Fablab TECFA

Introduction

TECFA and DKS, i.e. the institution and the guy who run this wiki do have some kind of Makerspace. It is not a real Fab lab (and some day we may rename this page ....)

According to the Fab Lab conformity self-rating I rate it CCCB: (1) Closed or restricted user group; (2) No charter; (3) Difficult to do projects that require other tools than a 3D printer, laser cutter, "standard DYI" tools or eletronics. (4) Very little participation in the community, However, we did produce useful tutorials and contribute in that sense (see the fab lab category). We also have contacts with local fablabs.

Our intent is not to create a fab lab as defined by the FabLab community, but we rather explore teaching of design and micro-fabrication in education. Of particular interest right now is the UK's Digital Design and Technology Programme.

To do so, I decided to teach a little class to our master students in educational technology and to invite people from outside (i.e. teacher trainers/support from the local school system). Students will learn how to create embroidery, 3D printable objects and play with computer-aided music and more importantly, to reflect about design and micro-fabrication in education.

Btw, you won't find a digitial piano in a fablab, but I focus on computer-aided design in general and music is fun :)

- Daniel K. Schneider 20:05, 12 October 2011, updated oct 2014

See also:

• Fab lab
• Tour de Fablab

Equipment

So far, we got the following equipment (there will be 1 or 2 more devices, e.g. a hobby mill):

(1) Embroidery machine and software

• Elna 8300 (spring 2011)
• Stitch Era embroidery software (several tutorials)

(2) 3D printers

• RapMan V 3.11 (bought in jan 2010). It still works, but we use it as nice museum piece.
• Fabbster 3D printer, bought in March 2012 (given away)
• Felix 3D printer (V. 1.0), bought in April 2012.
• Felix 2.0 3D printer (V 2.0), bought in oct. 2013.
• Felix Pro 1 3D printer, bought in Dec 2015.
• CR-7 3D printer, bought in Nov 2015

Documentation:

• See the 3D printing and fr:category:impression 3D categories.

(3) Digital piano

• Yamaha DGX-640 digital piano (fall 2011)

(4) Vinyl cutter

• Silhouette Cameo (feb/2012)

(5) Laser cutter

• Trotec Speedy 100R (sept. 2016)
• Documentation: laser cutting and découpe laser categories

(5) Planned

• Semi-professional embroidery machine (fall 2017)
• Maybe electronics (raspberry and arduino). Two co-workers work with Arduino and Raspberry PI boards, but we do not yet teach that.

Classes

(in French)

• STIC IV - Qwerty/R2D2 (2011): Design et microfabrication par ordinateur
• fr:STIC:STIC IV (2013)
• fr:STIC:STIC IV (2015) - Design et fabrication de kits constructifs avec OpenSCAD
• fr:STIC:STIC III (2016) - Design of group support tools with laser cutting

In addition, we organized and or participated in some workshops with either kids or teachers, for example:

• fr:STIC:STIC IV (2015)/Hackday Batelle (Nov 2015)
• Expand your horizon (2013)
• fr:STIC:Atelier design et fabrication digitale (2015)