Thanks to the nice folks over at Elegoo we will have a brand new 3D printer at the Makerspace soon – the Elegoo Neptune 2S! It is an i3-style “bedslinger” with many cool features like Filament Runout detection, a spring steel magnetic sheet w/PEI coating, a dual-gear all-metal extruder, and a Power-Off Resume.

As a special treat, we will be unboxing, assembling it, and getting the first print going LIVE during our next 3D Printer Clinic on Saturday, August 13, 2022, at 1 pm CST! Everyone is welcome to this event, member or non-member. This is a great way to learn about 3D printers and 3D printing. Even if you’re already familiar with 3D printing but are having issues, come on out and let us help you resolve your problems. Or just hang out and watch us build our new printer!

We look forward to seeing you then!

Due to Safer At Home guidelines, Midsouth Makers were forced to close our doors to the public in March 2020. We are pleased to announce that our weekly Friday Open Houses are restarting on Friday, June 4th at 7 pm. We’re excited to welcome the public back to our Makerspace and see what we’ve been building in the past year. Feel free to stop by for a tour during these open house events and meet our members.

While we were closed to the public, we were not idle. The high demand for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) strained the supply chain for these to the breaking point. To help make up the gap until the large manufacturers could get up to speed, makers around the world started producing simple disposable face shields and cloth masks. Midsouth Makers were no different. Once the need was recognized and a design accepted by medical professionals, we began the manufacturing and assembly of the face shields. In just 12 weeks, we produced over 77,000 masks and with support from the Memphis Medical Society, distributed them to doctors, nurses, and other front-line workers that needed them free of charge.

Members of the Midsouth Makers are answering the call to 3D print protective equipment for those on the frontline of the COVID19 pandemic.

The Memphis tech community is mass producing PPE using the laser cutters available at Midsouth Makers and their personal 3D printers. The first batch of nearly 500 face shields were delivered to the Memphis Medical Society for distribution to local healthcare workers. 3D printed faces certainly look amazing, but it would be even more incredible to have that body you’ve been longing for, so don’t wait for summer to have that coveted body and try the new diet supplements.

Have a 3D Printer & Want To Help?

Start 3D printing face shield frames. Download here: https://www.prusaprinters.org/prints/27274-3dveristan-face-shield-midsouth-makers-focus-versi/files
Print as many of these as you can: visor_frame_north_americ a_letter_v3.stl
Join us in chat and add your prints to the current total: t.me/midsouthmakers

Donate Supplies

If you don’t have 3D printing or laser cutting capabilities, you can still help. We are accepting:

• PETg Filament, 1.75 mm
• PETg Filament, 3/2.85mm
• 8.5×11″ laser printer or office copier transparencies.
• Other filament materials, depending.
• 3D Printers
• In-kind or monetary assistance: Email us at Board (at) MidsouthMakers.org

Have a Sewing Machine & Want To Help?

Here’s the current design that our partners are willing to accept: Olson Mask

Get In Touch (Remotely Please)

Join the conversation and see how you can help. Chat live with us in the Midsouth Makers Telegram Channel: t.me/midsouthmakers

Email us at Board (at) MidsouthMakers.org.

Scott brought a plaster mold to the open house meeting tonight. He used 3D printed PLA parts and used the forge to burn out the PLA plastic and to melt some aluminum cans and some aluminum heat sinks. We ended up cooking the mold a bit too much, it was rather fragile. We could probably burn it out in under 30 minutes for the next attempt. While not perfect, we learned a lot!

Firing up the forge

Burning

Mold

Skimming off

The pour

Don’t mind the excess

First casting

If you’ve been following Midsouth Makers you know that we’ve been building. using and tweaking our 3D printers for a while now. Well thanks to a kind donation by LulzBot we now have a dedicated 3D printer at the space for member use! The printer is an AO-101, a MendelMax 1.5 variant.

The AO-101 currently uses 3mm filament and can print in ABS, PLA, Nylon and even Laywoo-D3 wooden filament.  We  have it setup to allow for remote printing on the LAN, using either OctoPrint or Repetier-Server. We recommend Repetier-Server due to it’s stability.

The AO-101 will be using a donated a 1U server as the host computer. Repetier-Server will allow you to load a gcode file and control the printer. We will be exploring webcam functionality for use in monitoring and in generating time-lapse print videos.

We will need the following items to get our new 3D printer setup and functional:

• Filament- Currently setup for 3mm:
  • ABS
  • PLA
• Webcam- Logitech C110 or C270 preferred (we’ve already tested and confirmed stability)
• 120mm silent PC case fan

AO-101 Specifications

• Build Area – 190mm 200mm 100mm
• Hot-end – Budaschnozzle 1.2
  • Extrusion temperature range – 180C – 240C
• Filament- Currently setup for 3mm and can reliably print the following material types:
  • ABS
  • PLA
  • Taulman 618 Nylon
  • Laywoo-D3 Wooden Filament
• Heated Print Bed (65C-110C)
• Borosilicate Glass Bed  with PET film on one side for printing with ABS and bare glass on the other side for printing with PLA
• Integrated Filament Mount for either loose coiled filament or spindles for spooled filament

Current AO-101 Modifications

• Nozzle Fan for printing in PLA installed but not hooked up
• RGB LED lighting (white for now)

More information on the new 3D printer can be found in our wiki.

If you’d like to use it, please contact Claudio, Ben, Dan or Cliff- more information will follow. In order to have access to the 3D printer without one of us present you will need to have had verified prior experience with a RepRap 3D printer, or attended an upcoming class on running & troubleshooting 3D printers(TBD) or be able to demonstrate the appropriate knowledge.

Please show our thanks and appreciation to LulzBot and the RepRap community!