Building Weeks Day 7 - Bratwurst or when it all comes together

Day 7, this time a bit earlier due to some holidays at the end of the week …our traditional BBQ one day before the tent is gone. After a perfect sunny first week, the rain was unstoppable today. The students rushed towards the finish line and all the project coming together.

Dr. Bucky Lab once again used all his connections to get a fresh load of german Bratwurst across the borders ( Thanks to Claudia and Ulrich Knaack …you just don't walk into a shop and buy 200 sausages …) and at 16.00 the BBQ went on fire. Bout organised some snacks and brought the plates and cups and the beer was already chilled with ice from the ketelhuis.

We had to celebrate the multiple victories of our last semester projects. 3 prices on the Bold and Beautiful award in Rotterdam against a belgium, dutch and german field of competitors and just last week the 2nd price for the International Velux Design Award ( we already reported on this blog )
So the last semester students joined the current group and we had quite a time and even the weather wasn't able to stop us… As Marcel always says: Not every drop hits !

The BBQ is not only for the students but also for our great supporters. Thats our way of showing the workshop in action, give them a sneak peak into the current projects and talk tools. Wouter Beck partner of the current daylight semester project joined and was curious about the progress the students made. Peter Stouthamer from Raaco  was astonished about our Heco Car we equipped with a nice set Raaco Boxxers to give our screws a ride bucky lab style.

Karst Duermeijer from Heco was also pleased  about the mobile solution and already mentioned that a few types of screws are missing …The experts from Hettich weren't able to join, business in the headquarter in Germany …ok even better Bratwurst there, we assume …Frans van Dijk from festool already stopped by in the morning with a colleague to show the mobile workshop and had to excuse himself for the party, he had to run a tool workshop with a big team from breur, thats also the reason why Frank van Oosterhout wasn't able to join, but we know from experience that festool also serve a damn good dinner during their workshop and we are sure they talked about our toolhouse we made last year in the training centre in Waddinxveen. Even Bart Groot himself, the inventor of the Walko workbenches our multi functional workstations joined the BBQ, its always nice to get to know what Bart is developing right now, he never stops having good ideas !

And in the end it all comes together when Dr. Bucky Lab got a small gift from Heco, two compact screwdrivers which are actually made from Wiha our partner for everything about pliers and screwdrivers and bits. That he handed one over to Hugo from Facility Management of the TU Delft was a truly action of honour, these guys made the impossible possible, to set up a tent and let us have a place to make the most innovative prototypes.

Its all about these partners we are so proud and grateful of, they made the Bucky Lab what it is: The worlds best mobile workshop, equipped with the best tools to make everything you can imagine !

Thanks ! We are proud to carry your names on our boxes !

Building weeks Day 6 - Code Yellow

Today we got the news from the radio that a rainstorm with code yellow is awaited, so we all flew into the tent, it starts raining but it was more dropping than stormy conditions at all.

Well rested from the weekend we took up the pace from last week and the prototypes are growing rapidly. Today we learned a lot, for instance:

- its more fun to sand together then alone while the team mate is just holding the work piece
- that a router with a clever jig becomes the best drill press ever and having two routers is always better
- that a nice paint job needs more then one layer of paint
- that Kees always smiles even when it rains
- that Dr. Bucky Lab is able to test 3 different methods within 4 minutes and still fails …luckily the science center had the right tools for the job.
- that our yellow Wiha screwdriver for the router seems to be on holidays …
- that a hot coffee from our new coffee car tastes even better than before :-)

All in all a nice day even with rain in the second half, but have a look by yourself:

FabFac supports Bucky Lab

Every now and then we have a job that needs more precision or is so labour intensive that it could not be done within the building weeks. We already wrote about the help from quintall who will machine parts on their cnc lathe for us. Rodrigo and Ahmed also had a concept that was doable in a small sample by hand but now they needed 4000 3 mm holes in a perfect grid for their glassfibre prototype.

Pieter Stoutjesdijk was so kind to machine the plate with his cnc router or mill as they are also called. Peter finished his master as best student of the faculty with a digital manufactured house for haiti and is now running his own businness with the development of a house system fully digital produced and based on friction fit connections. Within Econnect he is developing new concepts for the building sector. Next to that he also offers CNC cutting services with his FabFac.

We are very happy of the service and would like to thank him! And the look of the two students next to Pieters impressive machine shows their pride and joy also.

 

 

how fast it was done ? Pieter was so kind to make a video.

 

 

Building Weeks Day 5 - Bssssssssss

Day 5 - end of the week, time is flying. We already spent 5 full days in the workshop. The projects are already in their finishing stages, so the overpowering sound in the the tent was a humming from our sanders.

