Please create a forum for the Greater Boston, Massachusetts area

I'm looking at all these user groups, and I am astonished that Boston, The home of the first computer user group in the US, and home of MIT (Well, Cambridge actually, but they're side-by-side) doesn't have a RepRap user group. I am unfortunately not technically adept enough to really start a RepRap on my own, but I would be willing to contribute SOME money, and to learn enough to be useful to any group that might form.

Hello Ben,

I am located in RI and work in Canton, MA. There has been a group of us from both Mass and RI that have been talking about meeting. We have been posting in the RI Rug group. I have a working Repstrap and have been printing since last fall.
I am willing to show it and meet with anybody. If you are interested in building one I am also available to help in any way.

Bruce Wattendorf

Forum created.

I dug up a few local resources:

*Boston used to have the Boston Robot Group, but they've
relocated to Nashua, NH. You may want to ping them and see if
there is still anyone in Boston
[nashuarobotbuilders.org]

*Willoughby and Baltic - These guys seem to be cool.
[willoughbybaltic.squarespace.com]

*Boston Arduino Users Group - hosted at Willoughby and Baltic.
[blog.makezine.com]

*Boston Dorkbot - hosted at Willoughby and Baltic.
[groups.google.com]

*fablab@SETC - Their webpages never update because they're busy
enough that they're not actively courting _more_ users.
[bostonfablab.mit.edu]

*Southern New Hampshire CNC Club Meeting
[www.cnczone.com]

*cnczone boston threads
[www.cnczone.com]
[www.cnczone.com]

*boston steel supplier
[www.cnczone.com]

*boston fastener supplier
(didn't bother to look it up)

*[www.barcampboston.org]

Good luck!
-Sebastien

Sebastien,

*Thanks* for posting that list of Boston-area resources!
From it, I found three interesting/interrelated groups practically under my nose:
dorkbot Boston, Boston Arduino UG, and Willoughby and Baltic.

Since the traffic and #posters are small on both this and the RI/NE forum, I'd be fine with cross-posting. (Or is that considered bad form?)

-- Larry

And speaking of previously unknown Boston-area resources:

The topic of electronics parts stores came up on the Make Magazine blog (http://blog.makezine.com/) and among the comments was a pointer to an electronics parts store in Littleton, MA called "Electronics Plus". Looks similar to "You Do It" in Needham:

[www.electronicsplus.com]

"Electronics Plus is conveniently located off Exit 31 on Interstate 495 in Littleton, Massachusetts. Exit I-495 on to Route 119 towards Littleton Common. Take a right at the first traffic light on to Route 2A &110. Electronics Plus is 100 yards on your right."

Greetings, all!

I am a prof at Thomas College in Waterville, ME, and I am currently working on a book on THE 3D PRINTING REVOLUTION: SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS. The draft is done and IEEE Press/Wiley is making up their minds whether to publish it.

Naturally I'm very interested in what happens here.

Tom Easton

Blog: [technoprobe.blogspot.com]
College Page: [www2.thomas.edu]
Home Page: [www.sff.net]

Email addresses: profeaston@roadrunner.com, profeaston@verizon.net, easton@thomas.edu, teaston@sff.net

Sebastien, Thanks for the list of area related sites / places.

I am available next Saturday July 19th from 1:00 to 6:00 if anybody wants to meet up. The only issue is the place I can travel to anywhere in RI. or MASS. and my machine is running as we speak.

Bruce Wattendorf

Hi everyone,

How does Olin college in needham MA (1000 Olin Way, Needham MA) sound as a meeting place for saturday the 19th?

I've been gradually making progress on building a reprap for about a year, and I'd really like to get together, meet you all, share knowledge and see Bruce's machine.

Also, I haven't posted here before so, if there are any other forums I should post this on... let me know, or spread the word yourself.

feel free to give me a call (781-540-9824), or an email (james (dot) switzer (at) students (dot) olin (dot) edu )


-Jim Switzer

Olin sounds great--it's just around the corner!
But that weekend is the Readercon SF convention in Burlington, and I'm booked, alas.

