Milwaukee Makerspace

Recently, I (Anna K) gave a presentation to the board of directors to start a group buy to purchase an Xtool P3 CO2 laser to begin replacement of our 3 ULS lasers: Left Shark, Katy Perry, and Right Shark

At this juncture of the Milwaukee Makerspace, it is in our best interest to replace these three lasers.  The oldest of these three was made in 1996 – when I was in the 4th grade.  We have spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to keep these lasers operational over the years.

Each laser requires a CO2 tube that costs almost $3000 to replace.  Left shark’s tube was last replaced in 2013- meaning it is past due for a new tube.

In addition, as compared with new lasers, these machines only have about 14mb of RAM, which seriously stunt’s  our member’s capabilities.

Xtool is the leading laser manufacturer for hobbyists.  Last year, we purchased the Xtool F1 Ultra fiber/diode laser, and the ease of use and capabilities are far superior to that of the ULS lasers we currently have.

Some features of the P3:

• 80W CO2 laser
• Integrated water chiller (unlike our BOSS lasers which have a large exterior water chiller
• 36×18 bed (which is larger than Katy Perry.
• Can cut 1/2″ material
• Free software that members can download onto their own computers
• Dual cameras for auto-positioning
• Flame and smoke sensors and a CO2 cartridge to put out fires automatically
• LiDar system for auto-focusing and auto-focusing while working (think wine glasses)
• Conveyor system for larger sheets of material

If you would like to donate to this group buy:

Go to https://www.paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/1312756 and then comment on this post or email lasers@milwaukeemakerspace.org with how much you donated and the date.

Or, if you are a member, you can go on your MMS Membership Portal (WildApricot) and donate via area fund donations to lasers.  Just let lasers@milwaukeemakerspace.org know that you donated and how much and the date.

The board will be voting on 12/2/25 about whether or not they will be matching funds for the group buy.

If you would like to see the slideshow that was presented to the board, go here: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1F6onsZSNdkxDB_dKhDPeco1ZU_3CRLBfz_DeA6JPkWo/edit?usp=sharing

Happy Lazing!

   

The Casting Area is running another Iron Pour.

 

This Event will be open to participants, Members and Non-Members.

Please contact Dave directly if you are a Visiting Artist/Non-member and need studio time to make your own artist mold. All non-members must sign the “Iron Casting Waiver” to participate.

Studio Time must be scheduled in advance. If you plan on bringing a mold or making a mold, all weights must be estimated and metal must be broken by said attendee. If you are unable to break iron due to medical reasons, please reach out to Dave.

Resin-bonded sand molds are weighed before they get to the pour floor.

 

See Facebook Link for the event as well.

  Artist Tile and Doodle Bowl Workshops:

Saturday 10-4-25 @ 12:30-3:30
Sunday 10-12-25 @ 12:30-3:30
Saturday 10-25-25 @ 12:30-3:30

      Please stop by October 19th at Makers Village anytime 10am-4pm to help Break Iron and Coke.

 

Day of Event Schedule

We are planning to have the Safety Meeting at noon. If you plan on participating on the pour floor, show up to the safety meeting and sign the waiver, it’s required. Observation will be available from the north side of the pour floor. Observation will only be accessible from Norwich Ave.

Saturday November 1st, 2025

8:00am Pour floor setup (leveling and placing molds)

9:00am Scratch blocks & Doodle Bowls available for sale.

10:30am burn-in (preheat furnace with immersion burner forced air and natural gas)

11:00am Lunch – This is a good time to eat lunch as the safety meeting is at noon.

12:00 safety meeting – Immediately after the safety meeting, we go on blast.

* Going on Blast – removing immersion burner and attaching Blower to the furnace and entirely running off forced air and Coke . Then we start charging iron/coke as it settles

1:00pm Should have first tap, Tapping every 13 minutes.

4:00pm Drop bottom when all molds are filled – brief clean up.  

