Got some junk in your trunk you’re looking to unload? Think MidsouthMakers may have a good use for it? Check out our newly revamped guidelines for Donating Items to the space!

At the December 2016 board meeting, the 2017 Board Member Election results were ratified:

President – Claudio Donndelinger
Treasurer – Cliff Gurlen
Secretary – Chamberlin
Social Media Director – Ernest McCracken

After ratification of the results, Ernest McCracken informed the board he needed to step down from his position. We thank him for his service to the group.

This left two vacancies in the board. Per the bylaws the following members were nominated and voted in to fill the vacancies:

Vice President – Joe Ferguson
Social Media Director – Todd Wright

Congratulations to our 2017 Board!

As most of you know, Dan Hess, one of our founders, a past president and, until recently, treasurer of the group, has accepted a job in (and is moving to) Portland, Oregon. As such, he is stepping down from his role as Treasurer. Shortly after this was announced, Joe Ferguson, another founder and board member, announced that he would be stepping down from his position of Secretary in order to better focus his attention on driving and developing the tech community throughout Memphis.

In order to replace these two Board members for the duration of the current Board term (until the next election is held in December 2014), the remaining Board members elected Brett Henley and Jonathan Wood to take on the roles of Treasurer and Secretary, respectively, and hope they do not completely screw up the organization over the next 6 months.

MidsouthMakers is featured on the cover of the October 17th Memphis Flyer. Claudio is on the cover flying his Quadcopter

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!