Tag: building projects

Building a 3d Printer

Building the printer.
Building the printer.

I took three students to a workshop were we’re building a 3d printer. It’s run out of the Whitfield School. We spend today putting together the electronics to run the five motors we need to get the thing to work, and starting to put the frame together.

The frame is based on the RepRap Prusa i3 (via DIY Tech Shop), and the plastic parts that hold the rods, electronics and other metal bits together are 3d printed themselves.

Students learn to solder.
Students learn to solder.

The motors is run by an Arduino, which is great because I’ve been thinking about using one to operate the doors to the chicken coops.

Notes on hardware

Microcontroller

  • Arduino Mega 2560 R3
  • RAMPS Shield 1.4
  • RepRap StepStick Pololu A4988 (I think) stepper driver (plus heat sinks)

Filament: 1.75 mm PLA

A Model Solar Water Heater

One of the middle-school projects is to build a little solar water heater. By simply pumping water through a black tube that’s sitting in the sun, you can raise the temperature of the water by about 15°C in about 15 minutes.

The solar water heater in action.

Next year I want to try building an actual solar water heater, similar to the passive air heater my students built two years ago, with the tubing in a greenhouse box to see just how efficient we can make it.