Pumping Station: One

Years ago, I found this website describing the author’s discovery melting aluminum by throwing a soda can in a campfire. He went on to describe the tools he used later on to melt the metal to produce model rocket nozzles. The tools were primitive, but still surprisingly effective. Ever since I read that page I’ve wanted to do it myself, but living in Chicago apartments, I didn’t have much opportunity to build a furnace and run it.  Since I’ve joined Pumping Station: One I finally have the opportunity I need to build an aluminum foundry and begin casting metal parts and art pieces.

I read about the topic a bit more online and decided to build Lionel Oliver’s Flowerpot Foundry. It was a pretty simple design that I thought I could make pretty cheaply (so if it didn’t work it wasn’t much of a waste). After two weekends constructing the furnace and a few attempted melts and some advice from some Navy nuclear technicians, it worked like a charm.

The basic construction of the foundry is a metal popcorn bucket with a flowerpot surrounded by concrete in it. The heat is generated from ordinary charcoal burning in the flowerpot. Ventilation holes at on top of the lid and at the bottom of the flowerpot help the fire to burn hotter & faster while letting smoke escape. I won’t go in to too much detail on the construction since Lionel is trying to sell a book on the topic, but my photographs of the process are on my flickr.

It was very exciting to see soda can after soda can go into the crucible and turn into a pool of shiny metal, then pour it in a muffin tin and get a solid ingot of aluminum. It felt like quite an achievement to turn such simple things into a furnace capable of getting that hot! But this is just the beginning. We’ve melted the metal successfully; now we have to make something useful from it. Lost foam seems to be the easiest process to get started with, so that’s what I’ll be pursuing next.

While surfing the net yesterday, myself and fellow members of PS:One came across a home built delta bot. What an awesome idea! I wanted to build one too, so today I scrounged around PS:One to see what we had laying around.

I managed to find a box with RC stuff in it… including 3 servos. Remembering that Josh had bought an erector set last night, I set to work putting together the “arms” of the delta bot. After they were assembled, I started getting lazy… so instead of using metal or wood to build a base for something I knew was temporary, I slapped the rest of it together with cardboard and hot glue!

Not bad, for an hour of work, I think.

Note: The motor on the end of the arms serves no purpose except as a weight… I wanted to see if the assembly could hold it.

Delta Arm from tensorflux on Vimeo.

What started yesterday as a mailing list quibble ended up turning into a demonstration in escape artistry.  When two directors start goading each other back and forth all day, one of them is bound to get bound.  All that posturing ended with me intending to follow through on a joke before the start of this Tuesday’s meeting.

Stocks are really an elegantly simple contraption to make.  Two 2x6s, a couple hinges and a jigsaw later, and our president is being helplessly doused by ping pong balls in public court.  After the initial ‘test fitting’ I had the opportunity to put the recently acquired Shopsmith through it’s first paces by rounding out the neck and wrist slots for added comfort with the drum sander attachment.

For future reference, the following links are not considered official PS:One business, nor necessarily safe for rainbow-phobic workplaces:

• http://www.hulu.com/watch/104731/castle-vampire-weekend
• http://pony.noisebridge.net/

More pictures after the jump.

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Just completed: an auto-switching practice guitar amp.

It turns on when you plug in a guitar, and the speaker turns off when you plug in headphones – no confusing switches needed!

Ingredients:

• 1 Minty Amp kit
• 1 mono 1/4″ plug with NC and NO switches (guitar in)
• 1 stereo 1/4″ plug with two NC switches (headphones out)
• 1 random speaker found laying around the space
• 1 9v battery adapter
• 1 Altoids tin
• a liberal scattering of solder, wires, and hot glue

Total cost: about $10

Built by Sacha, photos by Ryan L

At a recent meeting, Pumping Station: One created a new membership
level for folks who can’t afford a full $50 per month for membership. The Starving Hacker membership gives you 24-hour access to the space,
tools and community for $30 per month, with your very own key. Full
members still receive an on-site locker, can vote in all matters of business, and can hold an office.

