On to the next one!

Just finishing up faneuil hall, hope to print it out on the makerbot sometime soon. Not sure if it will come out correctly, but its definately worth a try. But, now is the task of attempting to laser cut the building in slice form! We'll see how this goes haha. I am going to have to attempt multiple methods of cutting this, as people have done this many different ways. I think rastering it will work the best, but now converting the fiels into something that can be laser cut is my primary task.

More pics!

Thougth id finally upload some pics of work I've done!

First 3 are Makerbotted items designed in google sketchup which i highly recomend considerign its completely free and works with both Macs and PCs.
The followign tw are pictures of laser cut designs I managed to find in my pile of files.
Then, lastly is my current design project, Faneuil Hall! I have invested a lot of time into this file and by the time I finish it completely and publish it I hope peopel download it off of thingiverse under my profile! Need a link? I think so! http://www.thingiverse.com/MJCbull

Price range of a makerbot?

Been a few days since my last blog, been very busy. But recently, I have been in deep thought about purchasing a Makerbot. I feel as if it is an oportunity for me to really progress in the next step of my ventures of hopefully being noticed by a school and helping me pay for my tuiion. The price range on these Makerbot kits is higher than i originally thought they were though. For about $900 you can purchase a makerbot kit that you must put together. This was kind of a disapointment to me, seeing that i cannot amass that amount of money in a small amount of time. This would take quite a while to save up for, and although i believe it to be a good investment, I'm not completely sure if this hobby and practice can be justified with that kind of pricetag. I hoep to find a Makerbot with a somewhat cheaper price, and if so, plan to become the proud owner of one of these beautiful machines.

The past

Been looking back on some of the projects ive done in the past year or so, and am reall7y happy with what ive acco0mplished. I have goen from havign no idea to what this world offers to beign deeply indulged in not only my studies but a career in engineering for my future.
Throughout the time that i have been making things, many projects have  come about, including a life size catapult built with a few of my peers, a mouse trap powered car built with laser cut pieces and makerbotted items, vinyl custom designed stickers, the outline for building a mendocino motor from 3D printed items, and last but not least, miscellaneous makerbotted items and parts for universal use. The makerbot i must say has been my absolute favorite item to tweak with, and i beleive its the future of businesss for engineers and architects alike. I hope this blog serves as some sort of portfolio of the work ive done, and will continue to do even after graduation. I hope and intend to buy a makerbot sometime soon, and with that investment i believe lays a great deal of my future.

College (Cont.)

Acquiring help from outside sources never hurt anyone, and I have gotten it from both my teacher and guidance counsellor. Checking out multiple proffessions, I 5thin k ive finally found one that suites me; material engineer. They find new uses for previously constructed materials or create new materials for particular customers. For example, material engineers made the teflon now put in pans and pots that keep materials from sticking in them. Surprisingly, there are a good number of schools that offer programs for this specific kind of engineering. Normally, it takes anywhere from 4-6 years to obatin a Bachelor's and eventually a Master's. Im goign to check out both WPI and Wentworth.

Colleges

I have recently started looking into colleges seeing as I am a senior in high school. Im not afraid to admit that up until last week, i didnt have even the slightest clue as to what i wanted to do haha. My family has a history of successful engineers and tradesman, but i've still been unsure as to exactly what i wanted to do. Living in MA. i have a lot of options for schol in my area. Prefferign a suburban setting, i have recently been looking into schools in the city or urban enviornment. I've visited Suffolk, Mass Maritime, and Umass Amherst. My final decision has yet to be chosen and i also want to look into the military. My cousin joined the Air Force and leaves for boot camp at the end of this month. I wish him luck, he's a smart kid, he'll do just fine.

More Sketchup!

As of right now im in the middle of some 3D designs i started on Sketchup. I love architecture, and therefore like the designs people 3D print off of Thingiverse that are like actual real objects. Ive printed a few Empire State buuildings and ive seen some aircraft builds. Id like to print out that B-17 that G.E. made; i must admit the design is impressive. It's all put on one file so the print is all in one process.

Anyways, what im getting at is that im in the process myself of designing Faneuil Hall. Designign it accurately is proving to actually be quite difficult. Im having an issue measuring the windows out correctly. There's 7 windows on both the front and back of the building, and without evening it out, I believe each of the windows width on a 1" scale is about .0875. Depending on the outcome, i will be able to determine the printability of the scaled model.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba

This book was brought to my attention by Mr.Connors, my teacher. The magnificent story tells the tale of a young boy in a 3'rd world country within Africa called Malawi. A great famine is occuring and throughout the entire ordeal he strives to create a windmill. Finding it in a 6'th grade science book, he designs a full scale windmill within 4 months to create electricity in his house.
The story depicts how William gathers materials and makes this insane project come to life. Everyone around him claims his insanity, but he eventually does complete his goal; powering his home.
William was offered a scholarship in the U.S. and now attends school here. Learning physics and english all by himself, he hopes to become prosperous and worldly in his time here.

PICS

This is just a few pictures of the GCode and layout of how i set the MkakerBot before printing an item. In this pic, im getting ready to print the NewEra hat sumbol i designed. The print actually came out beautifully and is one of the best ive ever made. I was very happy to see its success. This was as of yesterday though, and as of today i was having extreme difficulties getting the process down pat. After 4 misprints, i ran out of time. Ill pick it back up tomorrow though for another run.

The Future

Tech is rotated out of my scheduale today and all i can think about is finishing my 3D cube puzzle. I started it at the end of last year have not yet finished it. The files were downloaded from thingiverse, but it takes forever to print all the pieces and put them together. I had soem issues printing a few of the pieces though, as the MakerBot i am using has difficulties leaving the small amounts of plastics in the space its needed. The base of the gear seems to get messed up a lot of teh time becase the star shape that is at its bottom has tiny angles that end up gooped up  over. I beleive i have printed about 6 pieces successfully for this cube already and have only about 2 or 3 left to finish it.
Tommorrow morning i hope to finish the project and finally get my cube operational with the help of a few screws stuck in the middle.

Link to cube gears by Emmett: http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6073