June 2023 Newsletter

Monthly Membership Meeting

  1st Wednesday of each month 7:30-8:30pm

7pm for social and goofing off

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Leesburg Workday TBD 9am - 2pm

check the white board in the main room for additional tasks

Purcellville Workday August 5 9am - 2pm

There's something for everyone - get those volunteer hours in!

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New Member Orientation

Online TBD 6:30 - 8:00pm

register online, event link will be sent to all registrants

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Monthly Social 

MSP July 9 4pm-6pm Picnic

MSL July 23 4pm-7pm Chili Cookoff

And now, a few words from our President...

Adam "Squirrl" McClintock

Greetings Fellow Makers,

We had a great time at the MSP Social on July 9th at which we also held the Ceramics Shop Grand Opening Ribbon Cutting Ceremony. The theme was "Picnic" and a great amount of delicious food was consumed. The ribbon cutting ceremony was a blast and we have uploaded a short video of it onto our Makersmith YouTube channel. 

Upcoming Social this month:
MSL - July 23rd, 4-6 pm, theme is Chili Cookoff!

The New Member Liaison Program is going well and we have placed several new members with Liaisons in the past month. Let me know if you are interested in being a Liaison and I can share the program details so you can make a decision.

If you are looking for a class we don’t currently offer, please suggest it in the #class_planning_and_requests channel in Slack. You can also suggest a class you might offer to see what kind of interest there is in that concept. Additionally, you can just let us know classes you are waiting to become available so that we can gauge interest and engage the instructors for those classes.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the next Membership Meeting which will be Wednesday, August 2, 2023 starting at 7:30pm with a pre-meeting hangout starting at 7:00pm if you are interested in a little chit chat and goofing off.

Feel free to engage me with any suggestions, questions, requests for help or just a “How do you do?”

Sincerely,
C. Adam “Squirrl” McClintock
President, Makersmiths

Makersmiths Education Initiatives

CAD Collaboration
Tim Cotter

Onshape collaboration feature used to successfully model a miniature railroad part for 3D printing.

Around the end of May maker - Jeff Wilson asked about a class to create 3D files for printing on the class_planning _and_request Slack channel. After some clarification we agreed this would also be a good test of a CAD collaboration capability using Onshape CAD to build a 3D model.

Onshape is cloud-native computer-aided design (CAD) software application that runs within a browser across multiple platforms. Because Onshape is cloud-native it offers a collaboration capability directly in the CAD document.  Also, Onshape provides a free user account for makers.

We started with several reference images and measurements to create an initial 3D model.

With additional collaboration, comments, and corrections several changes were made directly in Onshape while everyone sharing the document could see the 3D model results update immediately on their own device

From here the model was exported as an .stl and 3D printed.

The successful test demonstrated a capability to generate 3D printed part models using Onshape cloud-native collaboration.  If you are interested in this project or taking an introduction to CAD for 3D Printing please follow the link below and complete the ‘Notify Me’ form.  The basic class will be in person with the goal of designing up to 4 simple CAD models.

Notify Me about the “Introduction to CAD for 3D Printing” class

Election Results

Bev Murdock

Congratulations to our new and returning Board Members, Scott Silvers and Jonathan White. The election was conducted under our revised Bylaws, which allowed us a longer voting window, and was conducted using OpaVote. We had strong participation from our membership, with quorum achieved well before the Annual Meeting of the Membership.

Thanks to everyone for participating!

The Annual Meeting of the Board of Directors was held on June 28. During that meeting, officers were appointed. For this year, the appointments were actually re-appointments with the officers as follows:  Jonathan White (Chairperson), Beverly Murdock (Secretary), John Dubelko (Treasurer), and Squirrl (President). In addition, Christa Stern has graciously agreed to continue in her role as Bookkeeper.

Please find this and more information in the latest meeting Minutes on our Wiki page.

