Episode: 1867
Title: HPR1867: The Lafayette Public Library Maker Space
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1867/hpr1867.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 10:28:17

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This is HPR episode 1867 entitled The Lafayette Public Library Makerspace.
It is hosted by John Kulp and is about 46 minutes long.
The summary is my son and I visit the Lafayette Public Library to try out the 3D printer in the Makerspace.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by an honesthost.com.
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Hey guys, this is John Kulp and Lafayette Louisiana and I'm kind of a little mission today.
I'm driving my new truck down to the public library where I'm hoping by the time I leave
to have done my very first 3D printing job.
We have an excellent public library system here in Lafayette and about four or five years
ago, the main downtown public library was closed down for renovation.
It was in bad need of upgrades to bathrooms and facilities and stuff like that.
Anyway, they shut it down and four years later we had the grand opening, maybe a month
or a month and a half ago, something like that and man, we're so excited to have the newly
renovated downtown public library because it's an excellent space.
They completely transformed it, got all new interiors, the interior completely redesigned
so that the user experience is very different.
We got a drive-through window to pick up holds to drop books in the drop-off box and lots
and lots of great things.
One of the best things that from a hacker's perspective is the addition on the third floor
of a maker space.
They have a maker space in the downtown public library and they've got some equipment
in there.
They've got a sewing machine that you can come and use.
They've got a laser engraver and they have a 3D printer.
Now the last time I went up there, the room was closed but they had a sign on the door
saying what time it was going to be open and today right now is a time of open access
to the maker space and so I'm going to try to go in there and see if I can do it.
I downloaded a file from someplace on the internet, I don't remember what the website was,
but I downloaded a 3D printing file to make myself a Kindle holder.
This is a little plastic thing to hold my Kindle while I read it.
Now I have some Kindle holders already that I made myself out of wire from a turkey
cage, a turkey tomato cage, these wire things that you put and then you grow your tomato
plant up in the center of it and the cage keeps it from falling down.
Well we had some of those that we were not using anymore and the wire is really perfect
for making stuff.
I've made phone holders and tablet holders and I've got one that I used to hold my Kindle
up as well.
But when I was looking for something to print on the 3D printers I came across some designs
for Kindle holders and so I'm going to try to print one of those today.
So I'm walking up to the newly renovated library now and they've got all new pavers
down and new concrete.
The edge of the building over there is designed as if it's a book like the spine of this
place where the two walls meet is the spine of a book and it says Biblio Tech on the
edge, which is the French word for library.
Okay, now I'm inside and the maker space is up on the third floor.
I have to talk quietly now because I'm inside the library but I'm going to walk up the stairs
to the third floor because that's the healthy thing to do.
Hello.
Three more short flights to go.
Okay, I'm on the third floor.
I'm making my way over to the maker space room and the door is closed but hopefully it's
available and it appears that it's locked, you know, they did, they changed their sign.
So it used to say open access on Tuesday and Thursday from one to five and now there's
a different sign up that says only on Tuesday and they've also eliminated the Friday slot
which was supposed to be an intro to 3D printing kind of workshop thing, I guess.
So I was planning to bring my son to that tomorrow and I guess that plan is off.
Well, that's a disappointing end to this segment of Hacker Public Radio.
It's very disappointing.
I wonder if there is a place on the library website that will reflect these changing access
times because I was here just last week and the sign had two different open access times
plus a workshop listed and then I come back today on one of the times that's supposed
to be open access and it's closed with a different sign.
Pretty disappointing but we'll get in there eventually and I'll try to remember to bring
my recorder and follow up on that at that time.
Bye.
Alright, so this is take two on the Hacker Space visit at the public library coming now
with my son, I want to say howdy.
We're coming down to the public library, we're here at 4.30 in the afternoon and it's
supposedly open from 1 until 5 pm so we should, if it is as it says it, we should have
half an hour in which to try out the 3D printer or whatever else they've got there.
I brought my USB stick, it's got the zip files that I'm supposed to be able to open up
and print on the printer so we're going to hope for the best here.
