March 2024 Newsletter

what happened during the previous month and what to look forward to in the future

Monthly Membership Meeting

First Wednesday of each Month

7:30pm to 8:30pm

7pm for social and goofing off

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Leesburg Workday April 13  9am - 2pm

Could use some unbroken bodies to help move things around

Purcellville Workday April 6  9am - 2pm

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

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New Member Orientation

MS-L April 8  6:30-8:00 pm

MS-P April 22 6:30-8:00 pm

register online

ELECTION 2024

We have 3 seats on the Makersmiths Board of Directors up for election in this cycle, with duties to begin at the Annual Meeting of the Membership.  Those seats are currently held by Mike Dewan, Jennifer Chu and Bev Murdock .  If you have an interest in serving a three year term on the Board of Directors, please submit your nomination form.

Key Dates:

• 4/1/2024 - Nomination Forms Released
• 4/16/2024 - Nomination Deadline
• 5/1/2024 - Regular Meeting where Candidates may address the Membership and Voting Opens
• 6/5/2024 - Voting Closes, Results Announced at Annual Meeting of the Membership
• 6/26/2024 - Annual Meeting of the Directors, Officers Appointed

You can find the nomination forms in the #elections channel on Slack or by emailing Secretary@makersmiths.org

Makersmiths Education Initiatives

Dave Painter and Jim Waldron worked with a student from Woodgrove HS to find a safe way to braid synthetic braids with natural hair braids to create a certain length of braided hair.  But in the process of braiding the person’s natural hair together with synthetic braids, they can become crooked and not smooth. In order to straighten the braids, they need to be dipped in very hot water (VERY close to boiling).  This is often done by holding a pot of just off the boil water near a person’s head so they can dip the braids.  As you might imagine, this very hot water and pot presents the risk of burns, and the braids when removed from the water are soaked with very hot water.  Should one of these braids fall against the persons skin, a burn is the result.

To resolve this problem, the student came up with a method involving two insulated flasks, one with boiling water and the other with cold water.  The mechanism also contains a normally empty dipping chamber (like a large cup). The person places the braids in the empty dipping chamber. Via a system of pumps and valves, the hot water is pumped into the dipping chamber.  The dip time is just a few seconds.  Then the hot water is pumped back to the hot water flask and cold water is pumped into the dipping chamber to cool the braids.  Then the cold water is pumped back to the cold water flask. The device is very stable on a desktop and the dangers associated with trying to hold a sloshing pot of hot water near someone's head and the risk of hot braids falling on skin is eliminated.

In the process of building this device, the student learned to solder, wire electronics and cut metal. The student submitted her project to be considered for the LCPS Regional Science and Engineering Fair on March 20th, at John Champe High School.

Northern Virginia KidWind Challenge

held at Shenandoah University 

Over hundred elementary through high school youth on twenty-four elementary, middle school and high school KidWind teams throughout northern and central counties in Virginia competed in the Northern Virginia KidWind Challenge at Shenandoah University on March 14.

Hosting the event were Dr. Diane Painter from the Division of Education and Leadership at Shenandoah University in partnership with Remy Pangle, Director of Education and Outreach at the Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Energy at James Madison University.

At the event, the teams displayed their wind turbine projects or solar-run structures and explained to judges from solar and wind energy industries the processes they took to create their projects.

Team members also took a Kahoot quiz to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of renewable energy initiatives. The teams were scored on their innovation and creativity, their projects’ performance generating energy, their performance on the knowledge quiz, and their delivery of their projects to the judges. 

All first and second place wind turbine winners automatically qualify to compete in the Virginia State KidWind Challenge on April 6, 2024 at James Madison University. First, second, and third place solar winners qualify to compete in the state challenge.

All three teams sponsored by Makersmiths, Inc., a nonprofit maker space organization in Loudoun County, were recognized for their projects. La Wai, a high school solar team, won first place in the high school solar division for its water distillation project. The team also won the Dream Big award for their forward-thinking and innovative project.

Vivacious Voltages, a middle school wind turbine team, won second place in the middle school wind division. Solar Flares, a middle school solar team, won third place in the middle school solar division for their rocket launch pad project and with a perfect score on the knowledge quiz, won the Solar Guru award.

