[MUSIC] Hi. We're here at Sector 67 in Madison,
Wisconsin. We're here to talk with Chris Meyer,
the founder of Sector 67, and the guy who got me started
on my 3D printing journey. Let's go see if we can find Chris. [MUSIC] Is Chris here? >> Hey Eric.
>> Chris. >> Great to see you. >> Yeah, good to see you too. >> It's been a long time. Thanks for
taking the time to meet with us. >> No, thanks for coming on,
great to see you. >> Can you show us around? >> Yeah, absolutely. So this is Sector 67, we've made
no effort in making it look fancy. Basically, at any time of any day there's
a lot of different people in here, working on all kinds
of different projects. Here we can check out all the shops, and
you get a chance to see what's here. >> That's a great sign. >> Yeah, our sign actually is sort of
representative of all the different workspaces. So, S is made in the machine shop. The E is all knit on a computer
controlled knitting machine. The 6 giant circuit board sota
kind of like our electronic shop. The seven is made on the laser cutter,
the laser engraver. And the O is actually all 3D printed. And the R is made in the wood shop. So these sort of show the different
workshops that we've got. And that's kind of what I'll
show you this afternoon. So there's a welding shop in here. And we've got a bunch of cutters,
and grinders, and sand blasters and welders and welders. And the different stock folks use for different products as they're
building metal things. So we need all these tools just to be
able to build anything out of metal. That's one of the challenges
with traditional manufacturing, is you need a lot of equipment to be
able to build things and make stuff. >> And what kind of training
do you need to have to be able to operate this machinery? >> That's one of the challenges
with regular manufacturing, is you gotta come in. And rather than just sitting down and
getting started making things we gotta come in and go through how to keep
your eyes safe, keep your hands and fingers safe, keep yourself shielded from
all the ultra-violet light, the smoke, the fumes, the particulate. All kinds of things
coming off the equipment. And then after that we can start in
on how to actually use the tools and head back out this way. >> All right.
>> kind of make a big loop around >> Probably one of the most important things in this shop here is the failure
horn and the good job bell. Both to celebrate both things. So you know if you do a good job
you gotta give it a ring and if you don't do such a good
job you get the fail horn. >> And which one is used more often? >> Usually the good job bell but the
failure horn gets rung once in a while. Okay.
>> So this is a laser cutter and a laser engraver. This machine is able to
make really cool stuff. >> So what does a laser cutter do? It takes a piece of material? >> Yeah, so
you've got to start off with, yeah. And this again is another disadvantage
of subtractive technology, is this actually came
out of this piece here. >> So
this is a piece of wood that was cut. Using a laser in that machine? >> Yeah, exactly. So this is a beam of light that comes
through, is focused on a very small spot and is able to cut out, in this case,
particle board or wood. The advantage here is,
this is really fast. So you can put a sheet of material in
here and in a matter of minutes or seconds have your pieces versus
printing which is a little bit slower. You're going to take many hours to
print something that's this size. So that's one of the advantages
of this machine. >> So this is faster than a 3D printer? >> Exactly. >> What's the disadvantage
compared to a 3D printer? >> Assembly. So once this comes out of the machine,
if you want a 3D object, you've gotta go through and
put it all together. So this thing is an injection molder and
the plastic comes in, right into this hopper. >> Do you put the plastic inside here? >> Yep.
And then this piston pushes it down out this opening. And it goes right into this. You can see this is a mold plate here for
our Sector 67 poker chip. You end up with these pellets
getting pushed into a mold chamber, taking the shape of the mold but
in a very quick fashion, curing, and then being pushed out of the mold. So every 17 seconds,
this small machine can make a poker chip. Unlike 3D printing where this would
take about 20 to 25 minutes to print the part this size. So the advantage to injection molding,
it's very fast. A disadvantage is it's the same part,
over and over. >> And
this is how most plastic things are made. >> Yeah, 99% of plastic objects
you've ever interacted with, they're probably made
in an injection molder. >> So there's a wood shop back here, and these guys are actually working on
making some dust stands for monitors. This is probably America's number one
past time, is woodworking and carpentry. >> So this would be another example
of subtractive manufacturing? >> Yep, so
this is all subtractive manufacturing, so we've got to have a lot of stock laying
around, and have a lot of different tools to remove material from that
to get our final form of our part. The advantage here though is that
we can quickly make large parts, because we can start from a big piece and
we can remove pieces from it, and end up with a big piece quickly. >> Also, this looks quite dangerous. >> Yeah.
[LAUGH] Woodworking is certainly hazardous. You'll meet more than a few carpenters
who've had some issues with cutting tools before. So back here, we've got our 3D printing
lab, though we've got a whole pile of printers on the wall here,
starting up from the very top. That's a Reprap,
it's a 3D printable 3D printer. These are cupcake model printers which
are the first generation maker bots all the way down to the third
generation maker bot. And then a variety of other machines that
are available like the Slollsbot printer and a bunch of other clones of essentially
this generation of open source technology. So the rest of the room,
we've got a number of sewing machines and embroidering machines. Back here there's an electronics lab. So we've got a bunch of
electronics work benches and a computer lab kind of down
the center of the room. We use this space for
education, for teaching. So we teach classes back here. We got a projector setup and a screen. And then we've got a number of work
stations so folks can learn 3D modeling, 3D design, anything like that. And kind of directly behind
us is a machine shop. So this is sort of where a lot
of manufacturing came from. Originally, I've made
a rough casting of a part. And then you come back here, you use one
of these machines to finish work and make it smooth, clean it all up,
get it together. >> I think that's probably one of the
revolutionary aspects of 3D printing is, a machine like this,
due to the size and the cost, it wouldn't be accessible
to the average person. >> Yeah, exactly. And that's where a workshop like this,
you got a hacker space her with a lot of the tools that
are in-feasible to own in your own home. But the catch is you don't need them
that often, and often you can get away with using plastic or wooden parts
as opposed to making metal parts. And then in the very back here there is
an office space or a business incubator. So this is where businesses come in. They're able to rent a desk and they're able to work here to
get their idea up and running. And so we've got a number of office users back here where they've
got their own workspace. So essentially, we kind of made
a big roof around Sector 67. We got a chance to see all
the different workshops that are here, all the different
workspaces that are here. And talk a little bit about where 3D
printing came from from my perspective and sort of where it's headed. So it's great to see you. >> Thank you for your time. >> Absolutely.
Thanks very much for coming out. >> Come on down the lab any time you like. >> Absolutely.
Thank you. >> Great thank you. [MUSIC]