 

Clean up
Sunday, Novemeber 2nd10:00am Clean-up and devesting molds:Clean-up is required if you have an artist mold on the pour floor. All Artist Tiles/Doodle Bowls will be out on display for pickup. No additional payment beyond initial purchase is required for artist tiles and doodle bowls. For Artist Molds, gating and pour cups may be cut off and thrown in the iron pile.

Please weigh your castings and provide cash payment in the donation bin or via Wild Apricot bit.ly/3wKtOcS 

Please Refer to the rates section for pricing https://wiki.milwaukeemakerspace.org/areas/casting/rates

 

Contact Dave for more information at dave@davidmarnold.com or via cell phone 4142150449

 

 

Aluminum Pour at Argren Fair

Come to Argren Fair in Riverwest on Bremen and Locust.

We are bringing one of our Crucible Furnaces and Pouring Artist Tiles, and a few other sand molds.

Artist tile workshops are at Black Husky Brewing 

Sunday, Aug. 24th, 1pm-3pm
Sunday, Aug. 31th, 1pm-3pm
Saturday, Sept. 6th, 1pm-3pm
Day of Event (at Garden Park) Till 4 pm

 

Did you get skipped over in our recent mailing of the Member Guide booklet? In the bulk mailing process, the Post Office rejected the snail mail addresses for about 50 makers, and you’d know if you’re one of the 50 because, well, you didn’t get the booklet in the mail. And because you received an email on April 12 explaining this. 

  If you are one of those who missed out, fear not: There is a booklet with your name on it waiting for you at Norwich. It’s in a box on the a table in the meeting room. Please stop by in the next two weeks to get yours. Try not to mess it up because these are in alphabetical order.    The information in the booklet is important to help each person achieve their maximum excellent-ness. Take yours, read it, and hold on to it for reference.    Cheers,   – Jon Drayna

First Small Engine Repair Meetup Recap
Resurrecting a Snow Blower, Just in Time for Easter

Just in time for Easter, a group of gearheads—and aspiring gearheads—gathered for our very first Small Engine Repair meetup with one shared mission: see if we could bring Mike T’s snow blower back from the dead. (Spoiler alert: we did!)

Starting Off

We kicked off the night with introductions and a discussion of everyone’s previous experience, as well as what they hoped to learn from the meetups. It was a great mix—some folks with deep mechanical know-how, others just starting out and eager to get their hands dirty.

We decided that a great starting point for tackling any small engine problem (especially one with a carburetor) would be learning how to clean a carburetor—a key piece of knowledge for anyone working on these kinds of machines.

Carb Talk

What followed was an open group discussion and knowledge share on carburetors—what they do, how they work, and how they fail. Ryan jumped in with some super helpful explanations, and we all gathered around the screen to watch a YouTube video that walked through the repair of the exact type of carburetor on a similar snow blower. (Link below!)

The Resurrection

Working in Dan L’s rented space, we got our hands on the real deal. After removing all the guards and parts necessary to access the snow blower’s carburetor, we tore it down, carefully cleaned out all the orifices, and reassembled and reinstalled it. We also replaced the spark plug just to cover all our bases.

Throughout the process, we shared tips on tool usage, tricks for getting stubborn parts unstuck, and the finer points of gaskets and seals. We even had some good laughs about tool terminology—and the importance of knowing the difference between an open-end wrench and a #1 Phillips screwdriver when someone’s shouting for help. (Or you are looking for a tool yourself)

Community in Action

It was awesome to see everyone sharing their knowledge, asking questions, and learning by doing. Whether you were elbow-deep in the carburetor or just soaking in the process, there was something for everyone.

Vroom Vrrom

After just a simple cleaning and spark plug change, an Easter miracle Mike’s blower roared back to life on the third crank in fulfillment of the service manual. 

…. Actually,     it started on the first crank, but that didn’t make as good an Easter joke…..

 

Resources for Further study.