We’ve talked about this for a while, and we talked to a lot of college
students and people with lower incomes who were interested in joining.
We identified $30 per month as a price point that worked for a lot of
people.

We want to include you: we want your creative energy, and we want
your sense of fun. We want more young members, more artists, and we think
we’ve found a way to be more inclusive and still pay our bills. Come,
join us!

Jordan and I wanted to restart Transistor Thursdays with a focus on application.  We’re going to be kicking off a six week course with an arduino workshop.  We found the freeduino online and put together an eventbrite event (http://www.eventbrite.com/event/472143193)  to do a group buy on kits.  The class is going to be Thursday December 3rd at 8pm.  Please buy tickets as soon as possible so we can make sure there are enough kits for everyone.  Ticket sales will end one week before on Monday November 23nd at 10pm to make sure there’s enough time for delivery.  Pumping Station: One will be providing all the equipment to do the soldering and practice soldering to make sure you learn at least one new skill.

We’ll also go through training on all of the electronics equipment (Oscilloscopes, power supplies, multimeters, LCR meter, and the function generator).

To the delight of both groups, Pumping Station: One hosted the monthly meeting of the Chicago Python User Group, on Thursday, October 8th.  Christopher Allan Webber gave a talk about the upcoming release of Blender, version 2.5, and all of its exciting Python hooks. Afterward we broke up Open Space-style, and discussed many Pythonic topics. About twenty people came.

It was our first time hosting an event for an external group, so
things were a little rough around the edges, but it mostly went pretty
well. There was lots of mutual curiosity between the two groups. Video
is forthcoming, and will be linked from here.

Ever since I saw this instructables I’ve wanted one for my own.  But I wanted something better.  I added a couple small touches like removable arms and tips, a powered enclosure, and suction cup feet.  The swap-able powered tips are the best part, there are standard alligator clips but also a magnifying glass, LED spotlight and soldering fume extractor.  I’m happy with how it’s working so far and i can’t wait to actually build more with it in PS:One’s newly branded Shock Shop.

Fourth Hand from Jeff Kantarek on Vimeo.

I built this with a combination of supplies that were at the hacker space and parts from Radio Shack.

Pumping Station: One has adopted a new logo!

Our original logo, designed by Nathan Witt and affectionately known as “Bubbles,” gave us a unique identity right from the start, and we will retire it with honor.

The new logo was developed by Jim Burke with the following ideas in mind:

• Scalability – The new design can be easily scaled at various sizes, allowing us to use it for projects “as big as a billboard and as small as a postage stamp.”  Graphic designers rejoice!
• References – Much like our name, Pumping Station: One’s new logo is unique while incorporating a direct tie to our city’s identity.  The new 6-point design was created following the exact dimensions of the Chicago Star on our Municipal Flag.
• Culture – We want the members of PS:One to feel unified through membership as a whole, but we also love that each individual area of focus appeals to different people.  To that end, we’re developing badges (which will become buttons, stickers, etc) to represent each different area of PS:One, such as the Danger Committee or the Homewreckery.  Each badge will use the basic design, but will be customized to represent the personality of that area so that we can internally identify one another’s skill sets and interests.

With that, we proudly give you “Harbinger.”

Pumping Station: One is a do-ocracy. Take, for example, the idea that we needed to disseminate the idea that we need to stop talking and start doing. Eli didn’t talk about it: she grabbed her paint and her paintbrush, and wrote the cardinal rule on our wall for all to see.

The do-ocracy applies to anything in Pumping Station: One. This includes personal projects. This includes group projects. This includes improvements to the space. Nothing in a hackerspace will ever get done unless somebody takes ownership of it and acts to get it done.

This “somebody” is you. Yes, you. Have a project in mind? Just fucking do it.