During the day, some parents, KidWind coaches and their team members took a solar roof tour of the Athletic and Events Center, led by Barry Schnoor, Director of Physical Plant at Shenandoah University. He explained that the university now boasts the largest rooftop solar power system of any Virginia college or university. Learn more at www.su.edu/green/rooftop-solar-power-system/.

The keynote speaker for this KidWind event was the former Mayor of Purcellville, Kwasi Fraser, who now serves on The Virginia Clean Energy Advisory Board as an appointee of Governor Youngkin. He posted the following on LinkedIn:

“It was a privilege to deliver the keynote address at the Northern Virginia renewable energy challenge, hosted by Shenandoah University. Witnessing the remarkable solar and wind projects presented by our youth, left me inspired and optimistic about the future of sustainable energy.

As we confront today’s energy complexities, this emerging generation exemplifies, dedication and ingenuity and crafting viable solutions. I called them Solution Gen and they are the architects of our sustainable future.”

All three of Makersmiths’ KidWind teams qualify for and will participate in the Virginia State KidWind Challenge on April 6 at JMU.

Former Mayor and enthusiastic Makersmiths' support, Kwasi Fraser

L to R: Ella Pangle, Charlene Mukhambe, Audrey Magill, Natalie Johnson Quinchia, Liam Jo and Nick Burrus on the Vivacious Voltages team, sponsored by Makersmiths, Inc.

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Sew what?

The sewing social at MSP was a delightful gathering where creativity flourished as eight individuals came together to mend garments and experiment with various sewing techniques and machines. The diverse range of projects and the shared passion for sewing created a vibrant atmosphere of collaboration and learning. Join us next month for another inspiring session of stitching and creativity!

- Makersmiths Member and Sewing Social coordinator, Amy Copley

did you know...

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

Keep It Clean!

Let's all make a much better effort to clean up our spaces when we are done for the day. This is an all-volunteer group, there are no janitors, no housekeeping, no maid service...and no one should have to start their projects by cleaning up after someone else.

Please build clean up time into your maker efforts!

I heard...

We have a new way to pay for tool usage, classes and supplies at Leesburg!   We have retired the iPad and have a dedicated Square terminal that can be used with swipe, chip and tap options and can print a physical receipt if you want one.  The device is on the cabinets underneath the TV in the main room.  If you experience any problems please let Scott Silvers or John Dubelko know.

Purcellville July 4th Parade!

Every year, Tom Hill coordinates our (often winning!) entries into the Purcellville Parade. We currently have 4 floats and 3 sets of builders so there is plenty of opportunity to join in! This is a kid friendly event and who doesn't want to march in a parade?! Reach out to Tom Hill on Slack for more details. 

photo from previous parade

Ready for Summer - Homemade Shade!

Mike Werling

Several years ago, during a trip to the Outer Banks, we saw someone with a "Shibumi Shade", fabric on an arch held up by the wind. The construction did not appear complicated, the company uses two colors sewn in large sections. We thought it would be fun to make our own, and use it as a large canvas for something more colorful. Originally I thought of a rainbow, but Erin brought her quilting skills to the design and came up with a sunburst pattern.

Based on some estimates for the design I went exploring the Internet for sources of ripstop nylon. I'm not sure how many yards I finally ended up with but there was not enough yellow for the original hand drawn design, so the final version has red panels in the center.

Our original design notes where we tried to solve it with the power of math!  Mostly successful

The biggest challenge for us was the layout for measuring and hot cutting the nylon. Our house does not have a space big enough to lay out even half of the completed shade. I cut each of the individual pieces and then assembled each half, the large blue field being the last, largest, and most challenging to get right. 

Rather than try to figure out the angles, I sewed the pieces together along layout lines, then cut away the extra blue. By the time I was assembling the halves I was sitting hip deep in ripstop nylon! Makes me wonder how hot air balloons are assembled.

We're looking forward to our next trip to the beach.  Hopefully the wind cooperates and we can enjoy the shade.

