Wow! We have to admit, we were a bit overwhelmed with how many people came to the MATC Community Welding event we had in November. We expected maybe 10 to 20 people and had probably 40! In fact, it was too many, and made it difficult to fit everyone into our small welding area (even in shifts.)

So obviously the only solution is to do it again. Only bigger this time!

So once again we’re teaming up with our friends at MATC for a welding event that is open to the community. Anyone 14 years of age or older is welcome. Here’s the details you need to know:

We’ll have a number of MATC welding instructors on-hand so everyone will get a chance to do some welding. The welding robot lab will also be available for tours (but we won’t be using it this time.)

Please wear proper clothing! Long pants and sleeves with cotton materials, no nylon or any synthetic materials, no open toed shoes. If you have a pair of safety glasses please bring them! Wear clothes that you won’t mind burning a hole in. Welding can get messy!

It’s happening between 6pm and 8pm on Monday, December 17th, 2018 at the MATC West Campus at 1309 S. 70th Street in West Allis, Wisconsin.

This is a free event, and our friends at MATC are donating their time, and if you like what you see, they can tell you more about their continuing education welding classes at MATC. How awesome is that!?

Psst! Hey, you! Wanna learn some welding? We’re teaming up with our friends at MATC for a welding event that is open to the community. Member or not, you are welcome to join us and spend a few hours learning how to do MIG welding. Don’t know what MIG stands for, that’s okay! We’ll teach you.

We’ll start at 6pm on Monday, November 26th, 2018. If you’re not a member we will ask you to sign in as a guest and fill out a participation waiver. If you’re a member, come on down and bring a friend and let’s all learn to fuse metal.

This is a free event, and our friends at MATC are donating their time, and if you like what you see, they can tell you more about their continuing education welding classes at MATC.

Note: This class is for people 18 and older. (No minors are allowed.)

Julie and Carl of Scoops Ice Cream & Candies of Kenosha, approached new Makerspace member, Brandon Minga, with their project. They were given recommendations from other projects he’s done in the are including Mike’s Chicken & Donuts and the Modern Apothecary. Scoops was looking to enhance and draw more attention to their new location with a large exterior sign. Going through the concept and design process Minga quickly decided that the sign design was also going to become their new logo. Once the final design was rendered he quickly learned how to CNC a template to hand plasma trace the design out of sheet metal. The middle of the sign was also hand cut, roll bent and broke to match the bubbly ice cream cone shape. With a little help from friends a the Makerspace, he ground down welds and drilled 44 holes for the light bulbs. After all the holes were drilled Minga fit the sign with sockets, wired up the sockets and tested the electrical. Working with Prodigy Sign in Kenosha he also coordinated the hanging of the sign.

Any project starts with a sketch.

Nothing wrong with learning a little g-code.

 

A post shared by Mingadigm (@brandonminga) on May 2, 2017 at 12:47pm PDT

Took that g-code and used the handmade CNC router to cut out a template (note to self, don’t use OSB for plasma templates).

Traced template with hand plasma cutter.

Hand cut, roll bent, metal break and tack welded the bottom shell.

Hand cut and used the break to bend my own c-channel for the stabilizing guts of the sign.

A little help from my friends!

 

A post shared by Mingadigm (@brandonminga) on Mar 31, 2017 at 3:33pm PDT

A little custom install and wiring….and we have lights!

Can’t forget the paint! Primed inside and out, the sign got coated with some retro color.

Installation day was very windy, they called two crews in to stabilize the sign as they anchored it to the building.

This is a Mingadigm.com by Brandon Minga

This project was done at the Milwaukee Makerspace,  thank you, gang!

Whether you think this looks like Darth Vader or Dark Helmet it’s still cool. Mark has been making fire pits and wood burning stoves out of used propane tanks for a while at the space. This is the first one I’ve seen him make that is meant to look like a character. As usual he’s doing a great job. Mark has also been giving some more one-on-one welding classes at the space. Don’t miss out if you want to learn how to weld from a master.The welding is only the beginning.  It can be easy to forget about the less sexy part of making.  Grinding and painting.  Though the natural look of rust is cool Darth Vader was black.  I am looking forward to seeing more characters represented in Mark’s work.  If you see him around the space suggest one to him.

