Coming Soon!

Stay tuned for information on Summer Make-a-Tion 2014 and the (newly named) Heartland Maker Fest.  Make-a-Tion will start at the end of July and workshops will be held every other Saturday from 10-12 and 1-3.  Heartland Maker Fest will be on Saturday, October 18 at the Lincoln Square Mall in Urbana.

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Wondering how to start a print on our Solidoodle 3D Printer? This video is for you!

Click through to watch the tutorial. The short version is: switch on the power strip, open pronterface, hit connect, hit “Set” temp on the bed and the nozzle, and then open Cura, open your STL, choose your raft and support, hit “file > save gcode” and save it somewhere you’ll remember — go back to pronterface and open that gcode, then hit print! Too fast for ya? Watch the video!

 

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Pewter Casting at Make-a-tion

Pewter Casting at Make-a-tion

This is the third year we’ve attempted a pewter casting workshop and once again the results were pretty wonderful. Our excellent volunteer/instructor Erich did an awesome job explaining exactly what pewter is and how easy it can be worked with even at home. Then we moved right along to playing with making molds out of silicone putty.

Pewter Casting (12 of 60) Pewter Casting (15 of 60)

Erich had brought in some some simple wooden carved shapes and objects he picked up at the local craft store that made for perfect items to mold the silicone around.

Pewter Casting (18 of 60)

Pewter Casting (21 of 60)

Many of the attendees also brought their own objects from home that they had decided they would like to create a pewter version of.

Pewter Casting (25 of 60)Pewter Casting (24 of 60)

 

After the molds were set (~10 min) it was time to head outside and start melting some metal.

Pewter Casting (31 of 60)Pewter Casting (35 of 60)

Once we had some liquid metal it was time to start the pouring and see how our molds worked.

Pewter Casting (43 of 60)Pewter Casting (38 of 60)

Turns out they worked great!

Pewter Casting (50 of 60)

 

Here’s a cast from a 3D printed pac-man ghost. We even managed to add a hole through it’s head so it could be attached to something.

Pewter Casting (48 of 60)Pewter Casting (63 of 60)

Thanks to everyone who came for making this a really fun event!

More photos from the event here.

 

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Our new Mini Maker Faire poster is here!

Our new Mini Maker Faire poster is here!

The Living Letter Press made the Urbana Champaign Mini Maker Faire a poster again this year, and it’s beautiful! We love their work. And it just happens to match the purple wall at Makerspace Urbana. Look for it around town soon.

If you need your own unique cards/invitations/posters/whatever definitely keep them in mind. They also run awesome workshops!

makerfaireposter (11 of 1)

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Lots of stuff happening today!

Lots of stuff happening today!

2-4pm – Help Desk open

Get help with your computer problems! learn how to fix stuff! donations encouraged, or donate your time to help others!
5-6pm – Solidoodle Workshop

We have a 3-D printer, yo! Learn to design, share, and print on our 3-D Solidoodle printer.
Join us for our Spring 2013 workshops, every 4th Sunday of the month:

February 24
March 24
April 28
May 26

6-7:30pm – Monthly Membership Meeting

Want to hear a bunch of things that we’re doing, have done & plan to do? Interested in learning how you can get involved? Maybe form a partnership with us on an awesome project you’re working on? Our Monthly Membership Meeting is the place to connect.

We’re located in the basement room #16 of the Independent Media Center in Urbana.

The space can be a little tricky to find but if you enter through the back (south) bike project door (near the radio tower) and take your first left, we’re at the end of the hall. This map should get you there.

See you there!

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The Solidoodle is printing!

We got out new Solidoodle 3D printer up and printing. We hope to make a permanent place in the space for it and have it available for any members to use(after training). So come on by and play with it some time!

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@maltman23 will be train hacking his way across the US! Hopefully he can stop by #chambana for a workshop at the Makerspace! :-)

@maltman23 will be train hacking his way across the US! Hopefully he can stop by #chambana for a workshop at the Makerspace! 🙂 http://twitter.com/makerspaceu/status/213092447142674432

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Whew! What a day! 431 people came to the faire today. Stay tuned for photos and information about next year.

Also make sure you engage with the groups you found most interesting. If one of those happens to Makerspace Urbana you’ve come to the right place. We have open hours every Wed at 7pm and are always looking for new makers.

 

via Facebook Pages http://www.facebook.com/pages/p/109193269160999

 

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