Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Maker Faire Recap

The Maker Faire was amazing. All sorts of cool stuff from reps from big companies to small local shops selling their wares. Of course, I spent most of my time in the digital fabrication area. As you can imagine there were a great deal of 3D printers at the faire; most of them were MakerBot's cupcake CNC, including a few of the new version that just came out. At first blush, it doesn't seem that different, but I was told that it now supports microstepping, has a slightly larger print area, and of course comes with all the upgrades to the old cupcake. Honestly, I didn't see anything that really impressed me, but then again, I'm a miller, not a printer. I was more impressed by the RepRap Mendel, which has printing area of approximately 8x8x8, as opposed to the cupcake 4x4x6. Also, one guy told me it only cost him about $500 plus about 2.5 lbs. of printed parts, and was surprisingly easy to assemble (easier than a cupcake, he claimed). The Fab@Home guys showed off their versatility by printing in everything from silicon to cheesewiz using a variety of extruders, some of which were driven by air pressure. Neat idea.

I have to admit, after seeing so many printers, I caught the bug a bit and was tempted to get one myself. This lasted until Sunday, when I went to a talk given by a man from Shopbot Tools. His talk was largely about additive (3D printing) vs. subtractive (CNC milling) digital fabrication. Put simply, while there are some forms that can be 3D printed as one piece that can't be milled (hollow forms for example), milling is faster, cheaper, works on more practical materials, and can make parts much larger than even the most expensive printers.

Naturally I spent a lot of time talking to the guys from Shopbot Tools. They had three machines there: a 4x8 that was milling pieces for a construction set out of a full sheet of 3/4" ply, a 2x2 doing full 3D work to mill a pirate sign out of high-density foam, and smaller machine I didn't see running. I learned a lot by picking their brains, from the advantages of different types of cutters to pass depth increments to prices for electronic setups. It's too much to write out here, but I might make it a separate post later.

I spent some time checking out Alibre, an affordable CAD suite. Turns out it's designed to work much like Solidworks which I have come to know and love, but at around five grand I have dreaded buying. Alibre, on the other hand, is a lovely $99 for the basic version, and even if I bought the expert edition with the CAM suite add-on, it would still be cheaper.

I also went to a short talk given by the two owners of Because We Can on how to go pro as a Maker. Turns out what they're doing is similar in many ways to my own business idea in that their main tool is a large showboat CNC mill. I got a lot of good tips from them, which again I'll probably post about later.

Finally, there were all the other makers there. Most were doing jewelry, print work, or small soft goods; stuff that can easily be made by a couple people without any really expensive machinery or tools. One guy was selling messenger bags made out of bicycle tire tubes and scrap canvas from a sailboat factory. His company is called Vaya, and all their bags are hand-made by his wife. Cool stuff.

One last thing: While I was there I ran into an old acquaintance from Boston. Turns out he's also one of the directors for Artisan's Asylum, and can help me rent some space. Things are looking good.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

The adventure has begun!

My apologies for the lack of recent posts, but the last couple weeks have been hectic. First I went to Burning Man, then I had a week to get ready to move to Boston for a month and a half. Now that I'm here and somewhat settled in, I finally I have time to catch my breath and give that promised debriefing.
Burning Man was, unsurprisingly, amazing. The art cars, mutant bicycles, sculptures, and art installations were all incredible and wonderful grist for the creative mill (I'm already working on a transforming mutant bicycle design). However, probably the most useful thing I learned there was this: if I ever have some crazy idea for a project that needs lots of space and willing guinea pigs who won't try to sue my ass off, I now know where to go.
Of course, I also met a bunch of awesome people with sexy brains ripe for the picking. I got a lot of positive feedback on my CNC shop idea, and some interest in my bicycle tire armor that I brought; if I get an etsy shop set up I might be able to actually make some money this quarter!
Thankfully, my primary venture of getting access to a shop to work on my CNC projects is also looking very promising. Last night I hung out at the Artisan's Asylum and met a bunch of cool people, several of which are very interested in CNC tech. Now, while they won't be ready to have open shop hours for a few months at least, it looks like if I rent some space (only $1 per square foot!) and pay a monthly fee I could have access to the shop now. My current plan is to rent enough space for a 4x8 machine, build it, and then take it back to Cincinnati with me when I leave using a U-haul and the handy trailer hitch on my Toyota.
Tomorrow I leave for New York to meet with family before the maker faire on Saturday and Sunday. After that I'll spend a few days with my friend Lea down in DC looking at hackerspaces and museums before catching the bus back to Boston and start working on my projects in earnest.