June 29 – July 7, 2019

Factor e Farm

Maysville, Missouri USA

Build Yourself. Build Your World.

Ever have an idea and not know what to do with it? Ever wish you could build something to solve a problem that no one else has solved? But you did not know where to start? Well, you are 9 days away from being able to do that. In our 9-day Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp, you’ll learn how to build a 3D printer and other production machines, you will learn the basic principles of design, and you’ll be able to turn your ideas into prototypes, so you can turn your prototypes into a business. We will teach you the basic language of design spanning many fields – so you can apply these skills to shape the world that you would like to build. We will teach you about our Construction Set approach – with common libraries of parts – to make powerful design achievable with basic skills.

Collaborative Design Training

Open Source Ecology is about collaborative design for a transparent and inclusive economy of abundance. The Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp will explore this mission with hands-on projects and swarm-builds. You will get a chance to build powerful tools that could be used in the real world – in time frames that you did not think were possible – by leveraging collaborative, open source design.

The Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp is a hands-on, immersion learning experience for designing and building useful, tangible products. We call this STEAM with a Purpose – shifting the economy towards open source product design – and open source microfactories as the new engines of production.

Universal Axis: a Robotics Construction Set

The goal is to expose participants to a wide range of design and prototyping skills which culminate in a basic knowledge of a collaborative, open source product development process. We will use OSE’s open source Universal Axis construction set as a scalable and modular robotics platform. The Universal Axis allows anyone to build a wide range of automation and CNC machines from scratch – easily and inexpensively. By using the Universal Axis – and combining it with various tool heads – one can build 3D printers, CNC mills, printers that print in metal, a CNC torch, a CNC router. This workshop will allow participants to build one or more of these.

As an application to practical product development – we will build a first prototype of a 3D printed cordless drill. Next year, we will run an incentive challenge to develop a professional grade 3D printed cordless drill, so this workshop will lay some initial groundwork.

How the STEAM Camp Works

First 4 Days

The first 4 days will in general focus on skills learning, and the following 5 days will focus on projects for applying the skills learned. However, at all times we shift between the classroom and builds in the workshop, so this is a blended experience. About half the time will be in the workshop, and half in the classroom.

We include a build of a 3D printer from scratch in the first 4 days. Participants are welcome to take finished printer home with them (not included in the cost of the workshop). We will have a 3D printer cluster of 8 OSE printers available throughout the workshop for prototyping, and we expect about a dozen more to be built by the participants. The goal is to build and use the tools that we built to further bootstrap our ability to make things throughout the workshop. We have an opportunity to build a 1 cubic meter 3D printer in the first 4 days as well, and a tall 6 foot tall printer with an 8×8 inch bed for printing tall columnar building materials.



5 Project Days

After the initial 4 fundamental skills days, we will select projects to work on. The workshop focuses around 3D printers, CAD design skills, and machine design skills using the Universal Axis Motion System. We will use the 3D printers to print parts for larger machines – and will have a wide array of stock materials admissible for use by anyone during the workshop. As such, there is a capacity to participate in building CNC machines, and to use standard metal fabrication equipment including torches, welders, an ironworker machine for shearing steel, metal cutoff saws, grinders, and other tools. Workshop participants will be let loose on the use of stocked materials and tools.

As a result – materials and supplies will be on hand to produce a large 3D printer (1 cubic meter), heavy duty CNC mills, a metal- printing 3D printer, a CNC torch, a 1 hp CNC router, and a 2W laser cutter head. Please see the list of available Tools and Supplies below.

The idea is that we will teach basic training in the first 4 days – and we let the group’s creativity run wild in the last 5 days. The only limitation is that we select projects that we think we can finish to a satisfactory state while meeting the Learning Objectives of the workshop. as opposed to just starting something crazy. The list of available materials and equipment for building is as follows:

Tools and Infrastructure Available During the STEAM Camp:

Tools and Infrastructure:

Six 200A MIG welders – can be used for welding, or for a MIG metal 3D printer 4 acetylene torch sets 4 abrasive metal cutoff saws [4] 15A grinders; [4] 5A grinders Ironworker machine (1”x12” steel flats capacity, ½”x6”x6” angle capacity 12 cordless drills, 4 corded drills, 1 mag drill Shop air 3 phase power, 15kW 4000 sf workshop, with about half of this as open space for working, with movable tables Soldering irons, heat guns, multimeter, oscilloscope. Wide array of hand tools.