Corner Weld, front

Have you wondered about welding? Makersmiths has exceptional resources, both material and knowledge, on many kinds of welding. Read about Jay Jay Billings' experience taking classes at our MS-P space. Feel free to jump to his blog so you can see all of the accompanying photos and read the full entry - MK

Learning to Weld

Jay Jay Billings

Excerpt from: Learning to Weld/Jay's Whiteboard

I recently joined Makersmiths, a community forge and makerspace. I heard about Makersmiths in passing before moving to northern Virginia, and I was as happy as a school kid when I found that the Purcellville shop was close to my house when we moved to town. My wife and I put it on our list to join, and recently, she urged me to sign up after I started talking about building a bridge to cross our creek. I’ll cover the bridge in a later blog, but I need to construct a bridge big enough to support my tractor across a 17-32ft span, depending on where I build the bridge. This will require some hefty steel, fin plates, huge bolts, and a lot of welding.

My first experience with welding was using a “stick” welder in my Dad’s junkyard as a kid. We rarely used a welder because we were mostly cutting things to length for the smelter. Cutting was straightforward – and really fun! – using a reciprocating saw, a chop saw, or an oxyacetylene torch. Dad was masterful with the torch and was allegedly a superb welder, according to everyone in the yard. One fine day, he proved it and then gave us boys a quick lesson. Fast forward… a rather long time… and all I’ve done with welding since is simulate melt pools for work (arguably quite cool). I have soldered quite a bit, but any similarity between the physics of those two processes is outweighed by the difference in scale, in my opinion. So, when the metal inert gas welding course came up so soon after we joined, it looked like an excellent opportunity to get a jump start on building the skills I’ll need to make the bridge.

Metal Inert Gas Welding

You’re probably familiar with stick welding, formally known as shielded metal arc welding, which uses a special metal electrode (or stick) coated (shielded) with a flux and an electrical arc to melt the pieces being welded. The metal electrode causes a short circuit between the metal and electrical ground of the welder, and the flux protects the welding melt pool/puddle from contamination or oxidation due to contact with air. The metal electrode melts and fills the gap between the pieces, welding them into a single piece.

Metal Inert Gas (MIG) welding is another type of electrical arc welding. Instead of using a stick for the electrode, it uses a wire, and instead of using a flux, it uses an inert gas. As long as a small trigger is pressed, the welder continuously feeds the wire and the inert gas through the gun and onto the surface of the material. MIG welding feels a lot more like using the world’s most dangerous caulk or glue gun because of how it ejects material directly from the end of the gun, versus stick welding, which has the stick pointing in a different direction than the positive electrode that the welder is holding.

The Equipment

I worked with three main types of equipment in my welding adventure: the plasma cutter, the MIG welder, and my new welding clothes. (We will get to why the clothing is just as important as the rest in due time.) Makersmith’s has a nice welding shop that was partially stocked by a generous donation from Lincoln Electric that included welders, clothing and helmets, a plasma cutter, and fume extractors. General welding tools such as pliers, clamps, brushes, wire, etc. are all provided in the welding shop too.

Plasma Cutter

We made coupons from 10-gauge steel strips using Makersmith’s Lincoln Electric Tomahawk 375 Air Plasma Cutter. Plasma cutters are just about the neatest cutters on the planet and more or less live up to that old “hot knife through butter” adage. I cut six coupons from two fifteen-inch strips.

MIG Welder

I decided to lump the metal welding table, fire bricks, and crow’s feet (for making electrical connections between the table and things on the bricks) into the welder section because they wouldn’t be there if not for the welder. The table is metal to act as a conductive path between the part and the ground of the welder, which is connected to the table if the part is too small. The part is placed on a fire brick to prevent it from welding to the table and thick wire crows feet bridge the table and part across the brick.

The welder I used was the Lincoln Electric 210mp MIG welder that comes with a fully interactive display. The on-board computer will calculate the necessary wire feed rate and voltage based on your material and wire thickness. The user can manually override these settings with a dial to preferred or better settings based on the weld. I used 0.030” wire with C25 (75% argon, 25% carbon dioxide) gas.

It isn’t exactly germane, but I found the “Ready. Set. Weld.” slogan displayed when the welder is booting is quite comical and a nice touch. The other nice touch about this welder is that the parameter chart is posted inside the wire chamber for easy access.

