3D Printing, Robotics, STEM

MRRF 2025

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2025 Midwest Rip Rap Festival (MRRF) in Goshen Indiana, inside the main building

Last weekend I traveled up to Goshen Indiana for the Midwest Rep Rap Festival (MRRF), a trip every 3D printing enthusiast should make. It’s been 6 years since I went to MRRF, and it’s certainly grown since then! One big improvement: more space! When I went in 2019 it was so crowded it was difficult to walk around.

2025 MRRF table with castles and life-sized figurines.
By no means the only 3D printed castle there, but often the most crowded table in part to the life-sized figurines including girl on the right with pink & gray hair.

The annual event has changed slightly, although the biggest portion is still regular folks showing off what they’ve made. It does seem to have shifted more from new/unique 3D printers to what you can print, but there were still some different 3D printer designs there. There were several interesting belt printers, a few variations on the Positron printer, and a new Bondtech multi-material upgrade unit that looked really promising among others..

Death Racers at MRRF 2025
Death Racers on display before competition.

There were also many vendors there: Prusa had a large presence there, Polymaker had one of the most challenging tables with their interactive filament color guessing games, and Indiana based Atomic Filament had lots of filament at the show. And even some youtubers with tables, occasionally doing interviews, and of course a few vendor raffles (I won a Voron board from LDO Motion!).

Turtle on the right (with Tiny Bikes to the back left) took 15 spools of filament, 82 pieces, and 350 hours of print time.

But what I really noticed was the increase of the activities vs 2019, there was even a separate building for setup, repairs, and the competitive challenges. Death Racers, jousting in small tank like 3D printed cars where you knock off the head of opponents, were quite popular and Mayhem at MRRF continued this year. Then there was an occasional Tiny Bike parade in the main building and 3D printed drag racers outside in the parking lot.

DDrag Racing at MRRF 202
3D Printed Drag Racers setting up at the starting line Christmas Tree. An RC Fuel Truck is in the corner going out to ‘fuel’ the racers…

Perhaps what impressed me the most was the congenial, family friendly atmosphere of not only the participants but also the attendees. It will definitely be on the list to attend next year!

Greencastle's Makerspace, Makerspaces

What’s a Makerspace?

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It’s been nearly 10 years ago since we last wrote about what a makerspace is and having been with Castlemakers for so long my description has evolved. In the early days we had a tendency to focus on our tools and equipment and what additionally we could provide.

Doug points out the differences between 4 and 2 cycle engines.

Since that time I’ve realized it’s more than just equipment, a good makerspace includes people that offer experiences and skills to others. Today when I describe a makerspace to others I think of it as access to tools, equipment & knowledge that others might not have, education and skills that’s available/ offered to others, and a community of people that’s willing to help and share experiences. Those things together create an ethos and opportunities for others in a community – whether they’re part of the makerspace or not.

Many makerspaces, like Castlemakers, are organized as a nonprofit with an educational mission – but there are many other flavors of makerspaces serving different audiences and needs. Castlemakers uses Open Shop times, general public classes, and public event participation to help share our that wealth of experiences and knowledge to others in the west central Indiana region. I’ll write about Open Shop times happenings in a later post, but in the meantime stop in and discover what we have to offer!

Artistic Endeavors, Classes

Ornamental Beginnings

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Cutting glass to make ornaments
Learning how to cut colored glass.

The last year the makerspace has been branching out into some different ‘making’ areas, some of them leaning more towards the artistic side. We’ve always done a few more unusual times, like jelly art, but this year it seem like we’ve had a few more of the A things in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math).

Tools used in cutting and breaking glass.
Arranging glass to make different ornaments.

Last weekend we did a workshop for our members so we could learn more about glass fusing since the makerspace now has a small kiln. One of our teenage volunteers, Ty, had taken a glass fusing class in Indianapolis and wanted to see what we could learn/create by making some holiday ornaments with the materials and equipment we have at Castlemakers. He even volunteered to lead the workshop.

