Earlier this year we put together a kiln to melt some aluminum and the lid we made was good enough, but not perfect. It was made of soft refractory bricks, held to a metal plate with fireplace adhesive. The adhesive failed so this time we decided to cast a lid in refractory cement. This video […]
Casting a New Lid for the Kiln Read More »
During one of our Tuesday evening meetings we experimented with creating plasma. How do you make plasma? Well, usually air insulates electric charges, so it requires high voltage to break apart the molecules. In a partial vacuum, however, this breakdown potential may decrease enough that two uninsulated surfaces with different potentials might induce the electrical
Generating Plasma at OMG Read More »
This video details the process we completed in order to cast a hammer from aluminum, from making the kiln through making our own foundry tools, testing, and finally pouring in our handmade cast. The product would be a hammer that would not produce sparks if dropped on concrete, but the goal of the project was
A Complete Story of Hammer Making Read More »
OMG has had a kiln made of high quality refractory brick for a while now but recently Kevin led an effort to rekindle it. After a couple weeks of preparation we spent Saturday morning making last minute adjustments and then fired it up. In all, it only took a half hour or so to turn
I damaged a CD4093BE and instead of throwing it away I decided to satisfy my curiosity regarding its guts. I used Omaha Maker Group’s belt sander to grind away the top layer of material and it revealed a tiny chip embedded within. The slightly orangey color on the right side is where I sanded away
What’s inside an integrated chip? Read More »
A big thanks to Tech Omaha for recording a local meetups talk. Several organizations around Omaha gave their pitch at a OJUG/WITH co-sponsored event, including ours truly! Sarah Kladstrup stepped up to get our name out there. Here’s a good overview of our organization:
Omaha Meetup Lightning Talks Read More »
Our embroidery machine can embroider text and borders very easily thanks to our wonderful donor. If you are unclear at any step, please consult the babylock manual for the machine. It’s in the drawer labelled “Embroidery Machine Manual”. You will need at least the medium hoop for our standard patch. Cut a piece of
How to make an “Omaha Maker Group” patch! Read More »
My wife ask about me lasercutting a sign for some friends, but at the time she ask, our laser was still down for repairs. I remembered Ben doing a toner transfer project several years ago, so I googled it up, and it turned out to be easier than I remembered. This isn’t intended to be
Toner Transfer Testing Read More »
While we’re waiting on the “good photos” from Garrick, enjoy these two less good photos I snapped of some our members’ handiwork. As always, we had quite the turnout for this event, with several members bringing friends and family to play along. A special thanks to Sarah and Jeff for helping make it go off without
Gingerbread Teaser Read More »
It’s never too early to think about racing PowerWheels… #OMGFTW
A new Challenger Approaches Read More »