i3 Detroit needs your help to win a laser cutter

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UPDATE: Voting closed on this contest at midnight, PST.  Thank you all for your votes, thoughts, and support!  The contest is now in the hands of the judges.  Per Instructables, results will be published in about a week.

The team at i3 Detroit has entered a contest with Instructables.com to win an Epilog Laser Cutter and Etcher (model: Zing 16).  WE NEED YOUR HELP.  The build team lead by Dustin White & Bob Bedard made a fantastic entry to the contest by building a step-by-step guide to converting a military ammo box into a set of portable music speakers.  It’s a rugged and spiffy design that is sure to win, if we have your votes.  In order to win the prize, we need you to vote on our project.

To do this: register for an Instructables account (free) at http://ow.ly/3xzb6 then go to our project page and click vote – http://ow.ly/3xzbM.  That’s it.  For 20 seconds of your time you will help i3 Detroit win a $8,000 piece of equipment for the community to use at the shop.  Please help.  Full specs on the laser cutter below.

Wattages: 30-40 watts
Work Area: 16″ x 12″ (406 x 305 mm)
Features: Red Dot Pointer, Air Assist, Motorized Table, 2″ (51 mm) focus lens, Relocatable Home, Laser Dashboard
What it does:Engraves and/or cuts wood, acrylic, plastic, glass, marble, coated metal, stainless steel w/ Cermark) and more

Full specs: http://www.epiloglaser.com/zing_16.htm

January 6th: Telescope Basics

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Thursday, January 6th, at 7:00PM

Show up and learn about the basic types of telescopes, what you can see, and how maintain and collimate (align) the optics of your scope! Cost: Free!

Starting February 4th: Airbrush Class Series at i3Detroit

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At last!  A series of airbrush courses will take place at i3Detroit, starting with the introductory class on February 4th.  Class 1 is Intro to Airbrush; class 2 is Airbrush for Murals; class 3 is Airbrush for Props and Models. More information about classes 2 and 3 will be provided soon.

Class 1: INTRO TO AIRBRUSH

The instructor, Ross Smith (yours truly) will provide students with a thorough grounding in this awesome instrument.  The types of airbrushes, maintenance, mixing paints, basic technique, and resources for more advanced material will all be provided.

Students must pay a materials cost in advance, which buys them all the basic materials needed to get started.  Equipment will be provided for students to use during the class.   (If you have an airbrush to share, please bring it!  Don’t forget your hoses and quick connect couplers.)  Please register online through EventBrite.  If you do not want to pay through EventBrite via PayPal, please contact rsmith@i3detroit.com to arrange payment.

Register online now through EventBrite: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1152454021

  • Date: Friday, February 4th, 7:00 – 10:00 PM
  • Class limit: 15
  • Materials cost: $10 / person
  • Other restrictions: Students must pay by Friday, January 28th; Money collected will be used to purchase materials in advance of class
  • What students will get:
    • A brief presentation about the history, mechanics, and materials of the airbrush
    • a walk-through of the equipment and its usage
    • a hands-on portion demonstrating basic skills practice, a painting project with frisket, and equipment clean-up
    • Materials such as papers, frisket, thinners, and paints  they can take home or store at i3 for their next airbrush session

Questions? Contact rsmith@i3detroit.com

January 9th: i3Detroit Ice Skating Trip!

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Join us for an afternoon of ice skating at the Birmingham Ice Arena!

Mark your calendars!  On Sunday, January 9th, we’ll depart i3Detroit at 12:00 PM for lunch (location TBD once we get together).  Around 1:15, we’ll head over to the Birmingham Ice Arena for the 1:30 PM – 3:00 PM open skate.  Be sure to bring $5 for admission and $3 for rental skates if you need them (bring skates if you can, though; the online information says “limited sizes” are available).

Once we’ve had our fill, we’ll return to i3Detroit for hot chocolate, grilled cheese, and roast marshmallows.  Yum!

Additional Links and Information:

Birmingham Ice Arena
2300 East Lincoln Street
Birmingham, MI 48009
(248) 530-1640

Ice Arena 2010-2011 Open Skate Flyer (PDF)

Questions?  Contact events@i3detroit.com

See you then!

A dance party? In my hackerspace? It's more likely than you think!

Trending: i3detroit

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Q: What’s more useless than Twitter?A dance party? In my hackerspace? It's more likely than you think!

A: A big, multicolored, spinning, disco-ball-thingy that is connected to Twitter!

You may have noticed* a sudden rise in the occurrence of the word “i3detroit” on Twitter in the last day or so. As part of the development of our hackerspace automation system, we’ve hooked up an rs485 relay box to a python script that is constanly watching twitter. Whenever the magic word “i3detroit” whizzes by on the twittertubes, the relay closes for 30 seconds.

Add the aforementioned disco-light and you’ve got an instant, half-minute, dance party triggered by any twitter user anywhere!

You can join the party yourself here.

*of course you didn’t.