunt down if you don't show up)
washuu-at-uw.edu

All the little kiddies thank you!
Bethany Weeks

Friday, April 12, 2013

Today's Open Workroom

Just a quick reminder to all that the WOOF room is open from 12:30 to 5:30 today to work on the Grawmet builds. As a special bonus there will be pizza there at 12:30. Come on in, grab some food, talk about projects, and get some work done on your Grawmet!

Monday, April 1, 2013

And we're back!

Spring quarter is starting up, and WOOF is jumping right in! Expect a General Project Discussion this Monday from 4:30 to 5:30, and a General Workday from noon to five this Friday. Both of these will be in the WOOF workroom (MEB 252).

Also, be checking your email! Our monthly email should be heading out soon, and will update you on what we have in store this month!


Saturday, March 16, 2013

WOOF is winding down for the quarter...

Hey all you WOOFers,

We're coming up on finals week, and that means that WOOF is going to slowing down a bit. As such, there will be NO General Project Discussion or General Workdays this Monday or Friday.

So start cramming! WOOF will be back when Spring quarter starts up.

See you all then

Sunday, March 3, 2013

General Project Discussion, now in the workroom!

Hey all you WOOFers!

Our General Project Discussion is happening March 4th (Monday) from 4:30 to 5:30. Since we've finally got our workroom back, we're going to use it!

Meet in the WOOF room (MEB 252) tomorrow, March 4th to discuss some projects!

Tomorrow we'll have a focus on administrative things. Budgets, progress reports, and the like. If you are or are interested in being a project lead, you should really try to attend this discussion.

Once the budgets are sorted out, the ball can get rolling on some of these projects!

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Build Days are Back

Hi WOOFers,

Just a quick reminder that our room is now available to us again and therefore we will resume open workshop on Fridays from noon-5pm.

This week there will be pizza and soda at noon. Come on by to eat, work on your Grawmet, talk about 3D printing, learn from each other, get the ball rolling on group projects, and any other 3DP related stuff you want to do.

We hope to see you on Friday!

-Mark Hanson

Sunday, February 24, 2013

WOOF's Second General Project Discussion

Hey you WOOFers!

Our second General Project Discussion is happening tomorrow, February 25th, from 4:30 to 5:30. It will be held in MEB 242 (NOT our normal workroom). Hope to see you there!

These discussion will be a weekly thing hopefully, so if you can't make it this week, just come the next!

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

General Project Discussion

Just a quick reminder, there will be WOOF's first ever General Project Discussion in MEB 242 (Not out normal workroom!) tomorrow, February 19th.

We're starting at 4:30, so feel free to stop by and see what's up! We'll be introducing some club wide projects for people to work on. These are projects that will be funded by WOOF, so it's a great opportunity for anyone who is new to 3D printing, and doesn't want to purchase a Grawmet kit just yet. Some projects that we're considering are designing the milk jug derby boat, and building a 3D scanner.

Come on down, have some snacks, and join in the discussion!

See you there!

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Tutorials and This Friday



The Grawmet Builds will continue in the old WOOF office in the basement of Loew. We will be passing our emails out before the WOOF dinner, so individuals can make appointments. All appointments will be posted on the blog, so feel free to swing by Loew if you want to listen in. These are one-on-one tutorials, where you can schedule an appointment with either Mark Hanson or Brandon Bowman, for assembly, troubleshooting, flashing firmware, etc. Come in, let us know where you are at, and we will help you make some progress.

We will be handing out our emails to those who want to schedule an appointment. 

Bowman is available anytime Monday-Thursday excluding  MW2:30-3:30pm
Hanson is available: M after 2:30, T 10:30-2:30, W 12:30-1:30, 2:30-4:00, Th until 4:00, and F 10:30-5.

WOOF Dinner, Friday, Meet 5:00 pm - 5:30 pm (MEB 252) 
Discussion Topic: 3D printing the next milk jug boat.

RSVP in the comment section.




Matt Johnson has volunteered to take on designing and printing the WOOF boat for this year's Seafair Milk Carton Regatta.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Milk Carton Derby (or want more information) check out this link:

Saturday July 13, 2013
Location: Green Lake
Time: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm


The rules are in the image below. Anyone who wants in on this project, be prepared to do some dumpster diving, milk jug de-labeling, work with shredding equipment and have some long nights printing some big parts. If you are in be prepared to work hard, and learn a bunch of really cool thinks. Thanks again to Matt Johnson for heading up this project.