Tom Easton

Bruce et al,

The good news is that we have (at least) two places, and now 5 peope interested. The bad news is that 2 people (Peter and Tom) have conflicts that weekend, readerCon 19: [www.readercon.org] .

Are you available the weekend after that July 26-27th? I could meet either, but (given our small size), I'd be nicer if we can find a date we can all make.

Please let me/us know.

----

From my POV, seeing a reprap (ideally in operation) would add a *lot* to my understanding. I'd be happy to drive down to RI to see your machine(s); Would it be possible to meet there? Alternatively, is your machine transportable?

Larry Pfeffer

Wow, I'm surprised. MIT is the archetypal "engineering" school, this is a Boston forum, and there's no one from MIT here yet? We already have an Olin student, and I'm here from Caltech.

I just found out about reprap and between work and a few other projects I'm trying to get started building one. I could probably meet at any point in time, and Olin sounds like a good location.

also I'd greatly appreciate it if someone could print the thermoplastic extruder parts for me (I'd pay a reasonable amount for them) so I could get started on this. I only have access to a milling machine/3D printer during work hours so I'd have to use a vacation day to machine anything.

Olin is good for myself it is not to far for me to get to.

Our machine is able to travel.

The 26th seems to be ok but Sunday is off (My Son and myself are going to Scout camp)

Bruce

Bruce,

Good to hear that the 26th seems OK for you. Please confirm.
Unless you post otherwise, I'll assume afternoon is OK, as before.

Jim S.:
Can you inquire about a room at Olin for that afternoon?
(Say 1:00 - 6:00.) Also, plz check if we'll be OK with a repRap in a library room? (I'd hate to have the heat of a repRap trigger a fire alarm, etc.)
Any room we can get into (classroom, lab, etc.), and have reasonable quiet would do. Are any of the faculty interested? If so, please extend an invitation. (Rarely hurts; might help.)
Are folks interested in sharing a meal afterwards? Are there any eateries you'd recommend nearby?

If no room's avail that day at Olin, the NESFA clubhouse is (currently) available. (And since I installed them, I can disable the smoke detectors....)

Everybody: Please post, indicating whether you can make that date.

-- Larry Pfeffer
ursine at gma1l d0t c0m

Looks like I can make it.
I'll have the book ms in my pocket on a thumb drive. Anyone who wants to see it should bring a thumb drive with at least 20 megs of space (pictures) on it.

Larry_Pfeffer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Everybody: Please post, indicating whether you
> can make that date.

Saturday the 26th works well for me.

the 26th sounds a lot better for me too, as there are a lot more rooms available here at Olin.

I've gone ahead and reserved us a large classroom on the ground floor where we won't have any fire issues. The room is reserved from 10 am till 8 pm so we have some time to arrive early and linger if we want.

It's got space for ~40 people with blackboards and a projector, so if anyone wants to present something that will work too

Also, I'd be fine with grabbing a meal afterwards.
Unfortunately Needham isn't quite as culinarily enlightened as Boston, but there are some decent restaurants around.

-Jim

What building at Olin?

I am all set for the 26th the only issue is that I might not be able to stay for food after. (my Son and I have Scout camp starting the next day).

So than are we still planning on 1 pm to 6 pm? I can bring my machine and computer.. Is there any thing in particular anybody wants to learn/cover?? It sounds like most of us know what RepRap is. I can cover how we made our machine, what we would do different, setting up a machine and what we have found from extruding blogs of plastic.

-Bruce

James Switzer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the 26th sounds a lot better for me too, as there
> are a lot more rooms available here at Olin.
>
> I've gone ahead and reserved us a large classroom
> on the ground floor where we won't have any fire
> issues. The room is reserved from 10 am till 8 pm
> so we have some time to arrive early and linger if
> we want.
>
> It's got space for ~40 people with blackboards and
> a projector,

Jim,

Thanks so much. Please post the building/room number.

And if Olin has an online campus map, please post the URL.
A projector may come in handy; good work! I'll bring my laptop.

