The BITZ unibz fablab is a Community Workshop for hobbyist, researchers and students in Bozen

Hot press

Hot press

Its a transfer press, model „Transmatic TMH 28“ mainly used at the fablab to apply vinyl foils on textiles. The plate size is 380 x 380 mm and you can use it also for other drying or ironing materials. The exact temperature can be set on the display between 60 °C to maximum 255 °C.

Always ask the fablab team before using the machine and we will give you all necessary information about working safety.

 

Material 

Thermoreactive vinyl foils, various materials

Costs

2,00 € per machine use

Styrocutter

Styrocutter

Hot wire cutting machines are tools that cut various foams like polystyrene or styrofoam with a heated wire. The wire is stretched vertically between the work plate and the boom and you can set the temperature according to the thickness and hardness of the foam block. The foam block is cut by slowly guiding it along the fence angle against the wire or moving the block free hand. A foot pedal turns the heat in the wire on and off. Please be careful to do not touch the wire while cutting to prevent burning your fingers. 
Hot wire cutting machines are traditionally used to create architectural models out of polystyrene, furthermore it`s an easy and fast method to create prototypes of objects in the very first steps of product prototyping to define size and shape. Other applications are to cast miniature worlds like dioramas or to cast shapes for fiberglass or carbon fibre coating processes. 
There are a lot of do-it-yourself tricks to create stencils (so called shape shifter) to cut complex, rounded or angled shapes, for more information about that search for „shape shifter wire foam cutter“ in your browser.   

 

Material 

styrofoam, polystyrene

Costs

For free

Embroidery machine

Embroidery machine

Embroidery machine „Brother VR“ with one needle and manual thread/colour change. The maximum embroidery area is 200 x 200mm. On the touchscreen display of the machine, you can write small words or select embroidery designs from a library. If you want to stitch custom designs, you need to create the embroidery path in the „PFAFF PREMIER+™2 Ultra“ embroidery software available at the fablab. As template we usually prepare a .EPS vector file, but for some designs also pixel files like .JPG or .PNG work great. 

There are a lot of accessories like different frame sizes, a special frame for baseball caps or a quilting frame and table available.  

Once a month takes place a machine course to learn how to operate the machine and the embroidery software.

 

Start

You need a vector or pixel file (.EPS .JPG .PNG) or select a template for fonts and graphics from the library.

Software

Please attend a embroidery machine course, the software is really complicated.

Material 

textiles, fabrics, t-shirt, sweater, caps

Costs

2,00 € for a large frame
1,00 € for a small frame

Sewing machine with table

Sewing machine with table

Industrial sewing machine model „Simac SI 9850-MI“ with table for sewing hard textiles like cotton, hard garments, thin leather. The sewing speed can be set, for beginners it`s recommended to start with the slowest speed setting. This sewing machine has only one program „straight stitch“ but you can set the distance between the stitches. 

Always ask the fablab team before using the machine and we will give you all necessary information about working safety.

 

 

Material 

Textiles, all kinds of fabrics, hard garments and thin leather

Costs

2,00 € per machine use

PFAFF Select 3.2 sewing machine

PFAFF Select 3.2 sewing machine

Domestic sewing machine „PFAFF Select 3.2“ for all kind of flexible, soft to middle hard textiles. There are a lot of programs and accessories available.

Always ask the fablab team before using the machine and we will give you all necessary information about working safety.

 

 

Material 

Textiles, all kinds of fabrics, not suitable for leather

Costs

2,00 € per machine use