Future Robot Designers Learn CNC Manufacturing at the Drexel Autonomous Systems Lab

As part of his responsibilities, DASL researcher Roy (R.J.) Gross is helping groom future roboticists in a multi-disciplinary curriculum with the help of a Tormach PCNC 1100.

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Crowd Sourcing Helps Brad “Kickstarter King” Martin take CNC from Hobby to Viable Business

Working in the state of Iowa on a wind turbine contract, Brad Martin is no stranger to automation and electrical engineering. A self-taught CNC machinist, many people know Martin through the online crowd-fund­ing plat­form Kickstarter. We’re giving him the nickname, “Kickstarter King.” “I got into CNC because I wanted to make my own "parts" for little projects I wanted to do. First, I bought a little lathe and then a little mill, both through the Little Machine Shop. After a while, I decided manual machining wasn't the way to go. I bought a Taig Mill, sourced all my own parts, and built the whole CNC system.”

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Recap: CNC Knifemaking Workshop

About a year ago, we started toying with the idea of creating a specialty CNC workshop at the Tormach Training Center here at the company headquarters in Madison, Wisconsin. The workshop would fit into a niche-interest like knifemaking, RC car modding, or model railroading.

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Telepresence Robots and Other Cool Innovations

Launching the OCULUS Surveillance and Telepresence Robot with a fully-funded Kickstarter campaign, Colin Adamson’s open hardware project recently earned his company, Xaxxon Technologies, a spot in Entrepeneur Magazine’s top 100 Brilliant Companies of 2012. Describing himself as both a maker and a hacker, manufacturing and design projects spanning nearly two decades have led up to this honor.

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Seniors at Waunakee High School use STEM to Jump Start their Careers

With schools across Wisconsin marking the end of another calendar year, twelve seniors at Waunakee High School are celebrating the completion of their Engineering Design and Development coursework. A year-long project, the school used STEM-based Project Lead The Way curriculum and the leadership of SkillsUSA Advisor and Technology and Engineering Instructor Ryan Ubersox.

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Making of a Maker: Kent Myers on PCNC

IT Program Manager by day, maker by night, Kent Myers writes extensively about his interests and innovations on his popular blog, KentMyers.net. “I’m a computer network manager with a mechanical engineering degree that I never really used. I’ve always liked to build and create things, but in my day job I mostly sit at a computer. So, I started getting into woodworking and have done a lot of projects in the past 20 years. If you’ve been to my website you can see some of the work I’ve done,” Myers explained.

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