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.

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.

The chair is done!

What a crazy life. First I stay up all night busting my ass to finish my chair before the crit at 7 am on Friday, and now I find myself sitting in the Salt Lake City airport waiting to be picked up by a bunch of crazy burners to take me to Burning Man. Rediculous. I'll be incommunicado for the next ten days or so, but I promise a full debreifing when I get back.

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IT'S ALIVE!!

My CNC is finally finished! I'll post some pics of it to the flickr album later. Of course, that means that I can now devote all my time to finishing my chair. Oh, and packing for Burning Man of course.

It's going to be a long, fast week.

One way or another...

I'm getting my CNC machine running tomorrow. The cable I thought would arrive Wednesday still isn't here, but according to the friendly mail guy said that a package from Peoria would take two to three days, so it should arrive tomorrow. In case it doesn't, my partner-in-crime Nate thinks we could rig something to take it's place pretty easily.

Soon, my precious, soon.

So.....Close......

OK, so over the weekend Nate and I finished getting (almost) everything we need and wiring up all the electronics for the CNC so we could start testing it. Sunday evening we plugged it all in, launched Mach3, and entered our first bit of G-code.

Nothing.

Checked and rechecked the wiring. Confirmed that the motors were receiving power. Tweaked the settings a bit. Still nothing.

The following morning I called Probotix, the guys who we bought the electronics from, and they helped me confirm that the fault did not lie with what we got from them; the computer simply wasn't talking to the breakout board. Feeling out of my depth (electronics and Windows computers are not my area of expertise), I decided to try the one thing I could think of that might help: reinstall the driver software. I call Nate and tell him what I learned from the Probotix guys (very helpful and patient, I would highly recommend them) while I waited for the computer to restart. While I had him on the phone, I tried testing the setup again.

Success! The motors MOVED!

Thinking I was close to finishing, I started installing the motors on the machine. Then I noticed that some of my tweaking from the other day meant that I'd have to do some rebuilding to make things line up again. Ok, very doable, I figured I'd still be done by the end of the day. Unfortunately, I forgot about the small 10-pin ribbon cable I needed to get until just after the two electronics supply places in the city were already closed. So now I have a CNC machine with all three motors mounted, but electronics that's only capable of running two of them at a time. Today I have DesCom, which means not much time for the machine, but damn it, I will make time get those wires and finish the thing TODAY!

Boy, you'll be a burner soon.

I was working on my CNC machine last night (snugged up a lot to reduce play, installed router) in the shop which happens to be part of the local burner community, and as often happens people were trying to talk me into going to Burning Man. Usually I can't because of school, and said so, until someone mentioned the actual dates of the festival.

It starts on the 31st. My final crit is on the 27th.

Holy shit, I could make burning man.

Next thing I know, I'm being handed a packing list while someone looks up on their phone how much a flight to meet the caravan in Salt Lake City would cost. Turns out if I fly out the evening after my final crit, I'd easily be able to meet the group en route, and then drive back with them after the burn. There's already space for my stuff in a trailer, and a spot waiting for me in a camp. All I have to do is say yes so they can find me a cheap ticket.

Bloody hell, I'm going to Burning Man.