See you on Friday!

-Brandon Bowman and Mark Hanson

Thursday, January 31, 2013

Fridays collaborations

Since the room will not be available for Build Days the next few weeks we are planning on a group dinner for the next three Fridays. All WOOFers are welcome the idea is to gather around and talk about ideas and collaboration. WOOF has several projects coming up. 

Making a 3D scanner.
The 2nd Grawmet revision.
Design the boat for Seafair.

So bring your ideas to the table and we can talk about the list above, or anything else that gets suggested.

Dinner meet at the WOOF room 
(MEB 252) Friday 5:00-5:30pm
We will decide on a venue between 5:00 and 5:30pm
 Splitting up big checks with cards is tough, so consider bringing $10-15 cash because

You can RSVP by leaving a comment.
~Brandon B.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Notice of Room Use

The ME department has been very kind to allow us to use ME 252 as our home base. This term, the ME 356 class will need to use the room for approximately 3 weeks for a class project. In order to help make the room work well for ME 356, we are asking all WOOF members to remove their personal belongings from the room. This means printers, parts, tools etc. The more stuff we can temporarily remove,  the easier it will be for ME 356. Let's make it as convenient for them as possible so that we are welcomed back. Any items that are not removed will be temporarily hidden in Big Red or stored along the window sill.  This all needs happen by this Thursday. Sorry for the short notice. If you'd like to pick up something and need to be let into the room send an email to any of the officers or email woof3d@uw.edu.

During the next few weeks, plan on having very limited access, if any, to the WOOF room.

Please spread the word. This needs to happen this week.

Thanks,

Matt

Friday, January 25, 2013

ME 495 Capstone w/ WOOF

Hey WOOF graduating seniors,

I am trying to get a feel for WOOF members who are planning to/would like to still do a capstone with a WOOF project next quarter.  Prof. Ganter right now is really interested in doing a Stonespray attachment to the large printer that is being build this quarter: http://www.stonespray.com/

Send me an e-mail if you would like to do this as your capstone: washuu-at-uw.edu
Bethany

Tuesday, January 22, 2013

First Grawmet Print!

That's right! The Grawmet kits are finally getting to the point of printing!

WOOF member Bing had the following to say about his Grawmet:
Here it is! My first somewhat successful print with the Grawmet - a BOX! Since the thing isn't calibrated correctly the box is very squished along the Z-axis.
Way to go, Bing!

The first working Grawmet!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Scholarship Opportunity

Dear University of Washington STEM Students,

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) is offering a competitive $10,000 scholarship for University of Washington students who are in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Math (STEM) disciplines. Awardees will receive funding for their 2013-2014 academic year.

All motivated STEM students, who have demonstrated success in both their course work and research projects, are encouraged to apply. Space Grant must receive all materials by 5pm on March 1, 2013. Furthermore, Space Grant will notify applicants of their application status by March 5, 2013.

Student Eligibility and Application process:
-Must be a United States citizen

-Application must include a letter of reference and cover sheet completed by at least one faculty member who has worked closely with you

-Must hold either junior or senior status at the beginning of the
2013-2014 academic year

Nomination documents and details may be downloaded from:
 
All application materials must be sent to the Space Grant main office at:
WA NASA Space Grant
Attn: Astronaut Scholarship Foundation
Johnson 141
Box 351310
Seattle, WA 98195

As general advice, be proactive by downloading the application materials and set-up a meeting with a faculty member to discuss your application. Ensure that your application is complete by ensuring that all documents are included and double check for typos, grammar and such.

I am here to help, so please feel free to contact me regarding this opportunity at jcc5@uw.edu.  Answers to Frequently Asked Questions may be found at the provided link above.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
J.Carlos Chavez
Student Program Coordinator and Advisor
Washington NASA Space Grant

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

WOOF in Winter Quarter

Hey Fabbers,

For now the workshop open days will continue on Fridays.
Where: ME 252
When: Every Friday Noon - 5pm

Winter Quarter General Meeting
Where: ME 252
When: Thurs 17 @ 3:30pm
What's covered:
  • New Officers - open call for officers for next school year
  • Grawmet Winter Build
  • Project: Big Red and the Seafair Boat

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Jan 4 Open WOOF Room

Happy New Year!

The first Open WOOF room of the year will be held:
Friday Jan 4
from 12:00 - 5:00pm 
in ME 252

Come in for help, fun, and companionship!
Beth