Looks like we have five people so far: Larry, Bruce, Tom, Jim, John.

brucew Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am all set for the 26th the only issue is that I
> might not be able to stay for food after. (my Son
> and I have Scout camp starting the next day).
>
> So than are we still planning on 1 pm to 6 pm? I
> can bring my machine and computer.. Is there any
> thing in particular anybody wants to learn/cover??
> It sounds like most of us know what RepRap is. I
> can cover how we made our machine, what we would
> do different, setting up a machine and what we
> have found from extruding blogs of plastic.
>
> -Bruce

Bruce, et al,


I'm fine starting at 1:00 Is everybody OK with that?

Bruce, since you have a working machine, you'll be the de-facto star of the show.

I propose an agenda something along these lines:

--------

Introductions (make up a contact list?)
Background, interests re repRap (not too long; ~3-5 minutes each?)

---

Bruce:
How we made our machine,
what we would do different,
setting up a machine;
what we have found from extruding blogs of plastic.

Questions

Demo Machine

More Questions
---

Tom: Care to give a precis of your book?

General Discussion:

Round-table: What are we (individually, jointly) interested in doing?

How can we help one another: skill and tool exchanges?, other ideas?

E.g. Go in on an order of 3 mm plastic?

(Would a regional google group be of interest vs. just using the forums?)

(Optional) dinner someplace nearby

--------

The above proto-agenda is only a guess; feel free to add, delete, edit and/or re-order.

-- Larry

I may or may not be able to come. I'll post back later.

I'm a lurker here, but I'd live to come to the 26th. I'll be in Cambridge doing volunteer work for OLPC until 4PM - but can be at Olin by about 5pm if people will still be there.

Diane

Diane,

Sure I am sure we should still be there at 5pm.

How would we go about getting an OLPC to see if we can get our software to run on the new software platform??

-Bruce

The room we'll be meeting in is AC109. It is on the first floor of the Olin Academic center. For the location of the Academic Center relative to the Olin in general, see the campus map here:

[www.olin.edu]

For directions to Olin, check out:

[www.olin.edu]

Or google maps "1000 Olin Way, Needham MA" and you should be good.

If you get lost, feel free to call me at 781-540-9824.

See you all on the 26th,

-Jim

Bruce - I'll bring at least one of my XO laptops with me (I have several).

diane

Diane,

Cool thanks. I can't wait. Well now I must get back to making some more parts on my machine..

Bruce

I would prefer to get started earlier (noon?) because I have to get back to Boston for a meeting at 4 PM. Thanks for organizing this!

peter

Folks,

I'd like to nail down the start time for our 7/26 meeting, if we can.
(I got a suggestion to post our meeting on [boston.garysguide.org]
I need a starting time before proceeding.)

I had proposed 1:00 pm. We have the room 10am-8pm, thanks to Jim.
Dianne can't come until ~5:00, and Peter has to leave early (~3:00?), and suggests starting at noon.

I'm fine starting at noon. How about the rest of you?
Please post here re your preference for starting time.
With 6+ people, we may not be able to accomodate everyone's schedules perfectly. Some folks may drift in/out, and I think that'll be OK.

As to length, that'll be up to people's enthusiasm and other committments.

Please also post ideas for topics. My list was *only* a starting point.
Suggestion: think about what you want to get out of this meeting, and maybe that'll help generate topics for discussion and hopefully progress beyond the meeting.


-- Larry

PS The suggestion of posting to garysguide.org came from Merdith at dorkbot Boston: [groups.google.com]
Peter and I went to their meeting last night. Interesting folks; many of whom are Arduino enthusiasts.

I am fine with starting at 12:00.


I which I had my Arduino Electronics up and running but they are not finished yet..
It would be cool if we had anybody come from Dorkbot Boston.

Bruce

Bruce,

Glad you can make it at noon. (Still waiting to hear from others, but that sounds good to me.)

I ordered a couple Arduino-work-alike kits, and I'll bring them along, if I have them working. With luck, I'll be able to show people something brand new (read, not yet announced to the reprap community.) Fingers crossed.

-- Larry