Hackerspace Projects from the DIY Movement: Project #5: Bronze-Melting Blast Furnace
- Jul 21, 2011
- Hackerspace Profile: Quad City Co-Lab
- The Project
- FAQ: Sand Casting Terms
- Tool Bin: MakerBot 3D Printer
- Build It
From the Rough Cut
This excerpt is from the Rough Cuts version of the book and may not represent the final version of this material.
It’s traditional for hackerspaces to create a coin design with the hackerspace logo and then output it on a 3D printer. Quad Cities Co-Lab took their coin design one huge step forward by making theirs in bronze with the help of a homemade blast furnace.
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Hackerspace Profile: Quad City Co-Lab
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Location:
Quad City Co-Lab
1033 East 53rd Street
Davenport, IA 52807
Organizational type: Iowa nonprofit, 501(3)c pending
Founding date: April 2010
Number of members: 20
Dues: $30/month
Officers/Leaders:
- Steve Hamer, president
- Jeremy Borchert, vice president
- Ben Ziegler, secretary
- Arron Lorenz, treasurer
Size of the space: 4,200 sq. ft.
Notable equipment:
Welder, blast furnace, drill press, table saw, and MakerBot
Space details:
Former commercial space divided into three major rooms to separate louder/dustier activities from the rest. There’s a conference room, classroom, studio, server room, and kitchen. The organization removed walls and carpet in the shop area and reworked the electrical and network.
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Figure 6.3 The entrance to QC Co-Labs. Unlike many hackerspaces, the space wasn’t originally industrial in nature, but rather a standard office. Credit: Zak Kapua
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Figure 6.4 A soldering class at QC Co-Lab has members assembling electronic kits. Credit: Matt Metts
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Figure 6.5 The space’s electronic tinkering workbench, already in place even as the organization moved into its new facility. Credit: Zak Kapua