Alright, let's head in, it looks a little overcast here so hopefully we don't get rained
on.
Got the door closed there, good deal.
Alright, so we're going inside.
So kiddo, what would you like to print on the 3D printer if you had your druthers?
So you want to make something that's got magnets, but you might need to design it yourself
on some kind of 3D design program or something?
I know, I tried to design it before I had to print the sound program, but I just couldn't
get the design right even then, it looks like a simulator and I'm trying to print it out.
Do you want to use the elevator or this there?
Let's use the elevator.
Do you remember what program you used when you were trying to design it?
No, I can't remember, it was an online program.
No, is that that one Mr. Corey recommended?
Yes.
Okay, I forget what that was called.
It seems like that was a Google product of some great, we're going to the third one.
I think that was some product from Google, but I don't remember what it was called, I have
to ask him.
We've got a friend who's an architect and he recommended this 3D design program for
us to try, but now we can't remember what it was and have not used it enough times where
it sticks in our memory.
Okay, so here we go, third floor, let's see if they're open.
I can see the doors open, this is good.
Last time when I was at this spot, I saw a closed door in a darkened room, so.
Good room, I don't see, there's my phone.
Hey, fine, how are you?
Have you seen our stuff yet?
I've seen it, but I've not seen it in action.
Okay, these two are our 3D printers, they both work basically the same way.
Okay.
And this stuff, this is PLA, and this particular stuff is made from corn plant stuff.
Really?
It's not plastic, is it?
It's basically made from corn plant material, and I don't know what they do to it, but
it means that it's biodegradable, and firstly, and this is, I'm having problems with this
print.
Oh, whoops.
Then it's biodegradable, and it like smells good, and it's printing as opposed to, yeah,
as opposed to smelling like, you know, oil-based products, and both of these machines
do take other kinds of filament, they can take ABS, which is a stuff like this we made
out of, and they can also take something called heaps, I haven't really gone into that.
But they have wood filament, where there's wood that's suspended, yeah, bamboo, right
there.
Nice.
And now to have some with metal, but that was no expensive, so I didn't do it.
Okay.
It's like $80, $90 rolled.
Before we do any further, I'm recording right now for a podcast that I do, is that
okay?
Do you mind being on podcasts?
Okay.
Just want to make sure.
So what we're looking at here is a 3D printer called the Ultimaker.
Is that the brand name or the model name?
This is the Ultimaker 2.
The Ultimaker 2.
Okay.
The Ultimaker 2.
There's a little superscript 2 after the word Ultimaker.
Right now, it looks like there is a sheet of blue stuff.
Is this the print?
Or is that...
Actually, no, this is actually...
Some tape that I put down, and it isn't always necessary, but this is a really big model,
and it wasn't sticking well to the bed, so I lay it down just to help it stick.
Gotcha.
Are these some examples of things you've been printing out?
This is actually stuff that these were made by kids in the community.
Cool.
I think the little girl made this was about 9 or 10.
All right.
A gentleman from the community is making it print out this stuff in order to make a
very old refix cube for a blind person.
These are the biopindies or key rings of the bi-product.
Some of the online tutorials for Tinker Cat, which is the software that is used to design
the different moms.
And I did start making these.
This is for a head-all loom.
They will be for a head-all loom so that people can leave a piece of fabric.
Excellent.
Yeah.
That's kind of fun.
These are ones that the kids designed themselves.
What we're looking at here, it looks like sort of key ring kind of things with people's names.
And then the one that she was mentioning for a braille Rubik's cube has dots in the
same formations that you would see on a six-sided die and they're little squares.
And so I guess he would apply each one of these to a part of the surface of the Rubik's
cube.
That's really cool.
So presumably one side of the Rubik's cube would have all a single dot.
Another side would have two dots on every square.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Exactly.
The solved puzzle would have one side would be all ones, another side all two's and so
forth.
That's really a great idea.
Yeah.
It's going to be fun.
Obviously I have to print out.
Make five more printouts.
Mm-hmm.
So what is the source for these?
Is there a computer that's hooked up to her?
Do you have to bring a laptop?
