User:Chuckdeev/Class Blog

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Enjoy my weekly blogs pertaining to the world of Additive Manufacturing.

Blog 1: Exploring Thingiverse

Exploring the wide world of Thingiverse and the projected uses of printed items”

A) Something Amazing This gear sphere is incredible on so many levels that it confuses me. How each gear is printed perfectly inside one another while being created on the surface of a sphere is truly fascinating. I would love to see this actually work.

B) Something Funny”"

This Pipe extender is hilarious. When was the last time you were smoking a pipe and said “I wish the bowl was an extra foot farther from my face”? It’s a funny idea and makes you look like a boss when you’re kickin’ back on your porch smoking plants.

C) Something Useless This miniature model is a great representation of how much time people have on their hands and how incredible additive manufacturing really is. The attention to detail for such a useless object is flawless. There is absolutely no use for this in life, anywhere, at any time…

D) Something Useful Stumbling across this GoPro Mount made me realize how useful a personal 3D printer would be. I currently have a GoPro, but lost the mount a year ago and was too lazy to get a new one. Having a printer at your disposal would really change how you go about acquiring any of those small, customizable objects, especially when they are lost.

D) Something Surprising This Rollercoaster car surprised me for different reasons. I understand the capability of these printers and was surprised to see a design for something that would need to have the capability to withstand tons of pressure & weight. I would like to see a full scale print of this that had enough strength to actually work.

Blog 2: Marcin's Open Source Ecology

Exploring Thingiverse to get acquainted with printed objects users had created.

A) Impression and External Information

Overall, I think this project is a very interesting concept, and could ultimately make a very positive impact in developing countries, and possibliy aid current farmers. It was great to hear about the many contributions added to this project from others once Marcin had made all his work public. While thinking about the future of this project, it does seem more and more that this open source community is similar to a utopian idea, but I’m concerned that selfish individuasl or large companies will buy out and suppress this type of material. For instance, open source technology like 3D printers can do an enormous amount of good, but if companies like MakerBot use this free information to make profit and halt development, the entire community suffers. Similarly, large companies like John Deere will be less than pleased if they see their products side by side with much cheaper alternatives, which could also threaten this venture. From a business standpoint, it would be common sense to prevent this community from growing, but selfish individuals who want to make a buck can also cripple this commendable project as well.

When I first saw all the machinery and some claims of simple assembly, I wanted to see how feasibly a project like the tractor would be to create. With regard to a farm or community, I felt the Mult-purpose Tractor seemed to be one of the most critical to have. After reading through the fabrication manual and drawings, it seemed like it would be challenging to do, but with plenty of time, energy, and patience, it could possibly be accomplished. Watching the assembly video on the wiki here helped visualize the process, but many of the explanations went right over my head. With little build experience to anything similar to this project, like the hosing portions for the loading arm cylinders or hydraulic drivelines, I feel that a skilled individual would be needed to complete this project. Certainly, with enough time the project could be completed, but in terms a quick start to a new community by building various machines, I personally don’t see it being that easy. Also, if some component would break during the process, with little understanding of how or why this tractor works, the lack of instruction manuals or troubleshooting tips could cripple the development of these machines as well.

Regardless of these concerns, after reading more about this project on their main website at http://blog.opensourceecology.org/, this project has been steadily growing since launch. I think it’s great that they have a full-time team of leaders willing to help the project, including project leads and operations managers to further propel the overall vision of the project (found here). With this added leadership, I do believe the open-source community concept can continue to grow in the coming years.

B) New Yorker and Marcin Response Articles

In an article by Emily Eakin of New Yorker Magazine (source), it seems more like a cynical critique of Marcin’s personal tendencies and ideology rather than reporting on the accomplishments of the project or future goals for self-sufficient communities. While I wouldn’t say it was necessary to discuses his journaling tendencies or mocking his food consumption, she did raise a point that had been a main hang up of mine. She had said in the article that, “…among the obstacles he has faced is a dearth of skilled acolytes: the people who show up at his farm typically display more enthusiasm for his ideas than expertise with a lathe or a band saw.” Personally, I would fall into that category. I have a lot of knowledge of how things should work mechanically and could offer some amount of enthusiasm, but honestly, my building skills and possibilities of innovation in these large designs are minimal.

Marcin had a response to this article on the Open Source Ecology (found here), and overall I thought it was a decent rebuttal to the article critical to his dream project. He had stated at the end of the article that, “I am proposing a much more optimistic representation of our work than the social melodrama that the article appears to emphasize.” Understandably, the leader and creator of the project would never focus on the issues their team is facing, but at some point his fervor and dream for the project may be blinding him to many issues that could prevent the success of these communities. I was again critical of his point about the “Big Hairy Audacious Goal” where he had stated “average people like myself” who would rise up to the occasion with measured development. Marcin, who has a Ph.D in fusion physics and years of creating machines and blueprints, is clearly an extremely smart guy. If by average he means people with exceptional skills in designs and years of building/manufacturing experience who happen to have the means to work on building a new community from scratch, then maybe I would believe him.

C) Capabilities at PSU

While there is a large amount of philanthropy here at Penn State for things like THON (which I also support), a project similar to a OSE club on campus could generate some interest, but I believe that they would run into issues similar to those that I was concerned about for the real projects with regard to the skills of the individuals interested. Sure, plenty of kids would want to help out communities, but with limited resources (poor college kids), current education/experience (book smart does not always translate to building machinery), and overall practicality (we live in an area full of working farms and communities), I'm skeptical of success. With regard to other courses like ME 340, sharing information would result in very similar projects across the board, and I feel this would ultimately limit creativity. That is something that professors and administration would not allow.