Supplies:

Stock steel – flats and angle from ¼” to 1” thick; 4×4 inch square tubing; 2×2” square tubing. These can be used for frames and structures. About a dozen hydraulic motors from 600 to 15000 in lb torque – which can be used for a heavy duty CNC mill or other heavy rotors. Hydraulic power unit of 12 gallons per minute at 3000 PSI. Shaft, and bearings for shafts – typically 1”, 2”, and 3” – for making universal axes, rotors, drive systems, and other power transmission applications Universal rotor – 3” shaft at 15000 in lb torque Plenty of 12V power supplies and controllers for the Universal Axis Stepper motors – [12] of 1200 oz in size, and [100] of 72 oz in size Couplers, GT2 belts machine torch (straight torch) for CNC torching 2hp router – can be used for CNC router Small 2W laser head Nichrome wire for making heating elements 3D printers – and filament – for printing of solid objects and rubber goods such as belts and o-rings Parts for a Precious Plastic Shredder . Parts for a Lyman Filament Maker . D3D CNC Circuit Mill 1000 neodymium 52 magnets, 12mm x 3 mm. Motor winding wire. Wire and connectors of all sizes. 1/16”x1/4” brass for making electrical plugs. Ball bearings for making linear rails. And much more.

Learning Objectives

The goal is for participants to learn basic proficiency in a survey of applied topics. We will have an 8:1 student to teacher ratio.

How to build and operate a 3D printer How to apply the Universal Axis in building a wide range of CNC machines, using a completely open source toolchain Survey of design requirements for building specific CNC machines such as 3D printers, CNC mills, torch tables, and routers Basic steps of collaborative open source product development and its documentation How to design a 3D printed cordless drill Hands on use of workshop tools from 3D printers to welders Teamwork to solve problems in a collaborative design scenario

Intended Audience

Anyone interested in open source appropriate technology and STEAM with a purpose is welcome to attend the STEAM camp. We have no specific age limits, and we focus on mindset of learning. We welcome Women in STEAM, and Dr. Catarina Mota will present a special invitation to women on Day 2 by sharing her own story of learning practical skills.

We are seeking individuals who want to build the world around them – based on open source principles – and this workshop is intended to provide inspiration and the tools to do so. We have a focus on understanding HOW to design – not just to build things – and applying our skills to make a more transparent and inclusive economy of abundance. We are looking especially for those people who want to get their hands dirty – as responsible technology can come only from involved citizens. To this end – we demistify the skills necessary to build robust and human-centric machines – easily and at low cost.

Schedule

Overview Schedule

The Open Source Microfactory STEAM Camp is a 9 day immersion education experience with hands on projects. We will teach participants about design, and the hands on skills necessary to build the designs efficiently and effectively. We focus on fully open source tool chains for design and build. We will build production tools that we use during the actual workshop – adding to the existing OSE workshop facility.

After developing fundamental skills, participants move on to several projects of their own choosing to be carried out in the remaining 5 days. Ideally, we break into about 4 groups, and participants have complete freedom to shift between groups.

This experience is unique in that participants get a chance to build real products and potentially powerful machines. The schedule that we propose below is completely to be determined by the interests of the participants. We will have materials available for carrying out all the builds: stock steel, shafts, couplers, stepper motors, controllers, Universal Axis components, etc. We will also have the ability to print any parts in plastic and flexible materials (rubber) using the ~20 3D printers as mentioned above..

Detailed Schedule

The typical day is 8 hours of instruction/workshop activity each day. There is a one hour break for lunch. We start at 9 AM , and end at 6 PM each day. The following is a detailed schedule, to be finalized.

Day 1-4 – The first 4 days focus on learning the fundamentals.

Introduction to OSE . Introduction to collaborative, open source product development. We begin to cover the design of mechatronic machines.

Build a 3D printer – We will build a number of 3D printers with teams of 2-6 people per printer – depending on how many people reserve a printer to take home with them in the registration below. We will have a total of ~20 printers after these are built in the first days for rapid prototyping as a group effort for making parts.

Configure 3D Printer – learn how to calibrate your printer and how to prepare files for printing.

3D CAD Design – You will be learning a powerful workflow for design using FreeCAD open source mechanical design software. We will teach you how to use the OSE Part Library to design machines.

– Big Printers – We will have 2 large frames available for building a large printer with a SuperVolcano nozzle for printing up to 20 lb of filament per day. One will be a cubic meter frame and the second will be a 6’ tall frame for an 8” print bed. We have an opportunity to build these larger printers using the 1” Universal Axis.