And actually you can sign up for a free cloud-based program called TinkerCAD.
This will look any dot STL file can be used and that's produced by a CAD program.
There's whole spectrum of CAD programs.
TinkerCAD is an introductory level free cloud-based program.
So if somebody signs up for TinkerCAD, then they can work on their project either here
or in our laptops or they can work on their projects at home and then access with
it through the mobile sphere.
Cool.
So I have a couple of files that I pull down from, I don't remember what was, but the
I.
The I.
The first imagine.
That's probably it right there.
They're for Kindle stands and so there's zip files and I, can you handle those as well
or does it have to be converted to that other format?
I would imagine that there's zip files of dot STL documents that I should be able to
pull it up and back and get it right there and slice it up.
Well this is calling down.
I can check it out for you.
Yeah.
And so how do you handle the payment for printing?
That is very easy because right now there is no George.
Nice.
Got it.
It's just the right time.
So as long as we can keep up with the amount of film that the people use, we're providing
it.
If we can no longer keep up with it, then we'll charge just for what people use and then
it's usually measured in cents for $10.
Okay.
Well, I mean, I'd be more than happy to pay for what I use if you have mechanism to accept
payment, but.
So this is, this is not what you're going to have.
This is a laser cutter and a braver.
This is a Zing laser made in, it's a very large device, probably 36 inches across and about
24 inches deep and 16 inches tall.
And on the inside, you can see where people have done laser cuttings on a very thin piece
of wood.
It looks like a piece of balsa wood or something similar in there and people have been cutting
out their names.
This will be very intricately cut to paper, cardboard, cardstock, felt, fabric, leather, acrylic
and wood up to a quarter of an inch thick.
Nice.
It will also engrave all of those things, including it will etch photographs on those
items.
Wow.
Yeah, it's really neat.
And it will do a process called 3D engraving where the depth of the engraving will match
the depth of the tone in a grayscale photo.
It's incredible.
Yeah.
And we have a rotary attachment so you can etch glasses, drinking glasses or things like
the rolling pin over there.
So the rolling pin is not neat because it's all out the dough.
That will be impressed on it.
So in this case, you can make a pie with pie on it.
So we're looking at, maybe I should take a picture of this for the show notes for the
podcast because there is a rolling pin that someone has laser etched a pie symbol.
And so of course, when you roll out your pie crust, it will have the symbol for pie on
it.
That is awesome.
I'm going to take a picture of that.
Okay.
So there are two kindles.
Okay.
I don't remember which one is it.
Will you be able to see a rendering of it when you open?
Okay.
You want to try this one first too?
Might as well.
I just want to take a round.
Yeah.
That's totally fine.
Okay.
So here's that STL file.
Okay.
Okay.
And this is the slicer.
See.
Okay.
I think it was the other one that I wanted to try first.
All right.
I remember.
I couldn't remember based on the file names.
The other one is a very short little thing.
It just has a groove to put the bottom of the kindle in to hold it up right.
Yeah.
That's the one.
Okay.
And that's going to take, let's see.
Normal is going to take about an hour and 24 minutes.
It is.
It can't be slow.
And let's see if it needs it.
We might have to come back and do this another day.
Or that's why I love people leave the stuff.
Is it just have a cue?
And I print it out and people come back and pick up.
Well, if you don't mind doing that, that'd be excellent.
Do I have the SD?
Is this mine?
Not mine, SD card.
Yeah, also.
When she said TinkerCAD, I think that's actually the program that I used once to try to make
three moles.
It is?
Is that a Google product?
TinkerCAD.
Actually, it was bought by, I don't know who originally owned it, but I think it was bought
by Autodesk, who makes AutoCAD, which is engineering.
And they also have AutoDesk123, which is kind of another step on the continuum.
So that's kind of awesome.
We have a friend who's an architect who recommended a 3D modeling program for him.
And we can't remember what it was called, but he thinks maybe it was the TinkerCAD.
TinkerCAD sounds right.
Well, if it was 3D modeling for these guys, it was probably TinkerCAD for it could have
been Google SketchUp.
