Sandbox Intern Road Map

This roadmap was created to guide the learning experience for interns learning to use the Singh Sandbox Makerspace. No prior maker skills are assumed.

Let's Start With Lasers (Prototyping Studio)

Just to be different, let's start your maker journey with the laser cutter.

Others may suggest you start with a different tool, maybe a 3D printer, Vinyl Cutter, or even that you start with Electronics or Woodworking. If you're making the rules you can do that.

We're going to start at the laser since it's the simplest of all the powerful maker tools. It's powerful because it cuts cleanly and quickly, so much so that there's almost a magical power to it. It's simple because it hides much of the complexity you have to understand on tools like the CNC router. We don't have to learn about work holding strategies or choosing the best cutting tool.

CAD/CAM Strategy

Computer Aided Design (CAD) is a vital maker skill, it's a key method for communicating what you're going to make and for planning how it will be made. If you ever want to make another copy of your project having a CAD drawing is important, especially if your re-do involves modifying your original design. For large projects your CAD drawing (or drawings) will serve as a communication tool for those helping you complete the project. Even for small projects, when this communication is strictly for your own use, having a CAD drawing isn't any less important. For many makerspace tools a CAD drawing used in conjunction with computer aided manufacturing (CAM) software is key to unlocking the power of computer numerically controlled (CNC) technology. Familiarity with CNC unlocks powerful capabilities that can seem almost magical, the first time you see a machining center convert a block of raw aluminum into a precision part can be a hypnotic experience.

Sure, it's a hassle to learn CAD and sometimes it seems like it would be more efficient to just sketch your idea on the back of an envelope, until you realize that you've lost that envelope when the time comes to re-do or improve your project. You're less likely to misplace your CAD file (especially if you store it in the cloud) and redesign is much simpler when you have that CAD file to start with. To demonstrate the power of a digital drawing, we'll start with a first project using a drawing tool targeted at artists rather than engineers. This software, Adobe Illustrator, is available for no cost to UMD students.

We acknowledge that some can be intimidated by the prospect of learning a CAD software package. By using a non-CAD piece of software to do the CAD portion of this project, we can temporarily delay learning the intricacies of CAD by using a more familiar tool.

First Project

As a first project on the ULS laser cutter we'll have you design and cut a simple project using Adobe Illustrator (Illustrator).

If you've never used Illustrator before, we have several resources for you to learn the basics. Most of these are linked on the Tips & Tracks section of the ULS page.

For this simple first project, you'll draw three 2" squares using the rectangle tool. Under each square, label each one. The first should be labelled "Raster Engraved", the next "Vector Engraved", and the last box will be labelled "Raster Cut" Using either the information you've learned from our training module or the instructions given by your mentor, mark up the three squares in Illustrator so they will engrave and cut correctly.

Next Steps

The first project is a good start to get a sense of how the laser cutter works, but there's a lot more to learn. An important principle of maker education is learning by doing (and often learning by making mistakes) To help you move on from here, we'll suggest a few suggested next steps.

Try Different Materials

First, try using several different materials. The first project used mat board since it's inexpensive. A few other inexpensive materials to try are cardboard and paper. Some more substantial materials to try are plywood and acrylic.

Box Generator

Some may call this cheating, but if you need to make a box using a laser cutter it's often faster to use one of many box generator programs available online. Several of these are listed here

Project Ideas

Iterated Laser Box

If you enjoyed creating your first laser cut box, why not try improving on that idea by converting an automatically-generated laser box into a more complex and more useful item. for example a whiteboard accessory tray that hangs over the top of one of our portable whiteboards with slots/holes to store whiteboard markers, eraser, cleaning spray, etc.

Decorative Coasters

It’s a bit of a stretch to call these coasters since all of the openings will just let moisture pass through to the table they’re supposed to protect. While arguably useless as coasters, these small-scale designs are great practice for mastering the drawing tools in Adobe Illustrator. If you’re skilled in Adobe Illustrator, why not extend this project by writing a new Wiki page that walks makers through the steps used to draw this design in Illustrator with the fewest manual edits possible by making use of Illustrator tools like grouping, Pathfinder, and repeat.

Laser-Cut Map

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Create a layered map of campus, your home town, or your favorite city.

Examples of what would be on each of the layers could be:

• Bodies of water including lakes, rivers, and canals
• local streets
• highways
• city/town borders
• neighborhood names
• etc.

Edge-Lit Acrylic Sign

When acrylic is engraved on the revers side then edge lit, only the engraved area glows (this effect is often used for illuminated Exit signs) Create an edge-lit sign using this technique. You will probably want to make a wood laser-cut box to use as a stand to support the sign and also to hide the illumination source.

Closing the Loop

One of the most important roles of a Sandbox instructional intern is to evaluate the Sandbox makerspace experience from multiple perspecitves, your experience as a novice maker and also as a student and teacher experienced in other instructional methodologies. Maker education is unique. We don't know much about the student's background and prior experience and each student has vastly different learning goals. Your feedback should keep this in mind.

We ask all of our interns to provide this feedback at many steps in their learning process. We welcome suggestions for improving any aspect of the Sandbox experience. We are, however most interested in creating a supportive community and providing effective but brief training materials.

Evaluate Training Materials

Canvas Modules

Our canvas training modules are the most fundamental training materials used at Sandbox. Please write up a brief review of your experience using them. This can be a short, 1-5 page document explaining your experience and suggesting changes you'd like to see. It can also be as simple as a marked-up printout or PDF of our training modules.

