The Cowtown Computer Congress » Projects

February Turbo talks.

asmodianX — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 01:00:47 +0000

Click here to see our ustream of February’s turbo talks.

Whats up in 2011

asmodianX — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 19:39:17 +0000

CCCKC will be participating in the first Kansas City MAKER FAIRE. It will be held at Union Station.

More details to be released soon!

Mean while at CCCKC, Tom Collins and company has begun work on the CCCKC MAME cabinet.

From Jan2011

While doing so Joel hacked a drink bottle into a shotglass for the espresso machine.

From Jan2011

The Fabricators group has been very busy at CCCKC advancing the capabilities of the maker bot and RepRap Mendel’s.

From Jan2011

RepRap Mendel Progress

jestin — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 19:37:01 +0000

The RepRap Mendel I have been building at the hackerspace has just had its belts on motors attached. By hotswapping the stepper motor plugs onto the CCCKC Makerbot, I was able make the robot move for the first time! Here’s proof:

CCCKC Table Makeover

asmodianX — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 04:43:00 +0000

One of the phenomenon which we have experienced was the way a Hackerspace becomes an extension of ones garage. A collection of cool tools and contraptions which tend to live in some forgotten corner of a persons house. At one point we inherited several boxes of mouse circuit boards. We kept the boards around because we thought that it would make for a cool art and technology project.

During the clean up of the Hackerspace we found the box of boards and a brainstorm erupted.

From CCCKC

CCCKCer’s came in on a Saturday and layed the circuit boards out on some of our tables in a pattern, then we covered them in a durable clear coat of epoxy resin.

From CCCKC

Stop by this Thursday to see how the project is going!

Testing a Hexapod built with a Premium Bioloid Kit!

mover — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 02:28:52 +0000

CCCKC members hack on Marshmallow shooter kits

asmodianX — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 02:51:12 +0000

In the next few weeks you will get a chance to see the CCCKC at two events, the OMGWTFBBQ and the Kansas City Mini-Makerfaire.

At those events we will be selling kits for a DIY marshmallow shooter. After working on building kits CCCKC members came up with some cool hacks.

From CCCKC

Mikes Special-Ops flash light hack.

From CCCKC

Asmodian X’s Kentucky Long-Mallow shooter.

If you can make one of our events buy a kit and show us your cool Marshmallow shooter hacks!

Homemade Cotton Candy Machine

jestin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 04:00:55 +0000

Ray made a cotton candy machine out of 2 snapple lids, a pair of cigarette lighters, and a custom makerbotted part. The results are inspiring:

See more here.

3D Printer Calibration Night

jestin — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 14:07:22 +0000

Last night, CCCKC members brought in their Makerbots and RepRaps for a round of heater barrel calibrations performed using a thermocouple and an arduino mysteriously taken from my toolbox. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many printers in one place.

Here’s some photos:

In Addition, there was also this great Mendel XL that is nearing completion:

Mecanum Wheel Demo

craig — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 13:45:14 +0000

CCCKC member Rob Kleeschulte brought his Mecanum wheel bot (that’s been featured on the Make blog a couple times now) to last night’s general meeting and got it up and moving. Check out some video of the bot in action:

The Gothic Cathedral Playset

skimbal — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 19:55:22 +0000

Gothic Cathedral Play Set

I recently uploaded my MakeBot/RepRap printable Gothic Cathedral Play Set to Thingiverse, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.

Here is a link to the original post. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2030

At this point its also Google-able, which is really cool.

The Cathedral is a design I have been working on for several weeks and I wanted to take some time to clarify some of the details.

-It took just under four weeks to print, and weighs a little less than a pound.

-As configured on Thingiverse it is 14 inches (35.5cm) long, 9.5 inches (24cm) wide, and 10 inches (25.5) high.

-I had to watch all the prints closely to prevent the plastruder from knocking the parts off the build platform. If the parts did get knocked off, I developed keen hand-eye coordination and the ability to put them back on quickly without spoiling the print.

-My machine is an out-of-the box MakerBot batch 3. Plastruder version 3. No heated build platform. No major modifications or additions.

-All prints where done off of an SD Card.

-All parts where printed Raftless.

-I use sacrificial build platforms made of paper coated foam core board. When the extruder is depositing the first layer, I reach in and super-glue it to the build platform. At the end I rip the part off, and dissolve off any left over paper in warm water. Since I started doing this, I have had no problems with warping or cracking.

-I also need to thank my friends an CCCKC for there support and comments.

All right. Now that we have gotten through the information, here are some new pictures showing different possible configurations for the parts…

The Gothic Chapel.

Great for the Bishop on a Budget.

The Gothic Church. Big Height, Small Footprint.

Minimizes the number of peasant’s homes you need to demolish.

Gothic Hall.

Gothic Architecture, the choice for any discerning 14th century nobleman.

Gothic Hall, with Tower.

For the nobleman trying to compensate for something.

Greek Cross Cathedral.

Maybe your not in Europe, we have solutions for that too!

The Cathedral.

Or you can splurge and go for The Whole Shebang!

The Cathedral of Failure.

Just remember, you are printing this using what are essentially ink jet printer parts and a fancy glue gun that have been MacGyvered together. Its not going to work right every time.

-Michael Curry (Skimbal)