Or.
I think that might be it.
Because the architect used Google SketchUp a lot.
And then Blender's a lot of times used for 3D renderings of movies and stuff like that.
You can just close it out.
And if you want to shut down the computer, every time the computer shuts down, it wipes
everything out so that people's.
Oh, man.
So walking around the maker space here, there's a table over here that's got a sewing machine.
It looks very much like the one we have at home, except this is a little fancier.
It's a genome sewing machine.
And there's some kind of document camera type thing here hooked up to a monitor.
And they have triangular tables with laptops on them where it looks like people are doing
some Lego robotics stuff.
And I can see some things plug into the wall over there that are like Lego robotics
that are charging up.
Yeah.
They're called Lego Mindstorms.
Mindstorms.
Um.
You're supposed to go that way.
You're supposed to go that way.
I really call you looking at a microphone out here.
Yeah, it looks like a podcast area or something because there's a USB microphone sitting
on the table.
And someone has done a laser cutout of the United States of America as a puzzle.
What is incredible, the detail with which it'll do that.
What color would you like this?
Oh, I don't know.
Blue, dark blue, red, white, um, the woods kind of clogs the nose and something.
Um, so that one.
Silver and black.
How about, uh, whatever's either a cheap history, you got the most of the, uh, the black
or what do you think, uh, kiddo?
Um, I would say maybe red or blue.
Was that color, color blue, okay?
It's fine.
Not all that particular about the color.
Okay.
All right.
Print.
Reading the cord.
So you have to stick it on an SD card and then bring that over.
All right.
I see there's a, there's an SD card slot at the, uh, base of this machine.
And she's transferred the file from my flash drive over to that and then plugged it in.
And there's a little dial that allows you to navigate the contents of the SD card.
And I assume you can press in the center or something to select what it is you're looking for.
That's exactly right.
Uh, it's pretty cool.
I think, however, that I did not save it.
Uh-oh.
Well, so problem.
Do you think about that guy is that a lot of his parts, as it seems like he discovered 3D printed.
Nice.
So we're looking now at this other 3D printer is called, uh, the Taz Lawsbot.
And, uh, she was saying that some of the parts on here were printed by a 3D printer.
This one is a little bit larger and it does not have an enclosed case it looks like.
And over here, I wish I could, maybe I should take a picture of this too.
There's a glass set on this accessory over here.
And there's a plate on which someone has done some etching using the, um, the laser etcher.
Let's see.
I'm going to take a picture of the glass etching thing.
Yeah.
Because he's on the left.
I don't know why I was coming around here.
He just said, I take a picture of it.
And a picture of this area.
Let's get a picture of the ultimaker also.
I'm going to take a picture of the Taz.
What do you think, man?
It's really cool.
I know.
It's really cool.
Let's go and look at that.
We're walking down to the other end.
Now, I can see, uh, there's a piece of thin plywood on the floor.
And I'm not sure what it's doing here.
It might be where they do some of their robotics things.
There's a couple of robot looking things that are charging up in the wall.
I don't know what those are about.
Oh, there's a little knitting corner.
They've got five comfy chairs set up in a circle.
And then a basket full of yarn and knitting needles where people can sit here and knit.
That's kind of cool.
So this is, this is a maker space that's not really all tack.
It's, it's making of all kinds.
It's really cool.
Have you gotten many people coming to do the sewing machine or the knitting and things like that?
Um, knitting will be starting Thursday night next Thursday night.
This coming Thursday night.
So we shall see.
Actually, the head of adult services is an avid knitter.
So she comes in every lunch period and she comes in during her breaks to knit.
That's cool.
Hopefully she'll have lots of people to accompany her all the day.
Yeah, that's a great idea.
I like the fact that this maker space is not just all technology.
That's older kinds of crafts and stuff too.
My mom would approve of it.
Well good.
She taught me when I was a kid to learn to use a sewing machine and stuff like that.
She's surprised even with all of the high tech gadgets, how many people come in and say,
oh, a sewing machine.
I want one.
I want one.
Yeah.
It's a very useful thing to know how to do.