Purcellville 4th of July Parade

The parade was a rousing success! Organizer Tom Hill drove the gator, generously donated for use by Mark Milsap. This year's floats were made by Dave and Diane Painter (Minions!), Isaac Bowser and Lane Waldron (Pokémon), and Tom Hill (Aliens). Parade watchers were able to see examples of CnC, woodworking, sewing, wire sculpting skills and so much more! Walking along the parade route in the HEAT were Isaac, Land, Jenn Chu and Ken Fuentecilla. Thanks to everyone who participated!

Tom Hill wants to remind you to start thinking about NEXT YEAR's Parade Floats! You have all winter to get ideas and start building before the busy summer months. Anyone and everyone can get in on the fun! 

Notify Me

Tom Cotter

...when a class becomes available

You now have an easy way to request Red Tool classes and other types of classes.  Over the next few weeks, we will roll out the request feature on the Makersmiths website, on individual calendar events and eventually from within a class/course catalog (stay tuned).

In the mean time click on the link below to get started.  Please complete 1 entry for each class you are interested in taking.  It may seem a bit redundant on the front end but keep in mind we are trying to automate the back-end reports to go out to different instructors teaching different classes.

Notify Me

Greater insight into Maker requests allows focused efforts to develop new classes, solicit additional instructors and ultimately shorten the amount of time between asking for and attending classes.

Follow the class_planning_and_request Slack channel for updates and to ask questions.

did you know...

you can find the newsletters from the last several years archived on our website?

Memories and Time

Ralph Pugh

Memories can be captured in the mundane objects that we gather around ourselves. While gazing at that object, just for a moment we can tinker with time.

Photos or keepsakes are touchstones, each one contains a memory of a person, a time, a place and gives meaning to the present.

And so it was with a good friend and neighbor.  He and his wife had a special child sized table and set of 4 chairs tucked away in their house. It was a table that she and her younger sister had used over 70 years ago. A photo captured the celebration of her younger sister’s first birthday around that table.

Naturally the table and chairs, kept all those years, still had special meaning to her.

Alas, one of the chairs was in pieces, and one of the horizontal support spindles for the legs was irreparably broken into 3 pieces, A replacement spindle was not a piece that could be readily purchased in a store, it had to match exactly in terms of profile, size, and color to the existing spindles.

An exact replica spindle was turned on the lathe, using an undamaged spindle as a master.

The broken-off spindle ends buried in two of the vertical leg spindles had to be drilled out.

A jig was made to allow the leg spindle to be clamped in place on the metal table of the vertical drill press. The 2 halves of the jig clamped around the leg spindle using the 4 bolts.

The spindle legs of the chair were designed to be slightly splayed out. Thus the horizontal spindles connect to the leg spindle at an angle.

The metal table of the vertical drill press was adjusted to the correct splay angle, The hole shown is where the drill went through, and used to align to the center of the spindle leg.

The new spindle was stained and polished to match the existing spindles.

Finally, the 4 leg pieces and 4 horizontal spindles were glued together, and the whole unit glued into the holes in the lower seat.

For some joints which were predicted to be a loose fit, a 5-minute hardening resin was used instead of wood glue.

Recently, my neighbors presented the table and chairs to the third generation using the table. The lady holding the baby in the photo below is the one-year-old in the first photo above. The guy at the table is her son, and the girls his daughters.

As a time capsule for maybe 3 more generations, the 2 photos and note describing the people in the photo and the story of the table and chairs will be placed in an envelope and taped to the underside of the table for curious little children to discover in the future!

The Ida Lee Makersmiths Garden plot is looking fabulous! If you haven't see this and want to get in on the ground floor (so to speak) for more crops, reach out on the #gardening channel on Slack!

Making Paper Flowers

Diane Painter

Summer is a great time to learn how to make paper flowers. Why? All around you can find a variety of nature’s best flower examples that will inspire you. You can also find a variety of Youtube videos and websites that will inspire you to make paper flowers for wedding backgrounds, bridal showers and backyard Luaus!  Where can you start to learn to make paper flowers? Abbi Kirsten is hosting a Paper Flower Fest on July 10-12 where she will demonstrate how to make paper flowers that will astound you and your guests. This FREE event features 18+ unique workshops on to handcraft lifelike paper flowers with ease by hand or by using a cutting machine like a Cricut. Be sure to sign up for the free ticket. Visit https://www.abbikirstencollections.com/paper-flowerfest/

From #Whatcha_make_today

From Diane Painter...