Breur stopped by and delivered a long awaited set with additional sanders, and it took not so long till the students got their hands on the tools and started to sand their prototypes to a smooth finish.

Coen and Marcel were able to finish the coffee car, and we are able to use it on monday. With a few stickers, everything looks much better and the car already looks like belonging to the workshop.

And after all, Anne brought a yummy snack, Hot Dogs for the whole gang, thanks a lot !

As already mentioned before, a normal day starts with a coffee in breurs shop in Den Haag / Ypenburg, so this morning we got some wheels for the coffee car.

For all of you a fine weekend you all earned it !

2nd prize Velux International Design award

We just got the news from Iris and Anneloes that they got the second price during the award ceremony for their swipe concept build during the last Romazo cooperation semester.

Here a link to the website, more infos to come.
link to the press release.

Building weeks Day 4 - visitors

sunshine sparkled with a few drops - again almost perfect weather conditions. To be honest its like camping with tools and we have as much fun as the students we hope.

We are often asked from other universities, companies or association to visit the bucky lab, and the answer of the question what they want to see is always the same : the lab ! Hmm... honestly if you mean the workshop its only out in the wild for 2 weeks within the semester, the rest of the year its only a studio in the attic with a group of highly enthusiastic students who mess around with crazy prototypes and a messy fully loaded storage room in the basement - called the bucky cave. So if you wanna see the bucky lab in its full glory you have to have a coffee in the tent during the building weeks.

Today was just a day like that, two docents from the University of Applied Science Frankfurt Main took the 5 hour trip to visit the the mobile workshop and had a chat with Dr. Bucky Lab. They are running the workshop in their faculty and started also with a course to build mock ups. We are more than happy seeing universities worldwide to start making full size prototypes, even other courses within our faculty are starting to do the same. So the concept of the bucky lab is a real success story.

Frank our contact from breur took a coffee in the tent and was wondering about the fast progress of the students work and left the tent with leaving a bag of goodies for the students and Frans from festool made a short stop in the workshop and brought some old systainers to keep things organised - its all about these generous support from the companies that make the bucky lab running. We are more than thankful to have their names on our boxes. They are the best !

Prof. Thijs Asselbergs stopped by and discussed a few new topics for the next semesters, maybe a few great new projects for the future…

While Dr. Bucky Lab is chatting with visitors from all over the world, Kees and Coen are busy all day long to keep his back free and the students the support they need. Thanks a lot to these two fellows !

Ah, talking about coffee, the coffee car is nearly finished and to be honest we think we need no wheels at all, we already found the perfect solution, but have a look …if anyone out there is willing to give us a machine like that, we would baptise it after him ! Who else would have a 10hp powered coffee machine furniture …

And when we cleaned the tent and zipped it tight we got a call from Martin Straver, head of Romazo
with which we collaborated the last 3 semesters, he handed the phone over to Iris calling from Eindhoven and she was barely able to talk - announcing that they just got the 2nd price of the Velux International Design award with their last semesters sunshade concept. The day can't end better !

We will report later about the award, for right now we would like to congratulate Iris and Anneloes for their victory.

Building weeks Day 3 - 5 drops of rain

We are already so far ahead with the projects that it was time to talk about sanding and finishing touches. Our Dr. Bucky Lab grabbed the sanders and talked about the different machines we have in the boxes to make the prototypes clean and crisp. Still blessed with the weather we were able to work also outside the tent.

While the most rain already hit Delft last night, today we only got 5 drops, we put everything in the tent, but at the end it was just a false alarm - better safe than sorry …

The prototypes really come to life right now, and the students are busy all day long. Its also the time to reconsider the design and adjust here and there some details that did not worked out the way expected.

While we had to disappoint Simon and Mark that Nylon wasn't that easy to machine on the lathe we had also good news for the two, who tried several production methods to make small parts to guide their wires. Quintall a metal working company in the region was so kind to machine the needed parts on their new CNC lathe. We will report later, and are already very happy. Rapid prototyping and 3D printing is not always the answer.

Coen, Kees and Marcel are constantly busy with the guidance of the students but today they had the chance to start their own project, a coffee car, a place to cool down beverages and a place to put the coffee machine. Working fast as hell, they also made more mistakes then the students..who seems to listen better to the two than the "experts" himself …good that the two knows the tricks of the trade to save the project at the end …and nobody can tell that they messed it up.

Lets see how the coffee car will turn out the next days…the atmosphere is great and we have the time of our life again - bucky lab rocks !