Clothes

While there are lots of ads and videos on the internet showing people wearing, shall we say, less clothing while welding, that’s not how it works. Clothing is extremely important when welding to protect the welder from harm, which can include multiple types of burning, electrocution, abrasion, laceration, and blunt force trauma. UV skin burns, molten metal burns, and electrocution are high on the list.

I was clad head to toe in my red wing steel-toed boots, Dickie’s coveralls, a welding shirt, leather gloves, a welding helmet, and a pirate dew rag (to protect my bald head with a little walk-the-plank pizzaz). I went so heavy on the clothes after watching a “Top 5 ways to die from welding” video by “Auto Expert John Cadogan” on YouTube. I was most surprised by the risk of skin burns from UV because I did not know that a significant amount of UV radiation was produced in the electrical arc during welding. The “metal flash burn,” as it is sometimes called, causes burns worse than a typical sunburn in only a few minutes of exposure. Luckily, I learned this a few days before the course, so I had time to order a few extra things from Amazon.

Welds

The Makersmiths MIG Welding Basics course is three hours and starts with a presentation on welding, basic safety, the equipment, and the work ahead. After that, students learn to use the plasma cutter to create the coupons. In my course, we did both test cuts and welds before working with the actual material. Once the coupons are cut, students perform three welds: a butt joint, a corner joint, and a T-joint.

When I was welding, I wanted to focus on control over full coverage. I also stopped a lot to evaluate what I was doing and whether it seemed to work. This helped me learn how to see the weld path next to the bright melt pool, which I found initially challenging. I have a lot of learning left to do, but I’m happy with what I brought home.

Butt Weld

The first “real” weld I attempted was a simple butt weld of two coupons, shown in Figures 1 and 2 (on the blogsite). I performed this weld at the default feed rate of 280 in/min and voltage of 19V. Welding from left to right, my first weld was too fast to fully penetrate the coupons. The second, third, and fourth attempts penetrated the material, but the third and fourth bits deposited significant material on the back side of the plate (shown in figure 2 on the blogsite).

Corner Weld

The corner weld was interesting and educational. Figure 3 (on the blogsite) shows the inside where I made two tacks and welded between them. Note that the large blob on the left end is a “blown-out” corner from the other side, which I’ll address shortly. I also didn’t wholly weld through the tacks because I wanted to practice getting the angle of my wire correct, which was something I saw on a “Tim Weld’s” YouTube video. Welding from left to right, I experienced four things. On my first run of about an inch, my wire was too long, and my angle was too steep. These are indicated by the hole in the middle of the weld and the material “spilling over” onto the bottom plate. My second run was OK – the angle was good, the rate was acceptable, and overall, it was pretty decent. However, on my third run, I changed my angle to a shallow one, which caused material to creep up the top plate.

Figure 4 (on the blogsite) shows what happened when I flipped this piece and started to weld the back of the corner. The weld path goes from left to right. The lesson I learned here is that when the piece is already hot, adding more material can damage it. I should have let it cool, I think. In this case, the left corner blew out straight out and down onto the welding table after only a second of heat. As I moved down the piece, I could watch it collapse if I went too slowly. The weld improves near the middle because we lowered the voltage and the feed rate on the welder to compensate for the extra heat. I liked the behavior of the lowered settings so much that I kept them for the T-joint weld.

Figure 5 (on the blogsite) shows the unwelded side of the piece. The weld path runs from right to left, and the blown-out corner is visible on the right. Two other collapsing spots are available in this view at about 1 inch and 1.5 inch from the right.

T-joint Weld

I was pretty happy with my T-joint weld. I placed two tacks on the ends and proceeded to weld from end to end, left to right, crossing both tacks this time (figure 6 - on the blogsite). I burnt the left corner out a bit, but I practiced putting it back when I welded the back side by dragging the melt pool (figure 7 - on the blogsite). I’m not sure it worked, but it was fun to try. I also welded for lengths of 2-2.5 inches per attempt on the back.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed reading about my experience. I thought this was good fun, and I had to share. I had a wonderful time and learned so much from my instructor, Dilip Patel, to whom I will also say thank you very much!

What’s next for me? I’ve got a ways to go before I weld a bridge! I passed my certification check with the welder a couple of weeks ago, so now I will order and make some coupons, then follow practice lessons from Tim Weld’s. Look out for a future blog post on other Makersmiths Blacksmithing courses!