ULS VLS 6.60 Course Module on Canvas

All of you were asked to complete this training module. Please take about an hour to recall your learning experience and make suggestions for how we could improve it. If you felt any specific parts of the training were effective, please let us know. If one ortwo specific parts of the training were especially confusing to you, ley us know that as well.

Glowforge Course Module on Canvas

We often suggest that you also take the Glowforge training module. If you did, we'd like to hear about your experience. If you didn't and have some time, we ask that you complete tat training and give a quick review of your experience, again focusing on which parts were most effective and which were the most confusing.

How-To Guides on Sandbox Wiki

Our wiki is described as the instruction manual for Sandbox. We're proud of what we've created so far but realize that there's an almost endless list of topics that could be addressed with a wiki page or two.

Rewrite or Create one element on our Wiki

Wiki Pages that could use a rewrite:

• Quick Reference Pages for Adobe Illustrator. We currently have two pages that discuss using Illustrator to prepare jobs for laser cutting. These are:
  • Adobe_Illustrator_for_Beginners and
  • Adobe_Illustrator

These could be better presented as a single page, especially if edited to be more succinct. If you want to take this on, a combined page has already been created, it's named Adobe_Illustrator_for_Laser_Work feel free to edit this page.

• Using ULS Rotary Attachment
• Design and cut a finger-jointed laser box. This could be improved with some introductory text and a review of the existing links.
• Laser Engraving a Photograph This is incomplete, it could use some additional contributions and some editing, perhaps suggest some links to. useful YouTube videos or other online instructional materials.

Ideas for new Wiki Pages:

• Checklist for Using ULS VLS 6.60 Laser
• Checklist for Using Glowforge Laser
• How to Create This (a step-by-step walk through of a simple laser project)

Help Improve our Community Building Efforts

If you have experience with social media, we could benefit from your advice.

Consider creating a social media plan for Sandbox. This could also be a helpful project for you to practice the work you may anticipate doing for your future clients.

Things we’d like to see in a social media plan include:

• A discussion of the best group of social media channels for Sandbox to focus on, with a brief mention of why you recommend each.
• Suggested usage of each of the channels you recommend, including suggested media types for each channel.
• Recommended update frequency for each channel.

What Should You Learn Next?

One thing for sure, don't jump directly to the 3D Printer next. Sure, it's in the same studio but it's a very different tool. It's best if you take a slight detour and learn a little about CAD and CAM next. Many makers jump into 3D printing first and aren’t able to do much beyond finding a design online and printing it. This really isn't creating, instead it's consuming someone else’s creative work.

One of the most challenging nexts would be to jump right into the CNC Studio. If you're eager to learn more about CAD and CAM this might be fun. If you do, start with the ShopBot. The Tormach might be a bit of a stretch at this point. The Shaper Origin is a possibility but it hides CAM from the operator a bit too much for an accelerated learning path. The Othermill is an option, it's a small CNC milling machine though so the range of interesting projects might be too narrow for a new maker.

A different path might be to try something completely different like woodworking or electronics. This is especially helpful if you combine it with some additional learning of a CAD tool.

• For woodworking, try drawing your project in Fusion 360. There are many YouTube tutorials that show how to design something like a bookcase in Fusion 360 by modeling each board and assembling them in software. Woodworking can be a wonderfully tactile experience. Sandbox doesn't have the sort of wood shop you would need to make a violin or re-create an antique furniture piece but it's suitable for many small to medium sized projects.
• If you have experience with electronics, the Electronics Studio may be a comfortable next stop. Evven if all you have is curiosity there are many things you can learn quickly here that will accelerate your future maker projects. One suggested starting point For electronics, one suggested path is to use TinkerCAD Circuits to simulate your circuit before assembling it. TinkerCAD Circuits even has virtual oscilloscope and multimeters so you can test your circuit as you design it. An Arduino simulator is also available in TinkerCAD Circuits, and we’ve written a training module for it.

• A different path would be to focus for a bit on our Digital Media Studio. That's the newest and one that would benefit from the creation of instructional materials, either Canvas modules or Wiki pages. The tools in this studio are also the ones that will help you document your path. If you're interested in content creation using photography, video, or audio then this might appeal to you.

• The Crafting and Sewing Studio might appeal to you. We have a very different sort of laser cutter here, the Glowforge uses a web interface instead of the Printer Control Panel approach used by ULS. Sewing is a very valuable maker skill to master, sewing projects can be part of a larger piece (like sewing cushions for a piece of furniture) or sewing can be the entire project.

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Electronics

Project Suggestion

Create a series of Arduino Sensor (and display) demonstration boards, each with a single sensor and code that demonstrates what the sensor does. Each board should be small, about 10" by 8" and be designed with a built-in wall hanger. An example may be found at Arduino Sensor Demonstrations#HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance Sensor

CNC

The two best tools for first-time makers in the CNC Studio are the ShopBot Desktop and the Shaper Origin The ShopBot is the most traditional of the two, learning it will be the most valuable in the long run. The Shaper Origin is a unique tool with a one-of-a-kind user interface. It's certainly worth checking out and can be a quick way to get certain projects done.

CAD / CAM Strategy

The two suggested paths for CAD/CAM in Sandbox are Fusion 360 and Vectric V-Carve Pro. These are briefly described on our CAD Software Page