Holiday ornaments in the kiln.
Glass ornaments made in our kiln

This is only the second time we’ve fired up the kiln, but we’re excited about the results! Some benefactors, along with the kiln, gave us a number of glass cutting and shaping tools and a selection of colored glass. They had used the setup for glass fusing and slumping, there also seems to be some things that can be used for stained glass. We’ve still got a lot to learn, but we’re thinking could become a general class in 2025. If you’re interested, sign up for our email distribution list or stop by the makerspace during Open Shop hours – we’re always glad to share what we’ve learned or learn from others…

Artificial Intelligence (AI), Classes

Practical AI

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On October 23rd we did our second Artificial Intelligence (AI) class at Castlemakers, focusing more on the uses of AI. In June we did a class on creating your own AI LLM on your own computer (which not only is a great way to learn about the technology but also addresses privacy concerns), but realized there was also interest in how it can be used.

One of the key points in the class, regardless of of the AI product you use (and we showed several), is phrasing the question. Putting together a scenario and asking the AI engine to report or behaving within context of the person or situation makes a real difference in the results. Ian, who utilizes AI and develops software, also demonstrated a system he made where you could input PDF or other documents that created a video podcast summary with 2 AI avatars discussing the results. It was kind of like Google’s Notebook LM on steroids.

If there’s interest in the future, we could put together another class on the subject, although the field is moving so rapidly we’d have new topics to cover. Next time we could perhaps even have AI teach the class!

Making, Putt Putnam County

2024 Putt Putnam County

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Putt Putnam County looking down Franklin Street in Greencastle Indiana
Mini golf holes lined up down Franklin Street for this year’s Putt Putnam County.

With perfect weather and a great crowd, our 8th annual Putt Putnam County was memorable in many ways! This year we had 16 community built mini-golf holes lined down Franklin Street on Friday October 4th for anyone to play a round in downtown Greencastle, our largest number of holes yet.

Ghost Ship golf hole
Young girl watches her golf ball walk the plank into the shark’s mouth.

With so many interesting mini-golf holes, it was hard to pick a favorite. We had a mix of new and a few popular holes from previous years – for this blog post I’ll mention some of the newest ones. But I will note Putt Putnam Virtually, last year’s hole simulator where you hit a golf ball down the streets of downtown Greencastle, was updated with obstacles on Washington Street – just like the real thing!

Guitar hole
“Playing Along” was a simple but challenging shot up the neck.

At one end was Greencastle High School’s Ghost Ship, a very popular multi-tier hole & perhaps the most elaborately built new one this year. On the courthouse end Putnam County Public Library had a Beetlejuice Beetlejuice themed hole.

Laser Alert! mini-golf hole
The fog machine made the Lasers easier to see

The guitar hole also presented one of the toughest challenges this year – the guitar frets gave a bumpy roll. A last minute addition, Laser Alert!, had great visual effects & was extremely popular with the kids.

With 16 holes this year, there are too many to mention in this post so I’ll work on adding a slide show to the Putt Putnam County project page. And of course it’s not to early to start thinking about next year, we’ll have the 2025 event on Friday October 3rd. Start coming up with ideas now!

Making, Putt Putnam County

Building a Mini-Golf Hole Session

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It’s still not too late to put together a mini-golf hole for Putt Putnam County. This Saturday from 9 am to noon, during Open Shop hours at Castlemakers, we’ll be building a mini-golf hole from scratch. We may even be able to help you build one for yourself/group/business for showing off at the main event on October 4th.

It’s a great way to see how quickly one can come together – we’ve built them before in less than 2 hours! But of course you can always overengineer things…

Classes

Sharing the Knowledge

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A big part of our mission involves education and enabling people to learn and do things they didn’t realize they could do. That’s why we offer classes and workshops to others.

Fusion 360 Class at Castlemakers
Sam W. goes over designing parts in Fusion 360.

