Following our normally scheduled meeting on August 27th, the Makers group was offered the chance by Greg, one of the members of the local 2600 group, to visit his home made aluminum forge.

After the initial awe of seeing an actual Delorean parked in his garage, we were treated to Greg setting up and demoing his forge. We were asked to bring small objects that could be pressed into sand molds to make reliefs to pour molten aluminum into to duplicate.

The forge was made using a metal 5 gallon paint/chemical bucket with a special mixture of concrete on the inside for insulation and heat retention. The top was made out of the bottom of another metal bucket with the same concrete mixture, with an ingenious use of rebar as a pivot point to turn the top out of the way to access the crucible.

Soon after inserting his Harbor Freight propane burner into a hole in the side of the bucket, the fire was ignited and things really began to heat up. Greg’s main source of aluminum is, you guessed it, aluminum drink cans. While the crucible was turning red-hot, Greg would add cans in two at a time. The paint on the outside of the cans would flash fire and be burnt off as slag, while the rest of the aluminum would melt in to a puddle of silver liquid reminiscent of mercury in colour and fluidity.

Once the aluminum was fully melted and the scum was pulled from the top, the crucible was carefully extracted and poured into some of the waiting sand molds. While still incredibly hot, the aluminum almost immediately solidified into the desired form. After a few minutes of cooling it was carefully extracted using tongs and left to air cool for several hours.

While the whole process is actually incredibly simple, it is still exciting to watch and even more exciting to think of the endless possibilities of having such a forge at your disposal!

The Makers would like to extend thanks to Greg for allowing us to invade his garage to see this amazing forge in action!

MidsouthMakers Lan Party! Location: 2194 Freemont Rd Memphis, TN  38114 (Google Maps). Some food will be brought by the group. If there is something you wish to bring food to share, then please bring it.  $5 for hamburgers & hotdogs and $0.50/ea for sodas. We’ll have a large amount of Mountain dew and a small amount of various others. Bring whatever you’d like! Alcohol is allowed. Everyone that is drinking will be of age BYOB (Bring your own Booze).

Some of the games we’re talking about playing: Starcraft I, Starcraft II, Call of Duty, Battlefield 1942, Battlefield 2142, Unreal Tournament, Alien Swarm, Warcraft 3, Command and Conquer, Borderlands, Doom, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, Half Life, Half Life 2. We’re also open to any other suggestions!

Those Who Are Not Playing
If you wish to join us at this event, please do so as we would absolutely love to have you there. You have only but two things you are responsible for, yourself and a little cash to if you want food.

Those Who Are Playing: You are responsible for the following:
* A Computer (preferably capable of handling some of the games, not all)
* Various Power & USB Cables
* Monitor(s)
* Keyboard
* Mouse
* Headphones
* Ethernet Cable
* Any Games that you might insist we play
* A little cash for food

For more info check out the event on our wiki: http://wiki.midsouthmakers.org/w/September_11th_LAN_Party

Relief Press Printing is the process of taking a medium, removing specific pieces of it so as to make it thinner in areas, and inking the raised portions of the medium to press onto a desired surface.  The purpose of this workshop is to demonstrate an easy way to create your own linoleum stamps, and more specifically how to apply this to T-Shirts. Through this you can take a linoleum block, carve out any design you wish, and print it onto any shirt that you would like. The cost to participate in this workshop is $20. Because of the cost of materials it is necessary for us to have a very clear number of how many people plan to participate so we are able to order enough supplies. For more information, check out our T-Shirt Printing Wiki.

If you would like to prepay to participate in the workshop, you can visit http://www.midsouthmakers.org/events/ and select your shirt size, and click Buy Now. We’d like to recommend that everyone interested pre pay so we’re able to have shirts and materials for those interested. If you’d rather pay cash feel free to talk to Daniel during any meeting.

The HAM Radio Technician License is the entry level licensing for Ham Radio operators to get their call sign and the ability to talk over the air. On August 13th (after an abbreviated regular meeting) we’re going to hold our very own study group to prepare to take the Technician’s License test. We won’t be administering a test, but we will be covering where and when you can take the test and we’ll be covering topics covered on the test. If you’re interested in learning about HAM radio please join us at 7pm in the Nolan Building at Christian Brothers University. There is no cost involved. (Donations are welcome)

HEY FOLKS! LET’S GO TO HUNTSVILLE!

When this first came up as a discussion I was psyched from the get go.

This past Saturday, June 26th, we made that happen.

Daniel, Jim, Kevin, Brandi, Chris, Drew and I all loaded up and headed East early in the morning. Trailed closely by Ryan Anderson. The trip there was great and the weather was very kind.

Upon our arrival we were afraid no one was there, but soon after hitting the doorbell we were greeted by Justin (Ratmandu). After exchanging pleasantries we were given a thorough tour and explanation of everything in the shop. There were many “ooohs” and “aaahs” followed with several “Oh Neats”. Immediately we were drawn to the numerous projects that were in different stages of completion. Intrigued by all there was to see, we couldn’t help but ask questions over and over again. Justin calmly and patiently answered each and every one.

When lunch time came around we were guided to Bandito Burrito and found it to be very close to authentic and also very good eats. This will be recommended to the future groups visiting there too.

Returning to the space, we found several other “Locals” had arrived as well as Nick, a visitor from Birmingham who contacted us after seeing one of our stickers on a truck while he was in Memphis. We gladly shared information with Nick and we hope that he has success getting a space started in B’ham as well.

There were many handshakes and greetings and story tellings to be heard as well as many heartfelt smiles being shared all over. From here we talked about lots of different things and played with as many gadgets as we could. Everything from the Cupcake bot to the screen printing press. Discussions about Arduinos, software cores, and modding Jeep doors were everywhere. There was no shortage of thought provoking conversation.

One discussion about a place called Mike’s Merchandise caused many of us to visit this wondrous place and see what all the “hub bub” was about. We were anything but disappointed. If there was ever a store designed with “Makers” in mind, this is the place. Alice said “They have a bit of everything”, this my friends was a great understatement. If you find yourself in the Huntsville area, say hi to the “Locals” but by all means, do not miss Mike’s Merchandise. Whether you’re looking for a radiator from a Caterpillar truck or a box of test tubes, this place is likely to have it. With surprisingly small prices too.

The trip home went well but leaving was not exactly desirable. These folks have a great setup and seem to be doing a really good job of keeping people’s interests high. With lots of activities going on and many, many things to work on in the space, this group isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. We will also be looking forward to revisiting them in the very near future.