Learned to sew (make) two kinds of valences. One fits on 1 1/2 inch rod and the other fits a 3 inch rod. They give the bedrooms a bit of color!

From Jessee Maloney...

Last week we hosted a group of kids from Creative Gardens between the ages of 5-8 for a field trip and make n take.

@Mark Millsap showed them the CNC and I worked with them on the laser to create one of a kind keychains. Each kid got to sit with me for 5-10 minutes and design something.

Great work keeping young kids engaged and creative! Check out their imaginative works

From Isaac Bowser...

some close ups of the Pokémon Parade Float! 

From Rob Donahue...

Restored an old meat grinder! Thanks for helping mill and turn a new pin @davepainter and @Scott Newman for the great blast cabinet and powder coating class

Did you know...

Makersmiths has a blog on their home page? 

Makersmiths is on Instagram?

Makersmiths has a YouTube page?

The Newsletter could always use some new blood - share your projects, pitch some article ideas, tell me about something cool you've seen in your Maker travels! 

Steward reminders...

Just your friendly 3D Printing Steward reminding you that everyone using the 3D Printers at both Leesburg and Purcellville needs to

1) fill out the 3D Printing Log and

2) add a tool reservation to the Filament 3D Printers calendar on the website.

This information is important for understanding how much the printers are being used so we can plan maintenance and upgrades.

Entries in the log book should have the date, your name, the printer you used and the estimated amount of time your print will take. (e.g. 6/6 Scott S. Neptune-03 3.5 hrs)

Reservation examples can be seen on https://www.makersmiths.org/Filament-3D-Printers (You must be logged into the website)

~Scott Silvers

Red Tool Classes are an important step in your Maker journey!

MS-L

Chess Night - 7/10, 7/17, 7/24, 7/31

Red Tool Trg/Woodworking, Using a Lathe - 7/11

Intro to 3D Printing, FDM - 7/11

Circuit Playground Express Fun - 7/12, 7/26

Laser Cutter Intro - 7/12

Electronics Night - 7/13, 7/27

Make A Stained Glass Window - 7/16

Production Workflows for a Mechanical Sculpture - 7/18

Faux Leather Earring Jewelry Making Class - 7/19

Intro to CAD for 3D Printing - 7/25

Monthly Social - July 23 Chili Cookoff!

MS-P

Red Tool Woodworking, Basics - 7/13, 7/16

Red Tool Woodworking, Adv - 7/16

Red Tool Metal-working Basics - 7/19

Monthly Social - July 9 Picnic Theme

check back on the website - new classes are added all the time

Makersmiths runs on volunteers!

Consider teaching a class or holding a workshop

check out the #class_planning_and_requests channel on Slack and join a meeting to get some help with your idea!

TOOL AUTHORIZATION GROUPS

Dean Williamson

Makersmiths has lots of cool and useful tools, machines, and equipment.  Many of them require training or authorization before you can use the equipment.  The training can be as simple as an orientation, to a more formal “red tool” class, to demonstrating proficiency to the tool steward.  Such mandatory training helps ensure that all users understand how to use the equipment properly and safely, thus helping to keep the equipment running smoothly and minimize maintenance downtime as well as ensuring the safety of our members.

Below is a list of the tool groups which require training and for which we are tracking authorizations, or tool “sign-offs”. The tool steward(s) are listed next to each tool group, along with the method by which to get authorized to use the tools independently. Please contact the steward for more information about each tool. This list is not exhaustive of the tools available at Makersmiths and is updated regularly as we get new equipment or as needed.

The most current version of this list is posted on the Makersmiths wiki under “Tools, Materials & Training”.  Please check out the list.  You might discover a new tool that you didn’t realize Makersmiths had.

Makersmiths Leesburg: 106 Royal St SW, Leesburg, VA 20175

Makersmiths Purcellville: 785 S. 20th St, Purcellville, VA 20132