Want to dive deeper? Here are some of the resources we used or mentioned during the meetup:

• Mike’s Snow Blower Manual:
  https://www.mtdparts.com/en_US/prior-year-models/mtd-snow-blower-model-31as62ee700/31AS62EE700.html
• Carburetor Repair Video (the one we watched):
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWxzieLHlNc
• In-depth Carburetor Explanation:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ri2_bKiuMo
• Transparent Carburetor Demo (super cool):
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toVfvRhWbj8&t=845s
• Carburetor Deep Dive Playlist:
  https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLnJiSV9ryNd3CGZV7XxQnDTKgc3qvbs1V

The Planet, Dude… And Space Rules

As part of our discussion, we covered the dos and don’ts of working on engines. It is your responsibility to clean up after yourself. Extra care MUST be taken to ensure that your mess is contained, and that oils, fuels, paints, and other materials cannot possibly be released into the environment, make a mess for others, or get anywhere near a drain. YOUR EQUIPMENT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY.

Regarding the recycling of oil, any AutoZone or auto parts store is required to accept used oil from individuals.
AutoZone Recycling

For oil, old gas, or any other hazardous materials (such as old paint, etc.), the City of Milwaukee will accept hazmat materials from Milwaukee residents for free. Again, this is your responsibility; MMS cannot recycle these materials for you. Your machine, your mess, your cleanup.
City of Milwaukee Hazardous Waste Disposal

Lastly, space rules currently state that no car work involving fluids can be done at the space due to previous issues with people not cleaning up after themselves. Let’s continue to show that small engine owners are responsible and do not make a mess. Remember Smokey the Bear and Woodsy Owl? Treat your projects, no matter what they are, just like hiking in the woods: leave no trace when working at MMS. Dont start wild fires either.

Watch and Listen to Woodsy Owl Give a Hoot Don’t Pollute

Whats next

If you have another idea for a small engine project, please post it on the members-only message board or let Dan L know that we had so much fun with this one, let’s do other group projects in the future.

 

Some of you may have noticed this little dohicky on the planer in the Lenox woodshop and wondered what it is.
It is a Digital Read Out (DRO). Conceptually a DRO very similar to the digital calipers that many of us use, this one just happens to be mounted permanently to the machine. DROs have long been used the machining world as that type of work is far more precise as wood moves and metal does not. What we do have a need for is repeatability. Now, if you need to plane one more board down to the same thickness as the ones you did an hour ago, you can.

Here are the instructions as well:

Instructions: If the display is off, press the power button. (The only one without a label)

When the screen comes on, it may be in one of the following modes: mm, decimal in or fractional in. I would recommend using mm or decimal in as the fractional in does not feel like it updates its value. Simply put, I do not trust it. The measurement mode can be changed by pressing the Mode button

In the above pictures you will notice that in the upper left there is CAL displayed. This indicates the DRO is using the calibrated scale for measurement. You can change to the incremental scale by pressing Cal/0 and is indicated by INC in the upper left. This will give you a 0 setpoint wherever you are currently at. This 0 setpoint will be lost when you change back to using the CAL scale. There is tape over the battery cover. Please DO NOT ever remove the battery. Battery remove will reset the calibration to 0 at whatever height the DRO is at when powered again. While not terribly hard or difficult to do, calibration is fiddly and does require time to complete.

When the Milwaukee Makerspace was new, we relied on donations and hand-me-downs for a lot of our equipment.  In 2015, member Tom Gondek lent us a ULS V460 laser that he had used for one project.  That project happened to be cutting PVC!  It was his laser, so he can do what he wants with it.  So when we received the laser, it was pretty corroded.  We ended up buying this laser off of him after it caught fire.  Very surprisingly, this did not make the V-460 inoperable.  It chugged away through a few fires, through corrosion, through heavy rail damage from lack of cleaning, through the air assist cone not staying on, through shot springs on the x-axis…in other words, this laser has seen some sh*t.

 

Since this laser came to us in 2015, the year of the famous/infamous super bowl show with Katy Perry, Hapto (Sarah Davitt) came up with the name “Left Shark” for the laser.

Lets face it: Left Shark was simply *not* member’s favorite laser.  Between not being able to go over 60% speed, the honeycomb being…for lack of a better word: wonky, and  the cone not staying on…oh, and lets not forget that it cut at an angle because of the springs.

