Putting it All Together

For the final week in the Fab-Lab, we were tasked with figuring out soldering which wasn’t that difficult and a lot of fun. We utilized a tool that basically would melt the solder and that melted piece of metal would lock in the joint that we were melting it onto.

From there we created an intricate group of LEDs that would serve as the LED structure for the main part of our final box product that we were putting inside our wooden box.  The soldering instruction was fantastic as they told us exactly how to use it and more importantly how to use it safely. The only real difficulty with soldering was making sure that when you soldered it looked clean. Which, unfortunately, I was not very good at doing at all.

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Pictured above is the soldering device that we used during the demo. The main component is the device that looks like a pen. That device’s tip would heat up and allow us to melt pieces of metal called solder onto different objects that would link it all up together. The nob on the device controlled heat but we didn’t touch that at all. Then most importantly you should always clean the solder pen off on the sponge after using it so no leftover pieces stick onto the solder pen itself.

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Pictured above is the final product that we worked up too. Unfortunately, I was unable to finish my own box but I was able to get all the LEDs inside the box! The reason for me not being able to finish the whole box was because I couldn’t get the puzzle pieces to match correctly. only when I had hot glued most of the sides together did I realize that I actually glued them in the wrong order, unfortunately. This honestly kind of sad when I ended up with it but I think I might return to try and redo the whole box now that I know how to make one myself!

Overall, the Fab Lab experience was incredible. I learned a lot about making things and gained a lot of confidence for the future whenever I need to make something that involves not only hardware but also the software as well. I’m looking forward to being involved with Fab Labs in the future for sure.

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