The Qc Co-Lab is growing, and so are our tool offerings! The months of December and January marked some big milestones for the Co-Lab. Below you will see how we expanded our offerings in 3D printing, CNC routing, and metal fabrication. All of these projects wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing support the lab receives from our membership! We would like to give a big thanks to everyone who helped make these upgrades a reality and success!
The Co-Lab decided in late November to purchase and stand up 3 new Ender3 Pro 3D printers to revitalize, revamp, and reimagine our 3D printing offerings. These 3 printers are up and running beautifully, and have been upgraded with auto bed leveling, and some very tuned in Cura profiles. The decision to move to a standardize our 3D printers around specific models will hopefully allow us to increase uptime and gain a better understanding of what training and support look like for the lifetime of these machines. If you are a member and haven’t been in the lab lately I would highly recommend coming in and taking a look at the new 3D printer setup. If you aren’t a member or haven’t been trained on the new 3D printers send an email to [email protected] to schedule a tour or get more information about training.
Additionally, in December the Lab decided to purchase an X-Carve CNC router from Inventibles. This purchase gave the lab some much-needed CNC capabilities and expanded the functionality of the woodshop. It did take us a little while to get the machine setup and dialed in but I am happy to announce that it is fully functional and ready to use! This tool does require a good bit of training to operate but due to one of our member’s dedication and hard work we now have a fairly streamlined training that will get you up and running in no time! Again if you would like to schedule a tour of the lab or get more information on X-Carve training please email us at [email protected].
The last bit of exciting news in terms of new equipment at the Co-Lab comes out of our new fabrication shop. This area has seen some big strides in build-out since the project started in earnest back in November. A big part of this area’s success and utilization was going to be ventilation and the addition of a CNC plasma table for our new plasma cutter. Due to one of our members donating their Thanksgiving holiday we now have ventilation for welding as well as the plasma cutter. A huge thank you goes out to their investment of time and dedication to the Co-Lab. Additionally, three of our members have been working extensively on building a custom CNC plasma table! As of January 12th, the team had managed to make great progress with hardly any money spent. That being said the board did approve a budget for the project, this paired with the amazing work that has already been put in has us on a great path towards the Co-Lab gaining that fabrication functionality!
