TekVenture Monthly Maker Meetup

Time for another TekVenture Fort Wayne Maker Meetup at my house. All are invited!

It’s a week early this month because of Christmas.

This Thursday December 16th 7:00PM at my house.

The big news is that Sayaka Ganz has agreed to collaborate with us on a group kinetic sculpture project built from recycled plastic and lots of electronics and motors!

Here are some links to work that has inspired Sayaka and I
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x87sh8_opertus-lunula-umbra-choe-u-ram-sta_creation
http://www.hylozoicground.com/

We will be starting on design work for this project with an exploration of slip-rings.

Work on the Kickstarter site is progressing. We will unveil the video of greg asking for moola and finalize the reward levels.

I’ve got some information about the mini-mill that Greg has been hiding away in his mobil shop of mysteries.
The it is a Rong Fu RF31 or a clone circa. 1995. You can google this for specs. These are popular inexpensive mills. Grizzly, Jet, Emco and others still sell them.
The mill has a CNC upgrade produced by a third party. The CNC upgrade uses stepper motors and a parallel port interface to the computer.
The mill would benefit from a newer computer and a little TLC.

It might need new stepper drivers or other parts but we might be lucky and it will work as is.

Here is information on a company that sells a RF31 with a similar CNC upgrade.
http://www.cncmasters.com/index.php?page=cnc-jr-table-top-mill

Here are my pictures of the mill and some other machines.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tekventure/sets/72157625439918473/

We need to plan strategy about renovating the mill.

I’m throwing down the gauntlet to Scott to come and show his remote control Halloween creation.

So we have to get to work this month. No free desserts!
As my Dad used to say “Everybody works, everybody eats”

Bring your friends.
Send this email to others who build stuff.
Eat cookies cake.

http://www.jimmerz.com/Maker_Meet-up.html

Thanks,
Jim Merz

4224 River Bluff Drive

A Good Layman’s Guide to Understanding IP

I ran across this valuable little nugget in one of the blogs or news sources that I read.

Attorney Matt Bartus has published a pdf copy of Dorsey & Whitney’s Intellectual Property Guide.  It is a very clearly written, straightforward overview of the different types of IP.

You can read about it and download the guide here.

Maker Meetup

Time for another Maker Meetup!

NEXT Thusday September 30th 7:00PM my house.

I have a new Sparkfun.com cellphone board.
There are lots of things you can do with an embedded computer connected to a cellphone with unlimited text messages.

I’ll also have the eggbot running.

Look at what other cool things people bring.
Scavenge from my junk piles

Bring your friends.
Send this email to others who build stuff.
Eat pie.

http://www.jimmerz.com/Maker_Meet-up.html

Thanks,
Jim Merz

4224 River Bluff Drive

Artprize Road Trip

I’m planning a road trip to see Artprize in Grand Rapids MI.

Artprize is an open competition where 1,700 artist compete for prizes voted on by the public.
Top prize is $250,000
Last year was the first year and 200,000 people went to see artprize and 30,000 people voted.

I have a sculpture in artprize this year.
I want to put together a team to build an even bigger better more complicated sculpture for next year’s artprize. I think having at whole team from Fort Wayne building a sculpture would bring some nice publicity for our town.

We will leave Fort Wayne early in the morning and get back late at night, and do lots of walking in GR.
Here are the dates I’m thinking about going to Grand Rapids:

Wednesday Sept 29th, Saturday Oct. 2nd, Sunday Oct.3rd, Wednesday Oct. 6th, Friday Oct.8th, Saturday Oct. 9th

Let know if you are interesting in this road trip, and when.

If there are enough people who can go on one day I’ll get a van.

Check out Artprize at Artprize.org

Here is a link to a picture of my sculpture at artprize

Thanks,
Jim

jwmerz@mac.com