SouthWorks will be open earlier on Saturdays during the summer. Beginning June 2 through August 11th, the Lab will be open from 9am to 1pm. From August 18th until Labor Day, the MakerLab will be closed for maintenance and vacation.
Give Your Mother A Personalized Vase for Mother’s Day
Mothers love handmade items. Express your love with a beautiful vase etched with the sentiment or image of your choice. Learn the simple design software and etch with our programmable laser etcher to create a lasting memory.
We’ll supply the 3 1/2 inch diameter and 8 inch high round vase. Bring your design idea. Images, even photos from your phone, can be etched.
Cost: $25
Limited to 8 participants
REGISTER AND PAY ON EVENTBRITE
Tuesday, May 1st, 5:30pm to 9:00pm
SouthWorks Robotics and Engineering Olympics April 14th
This year, we are again involved in the SouthWorks Robotics Competition. Thirteen local high schools and their corporate sponsors/mentors participated in last year’s inaugural event. This year we have 21 teams!
See some great high school students compete in sumo robot battles, VEX robotics challenges, Pathfinder, Autonomous Racer, Catapult accuracy, and more.
The MakerLab will be closed on April 14th as we all volunteer as judges and other support staff. We hope you’ll be able to attend -even better- please sign up here to volunteer.
Laser Cut Cards
Lately, we’ve had a lot of interest in laser cut cards- from birthday cards and wedding invitations to pop-ups of scenes and even people.
Working with paper, primarily card stock and heavier coated papers, is a lot of fun. Such papers come in a multitude of colors, but also textures and patterns. Faux leather, wood, and metal coatings provide many ways to express yourself with paper.
Because of the thickness of the paper, you can also etch designs and text onto the pages. See the white designs and text on the examples above.
Or, you can print something on the paper first and then create cutouts later using the laser cutter as we did with the Chicago skyline cutout.
Etsy and pinterest are full of examples of laser cut cards, especially wedding invitations. You’ll see how expensive they can be to purchase, but with a little time and effort at the makerlab you can make your own unique versions for a fraction of the cost. We’d be happy to help you get started.
Because the papers vary so much, laser cutting the paper is a bit trial and error, so bring a few pieces to experiment with.
Girls STEAM Ahead Event at Homewood Science Center
SouthWorks supports this great program to prepare more girls for STEAM careers. Hope you can make it!
Go to www.homewoodsciencecenter.org/gsa for more info.
Attendees Have Fun At Arduino/Electronics Workshop
This past Saturday, workshop attendees had fun learning circuit design and micro-controller programming using Arduinos. Students programmed flashing LEDs in various sequences, sounds using a piezo speaker, and more.
Flashbacks to the ’80s and 90’s occurred as the theme songs of PacMan and Star Wars came from the Arduino boards.
Our instructor, Robin Moseley, a former Bell Labs scientist who designed microcontrollers and other hardware and software, explained what a microcontroller is, circuit design, and the many uses of Arduinos and similar boards. He brought in many of the projects he has built with Arduinos, including drones, robots light displays, sound synthesizers, music samplers and connected devices (Nest, Alexa, etc.) sorts of things that can be easy DIY projects.
Students left with a full development kit including the Arduino, breadboard for wiring circuits prior to soldering permanent connections, sensors and resources to find and make more projects.
Valentine Keepsake Box Class
The Valentine Keepsake Box workshop this past weekend produced some creative designs. Some experimented with inlays- cutting out hearts or roses from the top of the box and filling those cuts with deep red acrylic cutouts of the same pattern.
Don’t worry. If you’re still looking for a creative gift, our laser etch wine glass class is Saturday, February 3rd . Visit eventbrite to register.
Laser Cutter Inspiration
105 Amazing Laser Cutter Projects
Unlike the MakerLab where you can learn and manufacture on your own, Ponoko is a online job shop to which you can send your designs and they will manufacture it for you.
Here’s a link to a great article that lists 105 laser projects that you can do here at SouthWorks. Make jewelry, create invitations, make robots, and much more…..
