Re: [Phys-l] techshop opportunity

[chuck britton <cvbritton@mac.com>]

No specific ideas for you to try - but a general suggestion for 
approaching the 'TechShop' thing.
The sooner you visit the 'Shop', the sooner you'll start picking up 
the good ideas that float around there.
Look over the facility.
Decide whether you are more of a 'woodshop' person or a potential metalworker.

A lot of cool physics stuff can be made of wood and you'd have access 
to the safest tablesaw you'll ever see (stop the blade with your 
finger without drawing blood! but it'll cost you $80 to replace the 
blade and the aluminum block that stopped it.). Planer'/joiner, 
mitersaw, bandsaws, sanders, and now a wood lathe as well. The 
ShopBot is essentially a cnc controlled router with a 5' x 10' bed 
and 6" of z axis travel.

If metal working sounds more interesting I'd suggest taking the basic 
lath and mill classes for starters.

The Epilog lasercutter is neat but certainly looks a bit puny when 
you compare it with the cnc plasma cutter.

Seriously, stop by, take the tour, talk to the staff and members. 
Some VERY creative juices are flowing there.

A former student of mine is on the staff there and I have learned WAY 
more from him that he ever learned from ME ! ! ! !

Another former students presents a great intro to the Arduino 
microprocessor and its interfacing abilities.

At 10:44 AM -0500 1/3/11, Stefan Jeglinski wrote:
> I recently picked up a groupon (http://www.groupon.com) for my local
> Techshop (http://www.techshop.ws/).
>
> My question is: if you had access to such a facility, what would you,
> as either an educator, hobbyist, career-changer, inventor, or
> whatever you are, make? Would it be some cool physics demo items?
> That rail-gun-in-the-garage your inner child always wanted to build?
> An engineering prototype of the next greatest idea?
>
> I'm obviously going to get experience learning to use manufacturing
> machines I don't have ordinary access to. I'd like to combine this
> with something that will necessitate learning additional physics of
> the real-world variety. That is, I don't want to do something like
> make an aluminum spice rack or a really really stable kitchen table
> :-)
>
> I'm looking for ideas. In this regard, I'm open-ended. I don't want
> to just learn how to manufacture something - I want to make something
> that requires some engineering or physics thought to go into it; I'll
> learn twice as much. Maybe critical components for a desktop
> home-made electron microscope? An engine of some sort? The rail gun,
> after all? I have to use the groupon by mid-May, so I have time to
> plan as well as take my time manufacturing.
>
> Thanks in advance for your collective thoughts!
>
>
> Stefan Jeglinski
>
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