So with help from a group buy, and a very generous donation, we purchased a brand new X-axis, as well as the Y-axis rails AND a carrier.

I (Anna) started right away taking left shark apart.  It was so messed up.

This was my first time taking apart and putting back together a laser.  I figured, if I can take apart my ender 3 and my CR-10 multiple times when fixing them, I could do this.  Unfortunately, ULS did not send ANYTHING  BUT THE RAILS.  So this meant…that we didn’t have any new bands, any new pulleys or bearings to pull the bands, no hardware…it didn’t even come with the stopper at the end of the right Y-Axis.  Of course, the majority of our hardware was entirely corroded.

So not only did I have to find new thumb screws and other screws…I had to make new screws, with the assistance of Tom Klein and Bill^2.  I am happily now trained on one of the band saws in the machine shop, and can cut down screws.

I also had to get Bill^2 to get the stopper off the old Y-axis so I could put it on the new rail.

So the next day, I start putting things back together.  Markus took out the honeycomb and began replacing it with a new frame (after the bad fire, he epoxied the old frame in, so we needed an entirely new frame).

It was at this point, I realized that they did not include the back side of the X-axis, which holds the tube for the air assist.  So..I had to take that off the old rail and that rusty thing on the new rail. They also didn’t include an air assist cone…

This was the point where I realized, after I got the bands on and got it moving, that they sent the wrong carrier.  The carrier they sent was not an air assist carrier.  This was the completely incorrect rail.

Our ULS tech graciously got a new rail sent out to us within a few days.  Tony and I worked after the board meeting to get the new rail installed again.  We reused all the old bearings, which were crusty, but work (We will order new bearings soon).

Tony and I worked together to get the rails adjusted and the bands tight enough.  He then taught me how to use alignment mode to adjust the mirrors and align it.

Two days later, Markus installed the new honeycomb.

I also replaced the lens, because tony bought a bunch of lenses on ali and I wanted this to feel like a brand new laser.

And as of Thursday evening, Left Shark was a brand new laser.  The tube was still fantastic (surprising since it was last replaced in 2013), and it is running smoother than Right Shark (the crowd favorite).

So feel free to use Left Shark.  Please ensure you thoroughly clean the rails, the lens, and the cone and mirror after each use.  This was around $3000 to replace everything.  We want it to be treated well.

 

 

 

 

Rick Michaels has produced another Neon project.  In this project he wanted to accent major shapes of the Titanic to make it more than just a poster.

Some details:
Red gas-> Neon (Ne)
Blue gas -> Argon+Mercury (ArHg)
Glass: 10mm clear tubing, 10mm 6500 Snow White coated tubing, 8MM clear gold tubing

The water accent is clear glass filled with ArHg and the boot stripe (bottom stripe on a boat) is filled with Ne.

Starting with the poster, Rick sketched out his ideas with the assistance of design software to simulate the look and feel of the final project.

The next step was to create an actual size pattern for the glass.  The pattern is constructed with 2 parallel lines representing the width pf the glass to be used
Note: projects are bent backwards so that the final pieces present evenly to the viewer (all wiring is on the back, etc.)

From there the construction of the glass pieces.  In many cases it may take a few attempts to get it right (and to have extras in case of a breakage :)
Examples of the ships railing and smoke stack accents below

Once the glass made and processed, the next step was to construct an enclosure (aka a box) in which the poster can be mounted and contain all of the electrical elements hidden from the viewer.
Example of how 2 areas work togther to create the final project – WoodShop + Neon Shop.

Finally, cutting the holes in the final assembly for the glass to be mounted.

 

Nice Work!!!!!

The Casting Area is running another Iron Pour.

This Event will be open to participants, Members and Non-Members.

Please contact Dave directly if you are a Visiting Artist/Non-member and need studio time to make your own artist mold. All non-members must sign the “Iron Casting Waiver” to participate.

Studio Time is to be scheduled in advance. If you plan on bringing a mold or making a mold all weights must be estimated and metal must be broken by said attendee. If you are unable to break iron due to medical reasons please reach out to Dave.

