Yesterday we made a little plastic fish. This is kind of a big deal. We took a box of parts that started like this on Friday at 5.
Is it working yet?
To 8:00 pm on Sunday where we had a working machine that prints little plastic fish.
We can’t believe it’s working
We’re going back today to help with some of the other machines, but ours totes working and is printing. It took about 15 hours, some futzing, rewiring a couple of crossed connections and about sixty five of those tiny little cans of Mountain Dew. We left last night elated and spent. Could have been the Mountain Dew.
Here is a big item of note: This is one of the best organized functions I’ve attended. Organizing any gathering is hard but this makes putting together a wedding banquet seem trivial. Unless your guests are cyborgs from the future, they won’t need sets of tools, power, lighting and constant troubleshooting. Actually, I’ve been to weddings that needed constant troubleshooting, but that is a separate matter.
David Brown and Ann Donnelly were the point people who should accrue all the props, near all of them “mad.” Imagine sending out a note on the Internet that said: “Hey guys, we need about sixty people to get together all at the same time and make a machine none of you have ever seen before. How about flying waffle irons?” Would that be likely to succeed? Well it worked. These people are amazing.
A mighty Clam Goat Scream of Huzzah!
Also there was chowder, BLTs, burgers, espresso and bratwurst. But seriously, we were pushing plates of food aside to get back to adjusting the stepper motors. There was no time for base matters such a sustenance.
It should also be loudly transmitted to all within hearing distance that an interstate coachfull of teachers and administrators and support staff were there on Friday and all day yesterday. To those of you who complain public school employees are just “showing up and drawing a paycheck”, I shall print out a bag of theromoplastic eggs you can go suck.
I’m not going to mention them all because I’ll miss some, but there were a pile of science teachers building machines, I saw the IT lead throwing down a machine with precision and skill, I saw school and district administrators there, an English teacher was there on Friday and ALL DAMN DAY on Saturday. No one is getting paid more for this. They are doing this because they are passionate about their jobs and care about our kids.
Also Maggie and Joe Rosa. Is there anything awesome they are not a part of? Seriously. I’m just going to start following those guys around because they are everywhere anything good is happening. If cancer gets cured, they’ll be in the room. Trust me.
There are a lot of people who need shoutouts, but I’m throwing one more: Joel Favazza and his crew. Well done, guys. He’s another person I’m increasingly noticing in places where the good stuff is going down.
But my overall point is building one of these machines takes about 14 hours. And volunteers are there, donating their time and expertise. We could have used the same amount of money to buy 1/3 as many pre-assembled machines (that I hear don’t actually work as well) but instead we’re getting much, much more for the donated money.
This is how Gloucester works, people.
I have to get some food into my son who’s been begging me to take him over so he can check it out (he’s actually 3D printed before at his cousin’s house. Our family is kinda nerdy) and then I’m heading back over. Stevens, KT and I will be back on the ground helping to get as many of these babies online as we can and we’ll try and keep posting throughout the day.
If you have a sec (Sunday), drop by and check it out. We’re making a lot more there than plastic fish.
Also, there are Yoda heads.
