January 24-25 - Build_a_thon with HacDC

It's Official!!
[hacdc.org]

Zack "Hoken" Smith RepRap Guru, Fanboy and founder of the RepRap Research Foundation will be at HacDC, an open hacker space in North DC on January 24-25 for a RepRap Build-a-thon! The plan is to assemble an entire Darwin RepRap Acrylic kit over the course of a weekend in association with presentations on various topics of interest. This is a huge opportunity for the Baltimore Hacker/techy community and for BWRUG in particular, so mark your calendars now! HacDC has a great space about 30 minutes drive from Baltimore and while details are still being worked out this looks to be 2 days of heavy fun with some really cool folks. Speaking of details to be worked out, we need volunteers to help with logistics as well as general public outreach, so write me with ideas and offers of time and we will try to come up with a great set of offerings to team up with Hac DC to make this a HUGE event. The goal is to get lots of participation from the Balto/DC tech community as well as coverage from the regular press. At the very least this will be a fantastic chance to hang out and do RepRap stuff with a bunch of cool people so RSVP ASAP and we will get started on the arrangements. Watch this space for further details as they become available.

The schedule for the Build-a-thon looks pretty solid now so here goes:

Fri 23rd: 7-8 pm Volunteers meet and greet organizational gathering, perhaps some lite setup
8pm-? adjourn to nearby pub for socialization activities with liquid refreshments.

Sat 24th 8-10 am Set up of facilities and RepRaps and more socialization activities with caffeine based liquid refreshments.
10am-noon intro talks about reprap and plans for the build by various distinguished persons.
noon-6 pm build of Rep-rap. Plans are for 3 simultaneous tracks, electronics(probably need the most hands), Cartesian bot, and extruder. Plans also include breakout sessions on how to solder, how to program/flash arduino, basic 3D modeling, and (I believe we still need an instructor for) stepper motors 101. There will also doubtless be some BOF (birds ofa feather, impromptu peer interest groups) gatherings as well.
6 pm- ? cleanup and lock down facility followed by adjourn to local pub for ....

Sun 25th 9 am - noon continue building as above sans breakout activities.
1-2 pm Video talk by reprap godfather Adrian Bowyer.
2-5 pm play with our new toy.

So there's the plan. We would obviously like to have a lot of folks there, We would like to have a lot of folks volunteer to help even if only for a few minutes to set up chairs or explain stepper motors or sit and monitor the snackbar. There will lots of soldering stations to be utilized as well. This is your chance to not only see an actual (OK 2 actual) Darwin(s) in action but to get hands-on with the build process. We are trying to get media interest in this as well as the general public, but that means we need knowledgeable folks like you all the more!

This is reposted from one of our members, message me and I will help you get hooked up if you want to ride share.
Also, is anybody interested in ride share from Balto? I live in Catonsville and am very convenient to the Beltway, bus lines and Marc train. I'm also driving a stationwagon down all 3 days.

Reposted:

How is everyone getting to this event?

I was going to drive down but was also thinking about taking the
Amtrack from Aberdeen to Union Station and then catching the Metro to
Columbia Height Station and walking 8 to 10 minutes to the location.

Is there anyone else up this way that would like to catch the train
with me or that would like to car pool? I'm in Riverside, MD which is
just north of Edgewood and South of Aberdeen.

It's final. I am driving down with my Brother In-Law who is a high school student involved in afterschool robitcs and I am also bringing my best friend who is slightly interested in this stuff.