Resin-bonded sand molds are weighed before they get to the pour floor.

Artist Tile and Doodle Bowl Workshops:

Saturday 12-14-24 @ 12:30-3:30

Sunday 12-22-24 @ 12:30-3:30

Saturday 01-11-25 @ 12:30-3:30

Saturday January 11th

We are planning to have the Safety Meeting at noon. If you plan on participating on the pour floor, show up to the safety meeting and sign the waiver, it’s required. Observation will be available from the north side of the pour floor. Observation will only be accessible from Norwich Ave. The proposed Schedule is the following:

8:00am Pour floor setup (leveling and placing molds)

9:00am Scratch blocks & Doodle Bowls available for sale.

10:30am burn-in (preheat furnace with immersion burner forced air and natural gas)

12:00 safety meeting Immediately after the safety meeting, we go on blast. *Going on Blast – removing immersion burner and attaching Blower to the furnace and entirely running of forced air and Coke Start charging iron/coke as it settles

1:00pm Should have first tap, Tapping every 13 minutes.

4:00pm Drop bottom when all molds are filled – brief clean up.  

 

Sunday, Janurary 12th

10:00am Clean-up and devesting molds:

Clean-up is required if you have an artist mold on the pour floor. All Artist Tiles/Doodle Bowls will be out on display for pickup. No additional payment is required for these items. For Artist Molds, gating and pour cups may be cut off and thrown in the iron pile.

Please weigh your castings and provide payment in the donation bin or via Wild Aprocot bit.ly/3wKtOcS Please Refer to the rates section for pricing https://wiki.milwaukeemakerspace.org/areas/casting/rates

Contact Dave for more information at dave@davidmarnold.com or via cell phone 4142150499 

More projects beaming out of the Neon program.

Key -> HgAr = Mercury with Argon gas; creates a powder blue color, Ne = Neon gas; no vacancy red :)

Penguin

Rick’s first project in Neon was a multi-area project utilizing the woodshop for the frame and the Neon area to construct the penguin.

Dimensions: 26″w x 38’h, 10mm glass filled with HgAr

From 50K feet, how was it done?

• Rick started off with a pattern for the glass.
• From the pattern, he inverted the pattern to redraw in reverse.  This is required so that the surface of the penguin lays flat on a surface, while the electrodes and complex bends push to the back.
• To ensure that all of the elctrodes allow the penguin parts to display at the same level, he made sure that all the glass ends were cut to the same size (Note, the glass penetrates the wood base and is wired to the transformer in the back)
• The wood box enclosure (cavity towrds the wall), was contructed in the woodshop.
• The holes for the glass pieces were measured based on the actual units for a perfect fit.
• All 4 glass units are connected in series to a ~6.5KV30mA transformer
• Rick also added a “white wash” of paint, adding accent and dimesion, to make penguin standout against the black background

 

The Knot

Devon, as a professional scientific glassblower, had no issue attemping this advanced neon project for his first MMS Neon  project.

Dimensions: 10″ diameter (front curcle), 11″ diamater back circle, ~5’depth, Front piece filled with HgAr, the back piece filled with Ne; 10mm glass

From 50K feet, how was it done?

• A pattern was made for the knot (blue) and the backlight circle (red)
• Symmetry is significantly challenging at this scale, compounded with the “weaving” of the glass to achive the knot in 1 continuous piece of glass.
• The design of this piece utilizes a indirect lighting technique (backlight) that allows the red glow to be seen without actually seeing the glass.
• Using the black arylic disks allows for the blue knot to stadout against the red backlighting.
• The Ne and HgAr units are connected in series to a ~4kV transformer
• By design, allowing the ends of the knot to extend beyond the surface of the front disc, allows for some of the blue and red to mix on the wall in the background. This effect adds additional color mixing, enhancing the overall piece.
• The construction of the discs and placement of the glass allow for shadows to reveal. This effect adds volume to the piece (as seen above witht the light blue shadow)

Excellent job by both!

We play on Wednesday nights at the Norwich site.  Please swing by or ask the artists for specifics about their pieces.