It’s also about sharing knowledge with others. Being an all volunteer organization, we rely on not only our active members to share that knowledge but also others in the community. So when a CNC machinist who works in Terre Haute volunteered to teach a class in the software program he uses everyday, Fusion 360, we jumped at the opportunity. It turned out to be a great hands-on class on how to design parts and components in 3D – he offered to help the class attendees on their own design in the last hour of the class.

Do you have something you’d be willing or like to show others in our community? We’re glad to work with you put together a workshop or class, it’s something that we have done a lot over the last 10 years since Castlemakers first started as a ‘maker group’ and later turned into a makerspace. We’ve offered classes from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Welding – and an awful lot in between. Stop in during our Open Shop times or send us an email if you have something you’d like to share!

Putt Putnam County

Putt Putnam Planning for 2024

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Guidelines for Putt Putnam County have been updated and already some folks are planning new/improved mini-golf holes for our annual mini-golf hole event in October. Of course there will be lots of us last minute builders, but still it’s not too early to start thinking about building a mini-golf hole for the event!

Putt Putnam County
A sudden cold front knocked down signs in 2023, but a determined young man continues to play through.

As a refresher, for the last 7 years we’ve hosted an annual ‘build a mini-golf hole’ community event that continues to grow. Last year we had 13 different mini-golf holes lined down Franklin Street in downtown Greencastle to play free mini-golf on a Friday night. The holes are built by people in the community & Castlemakers members – it’s open for anyone to build and show off their creation in this annual family oriented event. We’ll even help you if you need ideas or help turning your own idea into a built creation. It’s a great group or family project to bring out and show off to others!

And of course don’t forget to join us on Friday October 4th from 6 to 8:30 pm on Franklin Street in Downtown Greencastle to checkout the creations and play a few rounds of mini-golf!

Amateur Radio

2024 Field Day

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Several us here at the makerspace have amateur radio licenses and like to help with that community also. This year at Field Day we did another educational session at the event organized by PCAuxCom, a local amateur radio group.

Chris(N9VFD) shows Zach (KD9HIG) how to transmit a phone SSTV image.

We decided to give a presentation on SSTV and how it can be used with phone or tablet app to send pictures using an amateur radio – no network connection or cell phone coverage needed! We started using SSTV here at the makerspace to see the occasional transmitted pictures from the International Space Station(ISS) when it passes overhead. Later we discovered the cell phone/tablet apps for SSTV reception and transmission – then realized it would be easy to hold a handheld radio up to the device and transmit images that way.

If you’d like to read more, I’ve created a webpage that describes how it works and includes the presentation made that day. We’re also experimenting with an interface to connect a cell phone or tablet directly to an amateur radio, will update the webpage or stop by the makerspace if you’re interested.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Artificial Intelligence / LLM Workshop

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Making an AI LLM Workshop
Ian covers how to make an AI LLM on a local PC.

We held our first Artificial Intelligence (AI) / local Large Language Model (LLM) workshop at Castlemakers last Thursday. The focus was on downloading & creating an AI LLM local model using Ollama on a Windows PC, but given the target audience (those unfamiliar with AI) we used a ‘docker’ to keep it simple and spent a lot of time explaining all of the terms involved.

Discussion around using AI LLMs
Attendees discuss what’s involved in a LLM.

We decided to try a more cutting edge topic to expose people to AI and open source LLMs – plus help people realize it’s not as hard to do as it might seem. Having someone in our midst, Ian, that has been trying and using the different models also really helped! Folks attending had an option to take home a USB drive loaded with the software to install and try the software on their local computer at home.

If you’re interested in the topic, stop by Castlemakers during our Open Shop hours – we still have the system installed on a surprisingly small computer and with the Ollama interface you can try different open source LLM models on a local pc. It’s a great way to learn and experiment with something that will be effecting all of us already and in the coming future…

Greencastle Indiana's Makerspace!