FAB 7 report back

FAB is the annual international convergence of the Fab Lab Network. Last year I was a student in the pilot year of MIT's Fab Academy at AS220 and our graduation was at FAB6 in Amsterdam. This year FAB7 took place in Lima, Peru at the National University of Engineering. I was thrilled to reconnect with folks from labs all around the world! Pictured above are traditional Tijeras dancers in Lima's Government Palace. Their performance was only one part of FAB7's fabulous welcoming event.

Fabsietecito (Little FAB7) took place before the conference began. Kids came to Lima's new Fab Lab and made cardboard robots with LEDs!

It's so valuable for us all to converge and communicate about sustainability, organization, and other issues. It was a relief to know that we each are not alone in our challenges in Fab Labs. People always share lab stories that project positivity, especially photos of smiling faces at parties. We don't speak as openly or as often of classes cancelled for lack of enrollment, threats due to lack of funding, or the situations most pregnant with potential for improvement.

Mostly, things are going swell! Labs are increasing exponentially all over the world, but it is still a challenge to get new members into the labs, to help people understand why these resources should be relevant to them, and to bridge the chasm of intimidation that many people feel because of a lack of experience with electronics, programming, or contemporary technology in general.

Here folks from 5 countries on 4 different continents collaborated to construct an Ultimaker, a great 3-D printer from the Netherlands. It took 8 hours to assemble it and start printing.

These forms were all printed on the Ultimaker, and the largest vase (clear and yellow, about 9 or 10" tall) only took about 15 minutes to print! All of the vessels hold water.

There are many stray dogs around Lima, and different buildings at the engineering university have adopted animals. Under the table above you'll see Fabita, one of that lab's mascots.

All over Lima it's easy to find ambulantes, or mobile vendors, especially in the form of food carts. The design challenge at this year's conference was to fab an ambulante. First prize went to Rachel Hamburg for her Bananalas (in English, Bananawings.) Rachel and Daniel Greene cut the wing form on a Shopbot, and hung the fruits to look like feathers. Those in attendance interacted with the Bananalas ambulante as if plucking fruit from a tree!

Next year, FAB8 will be in New Zealand, and FAB9 will be in Japan in 2013!

Shelves from the Shopbot

Asher Dunn shows me and Shawn Wallace a cherry wood glassblowing mold that was made on the Shopbot at Keeseh Studios. Photo by Elliot Clapp.

I designed some shelves and cut them out on a Shopbot!
While working, all pieces have to be secured to the bed of the machine (or to each other) because the tool is so powerful that the router could send a loose piece flying and seriously hurt someone.
I screwed my 4' x 8' sheet of MDO (medium density overlaid plywood) to the bed of the machine, and we programmed it to cut tabs between some of the parts so they would remain attached to each other. The finished sheet resembled a plastic toy whose tabbed pieces would be broken apart and snap assembled.

Here are some of the shelves after being cut on the Shopbot, and broken apart with a jigsaw.

Thanks to the Avineris for letting me borrow a palm sander. I used it to sand the tabs off the shelf edges. Pictured above are some shelves of the smallest size.

I primed, painted, and installed the shelves in a corner. The largest piece is 45" wide.

I have more shelf pieces cut, but I haven't yet decided where to install them.

Photos of my pieces on the Shopbot at Keeseh Studios will be posted after the holiday.