The Premier Cincinnati Hackerspace

Get ready to get your NEON on!  The Hive’s 2nd Tuesday guest speaker program (for February) is proud to bring you Kevin Wallace from our amazing Camp Washington neighbor, the American Sign Museum.  If you don’t already know, these folks run the largest public museum dedicated to signs in the United States!  Their collection covers more than 100 years of American sign history in 20,000 square feet of indoor space.  The museum is a walk through the ages of sign technologies and designs.  It is a SHINING example of the best in Cincinnati and it is just down the street here in beautiful Camp Washington.  Join us as Kevin ENLIGHTENS attendees on NEON, the making of NEON signs, and related processes.  Are you excited to learn NEON?  We are too!

Members, guests, first-time-walk-ins, and all those interested to learn more are welcome to come Tuesday, February 12, to hear his talk at our 7:30pm business meeting,  Come early to see our space, meet folks, and check things out.  Find Us.

Hive13's national award winning Power Tool Drag Race just keeps rolling along.   Member JimD will be dusting off the track setup and carting it to Greenville,SC for the inaugural race of the 2019 season.  Greenville's makerspace Synergy Mill is collaborating with Hive13 to sponsor the race day at Greenville's STEMfest 2019.  The short track setup will be indoors at the Roper Mountain Science Center on Saturday, February 9.  The track setup will return to the Hive after this race to await the next event.  This year will be our seventh season of racing, and it keeps getting better.

Some will know JimD has  dual membership and shares his time between Hive13 and Synergy Mill.  Members who may want to help with the before and after in Cincinnati, and anyone who might be interested to also be in Greenville on race day, should contact JimD.

Member Kevin M. is on FIRE!  Well, maybe not literally, but at least figuratively.  Back in November on the mailing list, he expressed his BURNING desire to do glass lampwork.  Lampworking is a type of glasswork where a torch (or lamp) is the primary source of heat used to melt the glass. Once in a molten state, the glass is formed by blowing and shaping with tools and hand movements.  Also known as flameworking or torchworking, the modern practice no longer uses oil-fueled lamps.  Instead, bench mounted oxy/propane torches are used for bead, figurine, marble, and other small work.

Kevin has provided a torch, small annealer, and collection of shaping tools to Hive13 on long-term loan.  He has provided a introductory stock of clear and color glass rod (Soft glass, 104 COE) and has sources for additional group bulk orders of glass if others would like to chip in.  The full kit of tools is set up at Hive13 and getting tuned-up.  He has lit the torch and is preparing demos and certification classes for other members to be able to use the setup.  Donations for gas and additional glass stock are welcome.

If you would like to be certified to use the glass tools, post in the mailing list thread to schedule a certification class.

Want to learn a HOT new maker skill during these COLD winter months? Come to the Hive to see this new activity GLOW and GROW.

nnThe Hive's very own Carol Merrill (a.k.a. Bill) is showing our new VacuForm machine. It shipped from California in two boxes and it was quickly unboxed and assembled earlier tonight. It is a CentroForm EZForm LV 1827. There are two 1500 watt (3000 watt total) fused 110VAC 15A heaters built into the top. The two power cords should be plugged into separate 15A circuits. The plastic sheet size is 20-14" x 30-1/4" and the forming area is 18" x 27" with 9-11" depth of draw based on mold geometry. Typical forming plastics include styrene and ABS in .020" to .040" and even .090" thicknesses. It came with a formed test sheet example. A starter tool project page has been created on the Wiki [link]. Show up at an upcoming meeting and join the team that will complete the installation and determine the start-up and certification procedures for this new tool.n

nnWhere can you turn after four seasons of Power Tool Drag Racing burn out? How about a new take on an old classic and taking Pumpkin Chucking to a new level? A group of Hive members has been considering to ROCK this October's Cincinnati Mini Maker Faire with a new and different version of an old school, large-scale activity. Who wouldn't want to be a trebuchet owner-operator? We have been researching all available YOU-TUBE technology and had even gone one-up by begging THE local experts from our fair city to share their hard earned trade secrets with us. nnYeah, it is way-too-short, last-minute notice, but if you snooze you loose and righteous persistence always pays off. So we are now proud to announce that tonight, Tuesday, June 13, at the 7:30 pm business meeting, Mark Lorenz, from the World Famous Mount Washington Stanbery Park Pumpkin Chuckers will hold a public talk on his team's prior prolific experience in lobbing large vegetables during general public community events.nnBy the way, the above stock image is of the Warwick Castle Siege Engine, a somewhat lesser (but still interesting) effort that can be seen on YouTube at this link.nnMembers, guests, first-time-walk-ins, and all those interested to learn more are welcome tonight, June 13, at the 7:30pm business meeting. Find Us.