– Circuit Making – We will learn how to use simple techniques for environmentally-friendly (recyclable) etching of circuits using a laser printer. We will learn about simple 3D Printed circuits , and we have the opportunity to build a circuit such as a charger for a cordless drill or a DC power supply that can be used to power our printers.

– 3D Printed circuits How to document on the OSE Wiki – We will be doing relevant development work throughout the week, and we will document and coordinate by posting content to the wiki in real-time throughout the workshop.

Machine Design Sessions

Throughout the 9 day Camp, we will have a total of eighteen 1-hour classroom sessions dedicated to a survey of design and build techniques that we use at OSE on a regular basis. The goal is to equip you with design thinking ability – a generalized skill set that can be applied to just about any build project. Specifically – the design skills taught in the 18 sessions will enable you to make sound design decisions during the workshop. We will guide you as much as possible – but the more you know about design – the better informed design decisions you will make.

When you are equipped properly for design thinking – you can design products that consider performance, cost, build speed, ease of build, user repairability, and lifecycle stewardship – all at the same time. Very few people have this capacity – because in most cases these 6 values are not even set as requirements. At OSE, these 6 features are all critical to our designs – and we emphasize that democratized technology must have all these 6 properties.

The 18 design sessions are:

Frames – how to design a space frame for anything from a 3D printer to heavy duty machines such as mills and lathes using the Universal Space Frame. Applications – the workshop involves building frames for various machines, and understanding frame design will allow you to build robust and structurally sound frames for any application – quickly and effectively. Universal Axis – How to build and design the Universal Axis – based motion or system for any CNC drive or automation application. Symmetric vs unsymmetric axes.. Scaling in size and power. Universal drive system. Adding a rotary axis. How to attain 10 micron precision with 180 lb drive force, and 1000 lb of drive force with 1000 micron precision. Applications – you will be able to design a Universal Axis for any of the projects that we do during the camp – and you will be able to understand whether it will hold structurally, and combined with another design session – whether it will have the correct speed and torque. Stepper Motors, Electric Motors, Hydraulic Motors – How different types of motors work. Different sizes and forces, their limits, and how to increase torque via geardown. Speed and range of applications. Application – you will understand how to select and size a correct motor for the task, and you will be able to determine to within calculable limits prior to testing whether the selected motor will do its job. Universal Stepper Motor Controllers – driving a stepper motor motor and control system of any size with on-board and external drivers can be done using the popular RAMPS controller; costs involved; Applications from 3D printer non-contact to 1000 lb force. Applications – You will be able to set up the multipurpose RAMPS controller for any machine based on the required force/speed requirements. By understanding essential controller wiring, you will be able to connect RAMPS properly to stepper motors without sending up smoke. This applies to CNC machines and any other drive, such as material shredders or drive wheels. Marlin Based Drive – How to use the open source Marlin controller firmware for automation and CNC machine design. Applications – You will learn how to configure the firmware for any geometry and other features of your system, based on the specific functions of the machine that you are designing. G-Code generation – How to generate toolpath files for automation and manufacturing applications. Manual generation of simple files, 3D printer slicers, and other open source g-code generators. Applications – Do you want to convert design concepts into machine instructions so that your CNC machine builds something for you? You will learn how to create these machine instructions for various machine types. Geardowns – The compact design of planetary gears. Online planetary gear generators. 3D printing. planetary, split ring planetary, as wheels large and small; from 3D printer extruder to split ring planetary for robotic arms. Stepper to planetary stacked gears. Compactness of planetary vs pulleys. Wear-resistance of belts vs planetary. Applications – depending on the project we build – we may need significant geardown. You will be able to design the geardown – print it with a 3D printer – and couple it to whatever you are moving. For example, you will be able to take even a small stepper motor – and gear it down enough to drive a plastic shredder. 