Despite summer vacation and other obligations, work continues to progress on the Casting Furnace.  In the past few weeks Bret has pinched the end of a metal brake line tube used to feed the furnace diesel fuel and installed a needle valve to better control the fuel flow rate.

Brant has been milling and machining parts for a mechanism that will both lift the lid and turn it out of the way when someone steps on a foot pedal.  The next steps will be to finish the foot pedal, weld it to the rig, and secure the lid to the top of of the lifting post.  Bret also plans to improve the casting tongs so they are more easy to use.

For more information, see the project wiki page: http://wiki.milwaukeemakerspace.org/projects/casting_furnace

A time lapse video complied from the Milwaukee Makerspace CCTV system. 7 hours of video compressed into 4 minutes. All events took place between 4:30 and 11:30 PM Thursday, September 29, 2011.

Activities include:
– Rich welding
– Chris and Rich working on their electric cars
– Chris driving his electric car in and out of the shop
– Tom, Adam, and Royce working in Diptrace
– Bret, Rich, Royce, and Adam blacksmithing items with the forge
– Various people working on misc. projects and chatting
– Royce, Brant, and Adam etching and tin-plating circuit boards
– Pete working on his Makerbot 3D printer

The Great Milwaukee Race is a scavenger hunt/series of challenges across downtown Milwaukee that was started in 2010 by Fit Milwaukee and friends.  This year’s event was put on by Fit Milwaukee, AJ Bombers and Performance Running Outfitters.  In 2010, 50 teams of 2-4 racers competed in the inaugural race. This year 75 teams raced throughout downtown Milwaukee and along the lakefront to find all 10 of the challenge locations and get their passports stamped.

The post i made a couple weeks ago (I’m welding! I’m a welder now!) about my Ridiculously Large Jacks was a preview of the challenge that we would run at the race.  After the initial batch of jacks was finished, Sean, Kevin, Adam and David helped me fine tune the game a bit in our hangar before the event itself.

Shane helped me run the event on race day and it worked like this:

• Team would decode the clue to our location and decide on when they should come to our station.
• When they showed up, they had to nominate two players.
• One player was the bouncer and was in charge of bouncing and catching a kickball.
• The other player (the grabber) donned a pair of gardening gloves and had to pick up the jacks.
• On the first bounce, the grabber would have to pick up and hold onto one jack before the bouncer caught the ball.
• On the second bounce, the grabber would have to pick up 2 more jacks while holding onto the previous jacks.
• Repeat for 3 and 4 jacks.

The game only took a couple of minutes when done correctly, but some teams were faster than others. We also saw a variety of techniques.  Some grabbers would try to stash the nearly 12″ diameter jacks under their arms.  Some folks spread the jacks out between their hands and used them like claws to scoop up the remaining jacks.  One women even stashed the jacks in her running shorts, but they were a bit heavier than she bargained for.

We were stationed at the underpass at water and pearson, across from Trocadero.  After watching what was happening for a while, the Trocadero bartenders popped out to see what was happening up close.  We invited them to play a game and they did pretty well!  Another couple came by to watch and started laughing at the silliness they saw so we invited them to play as well.  They had a few close calls with some wild bounces, but took care of the round with only a couple of do-overs.  They looked pretty happy by the end of the game.

We heard really good feedback from racers and the organizers of the event.  The game was odd enough to give people pause before they jumped in, but easy enough that it could be completed in a couple of minutes.  The fun we had with this has led us to discuss making some more oversized games to bring to parks in the area. Stay tuned for more info on this front.

Thanks again to Fit Milwaukee and the other Great Milwaukee Race organizers for letting us be a part of this event and thanks to the racers for being such good sports!