It's useful.
It's kind of becoming a lost skill.
Yeah.
I mean, I, I don't claim to do it well at all, but I do it well enough for I can repair something if I have to.
Well, I didn't learn how to sew.
And my daughter always wanted to set thought mothers should know how to sew it.
So my mom bought her a little sewing machine.
And as it happened, my other daughter broke her own arm, cast from here to here.
And so I had to pull out the sewing machine, teach myself enough to be able to make her a pillowcase dress.
She would have something to get in the mouth of.
Yeah.
Yeah, my, my mom actually bought a sewing machine for me and my wife, the grownups.
And then she bought one that's smaller.
They're both genomics like this.
And she bought a smaller kids one by the same company for the kids to use.
For real?
I don't know if you've really used my daughter has learned how to use it.
Have you done that much?
No, I couldn't really find any use for it.
Yeah.
I made a tool bag one time.
That's kind of cool.
Yeah.
Cool, nerdy, techy thing to deal with.
Keep all the little micro screwdrivers in and stuff.
So it's the display says it's heating up.
It's preparing to print kind of little paper white.
So I'll get a picture of the display there.
The microphone will probably pick up the sound of the printer now.
Well, all of the machines are kind of musical when they're all going.
Mm-hmm.
They're very seeded.
We are probably running right up on your closing time here, 4.49 pm.
I want to pull this off.
Ah.
Yes, I'm glad that it's taking a while to be there.
Ha-ha.
Nice.
No mountain.
Oh, there are trees.
Right, that could hurt.
Actually, for the time it gets there, so it's pretty cool.
Okay, so the floor of this thing is just risen all the way up to the top.
And it looks like it's thinking about beginning my paper white stand.
Oh, there it goes.
Take a brief video to show your mom.
It actually looks like you're going to have a clog.
Uh-oh.
So that there may be a clog.
Yeah.
So I'm going to stop it.
Okay, that's cool.
What if these kinds of things are these issues common with 3D printers?
Um, fairly.
I mean, the hole in the nozzle is incredibly, incredibly tiny.
You know, it's...
Does it have a self-cleaning mechanism?
Or do you have to poke it with a pen or something?
I mean, you're not supposed to actually take a pen and get it in there,
because that will mess up the size and shape of the nozzle.
But coming from this side, you can try and push out that.
Okay.
So did you already know how to use all these things?
Or did you have to train yourself to use them?
No, my background is in the humanities.
Uh-huh.
My master's are a library science education.
So yeah, absolutely not.
Gotcha.
I thought at one time about getting a library science degree,
and then decided against it.
I was a graduate student at Texas, which has one of the big library science programs in the country.
Yes.
I took one class in the library science program, and that was...
That was so boring.
I love libraries and all of that, but I did a PhD in musicology.
I teach at the university.
Actually, I came from Dubai.
Okay, cool.
So I think I'd actually run a coffee there.
Probably.
And then my husband was there for 13 Ems.
So he's probably run a coffee too.
Probably, yeah.
I like librarians.
So is it cooling down?
It's cooling down.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well?
Yeah, I'm sorry to be...
Oh, totally fine.
I drop in unannounced and ask for something like this.
Well, they run machines too.
Not a lot of control that I have, but...
Yeah.
So...
So, do you play music also?
No.
Oh, my sister does, though.
They're really?
Yes.
She plays the violin and the piano.
Oh.
Violins?
That's interesting.
This guy is more interested in science and technology and...
Computer programming, stuff like that.
Yeah.
Did you see the origin of this up there?
Are you familiar with this?
I actually have one, but I do no idea how to use it.
That's the neat thing about these little kids is those are...
Oh, do we know how to do it?
But they have step-by-step diagrams of how to do the wiring.
And then they also have the sketches.
So, you can go in and look at the sketches and make modifications,
which is a lot easier than just starting everything from scratch.
I'm going to have to look into that.
I mean, we hooked his Arduino up to his laptop at some point
and made like a light blink or something by writing a little bit of Python, I think.
Yeah.
But that's about as far as we got.
