October 2022 Newsletter

Monthly Membership Meeting

November 2, 7:30pm to 8:30pm

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New Member Orientation

November 11, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

November 21, 6:30pm - 8:00pm

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Leesburg Workday - TBD - To Do List in Main Room

Purcellville Workday - Nov 5 9am

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

President's Message

Adam "Squirrl" McClintock

Greetings Makers,

I have enjoyed teaching some Intro to Blacksmithing classes at the Blacksmithing shop in Purcellville and will continue to put more of those up as long as interest remains.

Jim Waldron suggested to me that we should host a Makersmiths Secret Santa this year. I fully agree and we are moving forward with planning and logistics.  If you are interested then please join the #2022_secret_santa channel in Slack to get more details as they become available.

The definite items as of now are the following:

1. It is completely optional to participate
2. The gift must be an item made at Makersmiths
3. The cost of the gift materials cannot exceed $20
4. Names will be drawn from a “hat” by President Squirrl to randomly allocate a giver and a receiver. 

As always, we are looking for people to give/host classes. You don’t have to be an expert on a subject to give a class, you just need the time and willingness to organize something. If you don’t know where to get started you can ping me directly on Slack or start up a conversation in the #host_a_class channel.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the next Membership Meeting which will be November 2nd, 2022 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

Education News

On Oct. 21, Makersmiths’ members Dave and Diane and KidWind member, Ayden Young from the 2022 Silver Blades Wind Turbine Team joined the Thomas, West Virginia Mountain Laurel Learning Center students and parents on a field trip to the Black Rock Wind Farm located in West Virginia’s Grant and Mineral counties.

Funded and operated by Clearway Energy Group, Black Rock was built to increase the state’s wind energy generation by 15 percent. Black Rock is contracted under long-term power purchase agreements with customers Toyota Motor North America (Toyota) and AEP Energy Partners, a wholly-owned subsidiary of American Electric Power, both major employers in West Virginia.

To learn more about Black Rock, see https://youtu.be/cwyU8wORG5Q

The field trip gave Diane Painter (KidWind.org coach for Makersmiths) an opportunity to meet the key people operating this wind farm and obtain ideas and images, and create a movie that she can use when working with KidWind wind turbine teams.

To see additional pictures and view the movie she made of the site visit, go to https://sites.google.com/su.edu/kidwind2022/visit-a-wind-turbine-farm

KidWind Interested?

Members and guests of Makersmiths interested in having their youth in grades 4-12 involved in KidWind wind turbine or solar projects this year, please attend the KidWind Information Meeting, Nov 19 @ 10am at MS-Leesburg. Register HERE

Robotics Mentors Needed

The coach of the Stardroids FTC Team emailed Makersmiths looking for a mentor who will help the team with a robotics program. The coach of the team wrote:

We are Stardroids, a First Tech Challenge team based on Aldie. First Tech Challenge is a robotics program where a team builds and programs a robot to complete challenges. Right now, we are using Gobilda parts to build our robot. However, we may need to design our own robot parts. A few of our team members are familiar with CAD, and we would like to learn how to use CNC machining to create custom parts for our robot. Would you offer a class for our team to learn the basics? There are 7 high schoolers on our team, and we are willing to pay for this class. Also, we would prefer Saturdays at the Leesburg location.

Thank you, Anu Raj, Coach-Stardroids FTC team 

Is there anyone from our Makersmiths membership interested in serving as a mentor to this high school robot team who knows CNC machining? Please let Jennifer Chu or Diane Painter if you are interested in this educational opportunity.

Roll the dice...

Parker Brainard

Using a hydrolic notcher, I  cut .065" aluminum into equilateral triangles with 1.5" edges and stamped all the pieces 1-20. Fit-up was challenging with multiple small pieces meeting at odd angles, so I welded 2 small pieces of steel together at the dihedral angle for a regular icosahedron (138.2°) then clamped the aluminum pieces to it one at a time to tack it together.