I’d love to hear any tips, tricks, words of encouragement, suggestions, criticism, or funny jokes you have if you read this. Thanks so much, and have a great day!

In the community...

Recently, Maker Sally Soles shared the opportunity for members to share artwork in the gallery area of Purcellville's Town Hall. The theme for the Spring Gallery exhibit was "Nature" and two members have works hanging in Purcellville from April thru June. The gallery can include anything from photos, to jewelry (in this case, made with natural elements), and also fiber, wood, metal, and tile art...and anything you can conceive of that can be hung on a wall to display. 

The Fall theme has not yet been decided but Sally will let us know. The Fall Gallery will run from October though December. You can contact Sally Soles for more details. In the meantime, enjoy!

Painting from Sally Soles

Multimedia piece from Diane Painter

A few words from our members...

My sewing social experience

Mary Murphy

I want to express how grateful I am for joining Makersmiths. The community is wonderful, ever willing to support my curious and creative meanderings. I have a studio set up in my home … but as a creative, I need people!

I met Amy at a red tool training. Our conversation led to a mutual interest in sewing. Her enthusiasm and easy going demeaner instantly made feel comfortable so when she organized the “Sewing Social” I signed up without hesitation.

There was a nice turnout of about 8 people or so. There was plenty of room and I felt comfortable setting up to work on my project. Attending for the first time, I didn’t want to pack up my sewing machine and all the possible things that go along with it, so I chose what was for me a more manageable project – requiring only fabric, a ruler, rotary cutter and a matt.Several people happily set up their machines. There was also an iron and ironing board available. Amy was well prepared and everyone was accommodated.

I started working. Conversation was light and interesting, before I knew it, I had cut at least 10 pieces for my project! 

It was lovely to work and be around others, ask questions, be curious, authentic, collaborative and to be received without judgement or criticism. 

5th Anniversary is ... Wood!

"My hubs and I had the pleasure of working with Jim and using the traditional 6th year anniversary gift material of iron [to make] our very own set of Viking Pizza Axes" says Maker Robin Hudspeth Schenck. "We had a blast and are shaping & attaching our handles next week."

"Makersmiths never ceases to amaze me with their breadth of opportunity and kindness of its makers. I love this community!"

From #Whatcha_make_today

I am sensing a bit of a theme this month! What else can we ReUSE instead of turning it into Refuse?

Ken Fuenticilla, responding to a spousal request, created a new handle for this garden rake

Jessee Maloney made this cute scrap mobile from bits and bobs from the bin, a "messed up" embroidery hoop, and some 3D parts

"When you see a box of junk frames think about changing up the art, painting the frames or reusing the glass for a different project.
Some of the glass in the frames I used was hand made and some and the little air bubbles in them."

 - Dawn Martin

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! 

This newsletter brought to you with direct contributions from Diane Painter, Dawn Martin, Amy Copley, Mary Murphy, Jay Jay Billings, Robin Hudspeth Schenck, Mary Soles, and Mike Werling along with your photos and words I freely swiped from Slack ;)

thank you all!

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

MS-L

Cosplay Night - 4/4, 4/11, 4/18, 4/25

Electronics Night - 4/4, 4/18

Chess Night - 4/8, 4/15, 4/22, 4/29

Big Red CnC Operation - 4/10

Red Tool Training for Woodturning Using a Lathe - 4/16

Red Tool Woodworking - 4/25

Laser Cutter Rotary Tool - 4/27

MS-P

Red Tool Media Blast Cabinet, Powder Coating, and Paint Booth - 4/2, 4/16, 4/30

Gas Welding Beginning Workshop - 4/7, 4/14

MIG Welding Beginning Workshop - 4/7

Sewing Social - 4/10

Red Tool Woodworking Basics - 4/11

Make a Stained Glass Window - 4/14

Red Tool Woodworking - Adv - 4/14

Pottery Wheel Basics - 4/18

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!

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

Classes are on the calendar as soon as they are planned, but only emailed out 2 weeks ahead of time. Looking for a class? Ask the tool steward or check in the #class_planning_and_requests channel on slack.

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