Well, first lesson with this kid is, you know,
hooking up a LED.
Hoking up a line of LEDs and making them flink and sequence.
I think that we may even have the same...
I mean, when he got the Arduino, he got a book along with it.
And it had some projects of that sort.
And we might have done the first one.
And then either lost interest or just got...
Side tracks.
Life happens, you know.
Yeah, exactly.
So...
Let's see.
So, the machine is still cooling down.
It looks like...
Does it tell you what its temperature is?
So, you know whether it's safe to touch it or not?
Yes, it did tell me what its temperature is.
But what I'm going to do is stop it and make it pretend like I'm changing my filament.
And see if that will work.
And if not, it'll have to take this off.
And heat it up and cool it down.
Oh, that sounds tedious.
That may be something that's left till tomorrow.
Or...
It's probably not our waiting around.
It's kind of...
Yeah.
It's kind of a process.
It's not very interesting.
Well, I sure appreciate you doing this for us.
And you're talking to us about all these things.
Anytime.
Do you mind telling us your name?
My name is Cara Chance.
Cara Chance.
Thank you very much.
And you are...
You're one of the librarians here.
But is this your deal now?
This is my area.
The worker space is my area.
So, I could tap a lot of time.
So, what in the world were you doing in the last several years when they were doing this renovation?
I mean, you didn't have a maker space then, right?
No, and actually, like I said, I left...
I was head of our Friends and Research Services at DuPray until I came here in October.
Okay.
And before that, I was homeschooling.
Cool.
You taught a couple classes to you and you and I being 100?
Oh, okay.
Yeah.
I have not...
They tried to get me to do that and I didn't think it was worth it.
Well, I totally revamped it from what I understand.
Yeah.
One of my friends is doing the class.
And I haven't...
It's new enough.
They're just starting the new version of it this fall.
And it's new enough where I don't think we really have a good read on it yet.
Yeah.
Well...
I shall see.
Yeah.
So, I guess I will...
Maybe we'll check back on Thursday during the next maker space hours.
Okay.
And we'll see.
Because other days, the door is just closed, right?
Um, we have the open access and that's when everything is out ready to go.
I can help people.
We do...
We are starting to have classes reserved the area and we're starting to have groups reserved the area.
Um, other than that, the lifetimes I'm in here and I'm in the door open.
So, it's not guaranteed that if you come in outside of open access that I'll be here,
or that, you know, I'll be able to assist.
But there's a shock that I'll be here if you want to pick this up.
But I was just going to say, uh, in the next day or two if we're in the area,
I might stop by and just see if I can pick it up.
Exactly.
Or if you like, um, after it's printed, I can leave it at the reference desk.
On this floor?
Okay.
Would you prefer that?
Whatever.
Um, the table is fine or the reference desk is okay.
What do you think I should do?
I think you should leave it here.
In here?
Be safer in here.
Somebody's like able to make off with a Kindle stand.
You never know from people.
Actually, he did print a go.
What's something I didn't.
But, um, a guy printed a go pro camera, um, mount for his bicycle.
And somebody was just playing around with it and didn't realize it was actually for someone.
Oh, no.
Made off with it.
You can always print another one, I suppose.
If that's exactly what?
Still.
And I don't think it was, I don't think it was malicious.
So it was just not realizing it.
Someone printed that out.
Yep.
Well, uh, the open access time is nearly out.
So I think we will just leave you to it.
Okay.
If you want to check on us in a few days.
Okay.
If you want to come by and play next Thursday.
Cool.
Please do.
Thank you so much.
Yes, sir.
Bye.
Hello.
Hello.
Hi.
Oh.
Oh.
My flash drive.
Someone just asked me about it.
My flash drive is still stuck into the laptop here.
So I'm going to wait until she's, um, free again and have her ejected for me.
My, uh, I just realized my flash drive is still stuck in the laptop.
Yeah.
The last person left.
I guess I need to be a little bit more careful about that.
So if I were to bring it on an SD card, that would be immediately compatible.
Is it better to bring it here or we're on an SD card?
It doesn't matter.