3D Printer Extruder Design – How to design an optimal extruder – the heart of a 3D printer. Optimized design for filament access and short filament path, and scalable heater blocks. Simple extruder. Non-threaded heat breaks and nozzles for advanced design. Why nobody does this. Material deposition rates. Applications – If we build a large printer, we may want to design our own extruder because the available ones are not big enough and they cost $100 for a 25 cent piece of aluminum. If we understand how to design an extruder, we can build one at low cost. We can also design different extruders for specific applications. For example, there is currently no commercially available 2.85 mm extruder for printing soft rubber. Shafts and bearings – Different ways to implement shafts and linear bearings. Bushings for Universal Axis, bearings for rotors; mounting of wheels. On-wheel or on-shaft bearings; 2 point mounting; rating of shafts for axial and radial load. Supported and unsupported shafts. Planetary herringbone for axial load management. Planetary gears as wheel-integrated bearings. Air bearings. Flexible 3D printed bearings. Lubrication. PLastic vs metal. Linear bearing with cycling balls. Applications – whatever we build, it will move or rotate. It will have shafts and bearings, and we need to understand some basics about their design so that we can handle high loads and speeds. Couplers – The critical link of taking power from one object to another. Coupler strengths for set screws, geometrical couplers, and keyways. Solid, chain, and lovejoy couplers. 3D printed couplers. Drilled couplers. How to make couplers by welding and using a lathe. Plug inserts for making couplers. Applications – we will need to understand how to connect a motor to a moving shaft. Once a lot of force or long time is involved – this is the difference between a machine that works or breaks. By understanding couplers and their basic properties – we will keep our machines working. Connecting a shaft to a motor is one of the critical aspects of machine design. Pulleys, Belts, Screws – How to implement power transmission in direct drive and geardown. GT2 belts. 3D printed pulleys. 3D printed belts. Mechanical advantage of a screw. Applications – we can create amazing gear reduction with screws, and amazing accuracy or torque with proper belts. You will learn basics of doing this on small and large scales. Force and Torque Calculations – for stepper motors, shaft torque in general, geardowns, rpms and hp; clamping force. Position, velocity (IPM), acceleration (max Acceleration in 3d printers), jerk. Common RPMs, such as drill, stepper, and fast electric motor. Applications – Desired performance in mechatronic systems must be calculated – otherwise you are just guessing whether something will work or not. Calculations allow us to determine whether something will be efficient – and for energy use – efficiency is important if we care about environmental impact. Structural Calculations 101 – compression, tension, elongation; PSI of materials and back-of-envelope strength calculations; beam bending calculators; FEA in FreeCAD; flats, angle and i-beam; gussets; space frames. Isotropic and nonisotropic materials. Hardness and Brittleness. Applications – How do you know that the frame you built will hold up to what you are trying to do – or that a structure will hold under a given force or weight? Being fluent in back-of-the-envelope calculation on this helps you gain great insight so that you are doing less rework. Thermal calculations 101 – Blackbody radiation; solar heating; considerations for 3d printer extruder and heatbed design; conduction for heat sinks; R value; convection. Applications – If we are designing a heat bed, 3D printer extruder, or a plastic filament maker, we need to understand some basic considerations. Circuits – How to make simple circuits from 3D printing, etching, milling, and soldering. Wiring. Control panels. 3D printed circuits. GFCIs. Milled and etched circuits. Doped circuits. What to do when features are too small to solder: sockets and flux. Applications – our goals include making common devices such as power supplies, chargers, and speed controllers. Understanding the basics of how to connect or solder a bunch of electronic components together is a critical skill. Hydraulics 101 – Basic design of hydraulic power systems. Analogy to water, air, and electrical circuits. Basic circuits, safety. Applications – hydraulic motors are the most torque and power dense motion component known to human kind. They are also the lowest cost method of attaining such motion. We may want to use a hydraulic motor if we are building a large CNC mill, drill, or lathe – or if we want to drive a material shredder or a tractor without any geardown. Heater Elements – How to make insulated nichrome heaters for heated beds, small furnaces, and plastic extruders. Calculations. Applications – We will be building a large 3D printer – so building a large heated bed may be involved. CNC Machine Design – special considerations for building specific CNC machines: 3D printers including metal-printing 3D printer, heavy duty CNC mill/drill/lathe; screw machine; CNC torch table; metal-printing 3D printer, small laser cutter; CNC router/aluminum mill. Applications : While CNC machines consist essentially of a frame, a motion system, and a specific tool head or function – if a CNC machine contained only these 3 elements – it would not work well. There are certain supporting elements that are required to execute that function effectively. Here we discuss what those considerations are for each machine so we design them into the system – and our machine actually attains industrial productivity.



Days 5-9 – Project Days

The unique feature of OSE’s program is its applied, hands-on imperative. We are offering the opportunity to build a number of practical projects that have the potential to become common products. The goal for the STEAM camp is to begin the process, and depending on the interest and energy – get as far as the participants would like. As part of an open source project – these developments are added to our repository of design so we can continue to build upon it.

These are the suggested projects for which we will have materials on hand. Participants can decide to do any number or all off them, modify these, and the projects can be large or small. We will divide up as groups according to the interests of participants. We suggest 3 groups of 8 participants per project, and anywhere from 1-5 days per project..