I have been thinking alot lately on how we can use the FABlabs to aid in teaching our children. I dreamed of having my own FABlab where my grandchildren can come and explore their own creativity. I brought a few of them to LCCC's FABlab over the holidays and they just took off. I could not keep up with them. When one needed my sole attention to make a t-shirt stencil her sister (who only had one lesson up to this time) engaved the fronts and backs of 10 anodized dogtags with both pictures and names. The pictures had to be downloaded, inverted and sent to the laser. If I could offer them more time on the machines their skills and creative juices could really soar.
Current events in my life have me focused more on creating a FABlab than getting a "Winnabago" for my retirement. My idea is to build "Grandpa's FABlab". Piggybacking on my role at LCCC's FABlab I can try out different ideas using a FABlab for eductional enhancement. I plan on making equipment for Grandps's FABlab that use the concepts taught in the weekly outlines. My main project will be to make a Vacuum Forming Machine.
The vacuum forming machine should have all of the following criteria.
There will be a track mounted heating element that will be manually moved back and forth. I would like to automate the heating element's movement at a later time.
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