And actually if you do it through Tinkercad, you can just pull up the document from Tinkercad
here.
Um, I have to put it into a slicer.
Mm-hmm.
Reboardless.
So it doesn't matter which medium.
Okay.
All righty.
Okay.
Sounds good.
Thanks.
You too.
Bye.
Well, we made it into the maker space.
It's been about five years in the making.
They, um, closed down the library for renovation.
Four or five years ago, they closed it down for renovation.
And of course at the time they closed it down, the old library did not have a maker space.
And, uh, we didn't even know that the new one.
Boy, this elevator is noisy.
We didn't know that the new library was going to have a maker space, uh, until it was almost finished.
Uh-oh.
It's really cool.
A nice quality of life enhancement to laugh yet, isn't it?
And here we are.
Back on the first floor to exit the building.
So can you think of anything you would want to do with that laser cutter?
There's a generator project that I mentioned.
Uh-huh.
The little problem that we're trying to do that is that I'm having no trouble finding the right kind of magnet to do it.
Because, um, I can't really design something.
I know what size and magnet are going to be.
There's some magnet on Amazon that I looked at.
So, once I found, we're way too powerful.
Oh, dear.
Okay.
It's a point where they might be a bit dangerous to you.
Yeah.
So, um, until I can find those, until I can find like, um, the right kind of magnet to use,
like, um, I'm not really sure what progress I can make.
Yeah.
And I'm still not quite sure how to design the casing.
You see, um, to make it work correctly, I need to have, um, almost like, a gear shape of magnets.
Uh-huh.
You see the idea is, um, you have the gear shape of magnets.
Right.
And then, uh, and then along the outside of it, you have magnets that push those magnets.
Mm-hmm.
And that causes the gear to turn, um, generating power.
And it will, it will perpetually turn because it's constantly being forced around by those other magnets.
Um, but I've actually seen tutorials for how to do it all over YouTube,
like, using, um, tops from things that cut it's cheese or something.
We did that once and it, it worked a little bit kind of.
It didn't work out.
It didn't work out that great.
It would definitely be better if you could 3D print something that would have little slots to hold those magnets in place firmly, right?
Um, though that's worth problems.
Um, I can make the slots, but having them like exactly oriented to the circle is really difficult.
Yeah.
And also, I need something to hold them in, because if I just have a slot and they could easily pop out.
Mm-hmm.
Um, I don't know if they'll have holes in them or not.
I'm not sure if I could drill holes in them, so I could put like a pin through.
Yeah.
Well, this sounds like, uh, something that you need to do and then make an HPR episode about once you, um, figured out and make it work.
So, uh, I think with that, we're gonna stop recording now.
And I'm really, really happy that I got a successful trip to the Makerspace.
Hope you guys enjoyed that.
I will talk you later.
This has been, uh, John Culp and Lafayette Louisiana and JK Jr. over there.
Wanna say bye?
Bye.
Okay.
Bye, yo.
All right, yo, I have a quick follow up to the, um, the 3D printer thing.
I went back yesterday to the public library to check and see if my laser print, laser print, I keep saying laser print.
If my 3D print job was done, and it was, and it turned out pretty well.
Although I found that when I tried to put my Kindle in the Kindle holder, it, uh, it did not accommodate the case.
And so, uh, to make it work, you have to remove the Kindle from the case and then set it in there.
So, I might actually try to modify the 3D printer file and see if I can, uh, change the dimensions such that it will accommodate the case as well.
And also, I probably wanna make it sit a little bit more straight up.
It kinda tilts too far back for my preference.
But anyway, it was, uh, it was really fun.
It was cool to, uh, the librarian who's in charge of it could not have been nicer and, uh, they do it for free.
So, in all, I'm extremely pleased with the maker space we have at the Lafayette Public Library.
And I'm looking forward to doing some more projects there and maybe learning how to use some of the other tools.
So, uh, that's it. I will talk to you guys later.
Oh, by the way, check out the photos in the show notes.
I've put photographs of several of the things that I talked about there as well as the finished product.
Okay? Bye y'all.
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