Once it was fit up, I used an angle grinder to knock the tacks down flush with the faces and TIG welded all the seams. Afterwards, I ground the welds back down flush and used several fiber discs and a buffing wheel to polish it up.

My coworkers have enjoyed rolling the D20 to see who has to do less desirable jobs! 

Candy Candy artwork designed using Illustrator for the font, and Procreate and Photoshop for the grime.

Printed on the Roland with a white background to help diffuse the light. Laser cut thick acrylic as standoffs, glued in some rope light for even more light!I 

-Jessee Malone

Makers in the Community

Brendan Meyer recently contributed to a project honoring Adam Caudill, a local teen who died in an accident. This Purcellville bike park, located across Maple St from Loudoun Valley High School and by the water tower, is a celebration of Adam's life, giving others a place to participate in something that brought him so much enjoyment. The white silhouette was created using a  photo of Adam at a similar park. 

Tools used:

Big Red, the tig welder, the sand blasting cabinet and the powder coating gun and oven. 

Brendan also wanted to give a big shout out to Bill Hess for jumping in with some much needed CnC milling advice at just the right time.

Find out more about this bike park at their page on Facebook

read about the ribbon cutting and grand opening here

Did you know...

Makersmiths has a blog on their home page? 

Makersmiths is on Instagram?

Makersmiths has a YouTube page?

You can support Makersmiths using Amazon Smile for your purchases?

• As of the last week of October, Amazon had donated $711 to Makersmiths, Inc! 
• You can be a part of our ongoing fundraising by adding Makersmiths Inc as your Amazon Smile Partner!

Ryan Gould makes up some water jugs for the baseball team

check out more in

#whatcha-make-today on Slack

Heard around...

Squirrl is looking at a little rebuild of the Blacksmith shed doors. Watch Slack for times if you want to help out!

Membership Survey

SURVEY LINK

All answers are anonymous. This survey is available at both Leesburg and Purcellville spaces. Please do not answer this survey more than once. This survey is being collected by the Marketing Committee and will gauge member activity at each space, including usage of specific tools, rooms, classes, and activities. The committee will use this information as a baseline to measure success of different marketing efforts, both internally and externally. Additionally, depending on the success of the survey, Makersmiths may use this data to better tailor activities and decisions for our membership. Thank you for taking the time to complete this survey!

Have you seen the #hire-a-maker channel on Slack? Perfect for someone looking for a few jobs in their skill set or expanding their maker business!

In the News

Mayor Fraser calls out Makersmiths in his final State of the Town address!

Safety Alert

Mike Dewan

During the past year, we have had 5 occurrences when the safety brake has been activated on the Sawstop table saw. This is a reminder that a small nail or brad hidden in your wood can cause the brake to be activated. 

As a best practice, you should use the metal detector to make a quick pass of this wand over the entire length of every board you plan to saw. The metal detector is teh black wand device that hangs on the wall board next to the saw and it is activated by the on/off switch on the side of the handle.

If you happen to activate the brake, please post the saw "out of service" using the Slack #maintenance channel. In addition to placing the saw "out of service" for days until parts can be replaced, your cost to replace the cartridge is about $100 and, depending on the saw blade you were using, the cost to replace the blade will be another $30-$85.

If you have questions on the sawstop or using the metal detector, please call me or send me a note on Slack and I'll try to help.

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

MS-L

Hands-on Intro to the Stem Lingo Arduino Activity Kit - 11/5

Intro to 3D Printing, FDM (Red Tool)- 11/7

Red Tool UV Printer - 11/8

Big Red CnC Operation - 11/12

KidWind Information Mtg - 11/19

MS-P

EBF CNC Introduction - 11/3

Intro to Blacksmithing - Forge a J-Hook - 11/6

Red Tool Woodworking Basics - 11/10

Red Tool Woodworking Adv - 11/13

Red Tool Metal Working Basics - 11/16

Makersmiths runs on volunteers!

Consider teaching a class or holding a workshop, especially in the lead up to the gift giving season!

check out the #host-a-class channel on Slack to get some help with your idea!

check back - new classes are added all the time

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

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