Maker Faire – Page 2

DIYFaire.com: Hello Maker World!

There were dark rumors going into Maker Faire Bay Area 2019 which imparted a cloud over the event. On June 8, 2019 I was still reeling from the news Make and Maker Faire were closing, so I bought a domain and created a website (DIYFaire.com, now lapsed) with the idea that come January of 2020 perhaps I might find a way to get together again with far flung friends on the same weekend.

The website is gone, but Archive.org remembers and the WordPress installation may yet exist. Although I write this preamble on 7/12/2023, the day I will remember I’d heard Maker Faire was coming back, I’d like to preserve that post on 6/8/2019 here on my main blog:

Make: and Maker Faire may be gone. I hope they’re not. I hope Dale and the Make crew figure out a way to rise up. People made things, just for the sake of making them long before Make they’ll continue to do so. Knowing people will continue to make doesn’t really salve my sense of loss. I feel like we’ve lost too much, mourned too much, and it still feels so raw.

At the same time I’m not going to miss Makers, because I don’t have to. Makers are not going anywhere. I am going to miss the opportunity to meet up with Makers and far flung friends at least once a year at Maker Faire.

Fortunately, the end of Make and Maker Faire are not the end of the friendships sparked and forged there.

Here’s my promise to you, right now. On the weekend of May 16-17, 2020 I’m going to travel out to San Mateo. I’m going to stay out there for the weekend. And, I’m going to bring some stuff I’ve made or been working on.

I don’t have any idea what “DIYFaire.com” is going to be. If nothing else, it’s a place holder.

It’s a “save the date.”

If I don’t see you sooner, dear friend, let’s start making something together right now. Let’s make a plan to hang out, share things, and continue our friendship. You’ll forgive me for ending with someone else’s words.

“And if you’ve come this far, maybe you’re willing to come a little further. You remember the name of the town, don’t you?”

Maker Faire Application: Vacuum Forming Workshop

I’ve been making some notes as I work on my vacuum former and the proposed workshop for this year’s Bay Area Maker Faire. Here’s some ideas and thoughts, in no particular order.¹²

Workshop Proposal
- I’ve demonstrated my bucket vacuum former at my daughter’s school a few times – and it is always a huge hit. The vacuum formed result looks like so much more than the product of very cheap and accessible materials. Two years ago I put on a presentation at Maker Faire about how to build a vacuum former – and this year I want to try something even more ambitious. Here’s the slideshow from 2017.

- I want to do an entire workshop on how to build and operate a vacuum former – and then let people try to vacuum form their own objects. One of my favorite things to vacuum form is an “Arc Reactor” and then augment it with an RGB flashing LED and a coin cell battery. However, I think people would also enjoy making goggles and phone cases. It takes about 30 seconds to heat up the plastic and just seconds to actually vacuum form a shape and let it cool down.

Things I’ve Vacuum Formed
- Arc Reactor (plus RGB fast flashing LED and CR2032 battery)
- Steampunk goggles (plus elastic)
- Phone case (this actually works!)
- Candy / chocolate molds (one of the kids made a chocolate fidget spinner)
- Here are some more ideas

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New Developments
- Several months ago, just before Thanksgiving, our stovetop stopped working. Yeah. I know. Talk about timing, right? While we scrambled to get a new cooktop ordered, delivered, and installed, we also purchased an inexpensive hot plate from Amazon. I had originally used an old hand-me-down large toaster oven to heat up the plastic, but wondered … is there a better way? That toaster oven is huge and takes a long time to heat up. This weekend I was delighted to learn the hot plate heats up very quickly, gets hot enough to soften the plastic, and works as a fantastic and compact replacement for the toaster oven.
  - There are a few caveats to using the hot plate.
    - The heat was more localized, causing the center of the plastic to become thinner and saggier. When the plastic plates were heated in the toaster oven, they tended to heat more evenly. Perhaps if I tried a lower heat setting or held the plastic plate higher, this might be mitigated.
    - It’s hard to get a sense of the plastic without actually watching it get soft and wobbly. This is especially true when the plate is inside the toaster oven – there’s only room enough for one or two people to see what’s going on. However, with the hot plate, there’s no enclosure³ to obscure an audience view.
    - I was somewhat paranoid about letting the plastic droop down onto the heating element. I’m pretty sure it would smelled horrible, made a huge mess, been nearly impossible to clean, and made the hot plate unsuitable for any other purposes. I may try to locate a cheap hot plate from a second hand / thrift store / goodwill to take to Maker Faire. Though, now I’m also wondering if it might be possible to repurpose an old coffee maker, grill, griddle, or panini press, into the heater for this project. Maybe if I covered the heating element in aluminum foil first, that would protect the surface?
  - The power switch of the vacuum head / bucket head is conveniently placed right on top for normal operation. For unusual operations such as this, where the vacuum is upside down, it is decidedly inconvenient. I used a power strip with a switch which made it much easier to operate the vacuum. I think I may invest in a dedicated foot switch extension cord for this project. It’s a very cheap upgrade that would make it a lot easier to do.
- I also have a prior post discussing some additional ideas on how to improve this process.

Accessories / Things to Bring to Maker Faire. There are SO many little parts to a project – forget any one little thing and you’re going to be making a last minute trip to the hardware store.⁴ Here’s a few lists of things I will need:
- Parts
  - Bucket
  - Vacuum head
  - Hot plate
  - Power strip or foot switch extension cord
  - One or two wire coat hangers
  - 6x Small to medium binder clips
  - Wooden dowel (1x 6″ riser, 3x 8″ legs)
  - 3D printed parts (1x plug, 2x riser caps, 3x leg holders, 3x feet)
  - Hot glue
- Building Tools
  - Drill (for drilling holes)
  - Ruler and / or paper grid
  - Chisels
  - Hacksaw (cutting the wooden dowels)
  - Hot glue gun
  - Sharpie
- Presentation Tools
  - Heat gun
  - Scissors (cutting plastic plates)
  - Old socks (DIY oven mitts)
- Materials
  - Examples of plastic plates in various stages of the process
  - Examples of items made, also in various stages of production
- Consumables
  - Plastic plates
  - Tape (clear packing tape works well)
  - Fishing line
  - Elastic cord
  - Pens (metallic permanent markers)
  - LED’s
  - Batteries
  - Maybe stickers to give away?

Bucket Vacuum Former

As always, as much to inform you, dear reader, as to order my own thinking and jot things down before I forget them [↩]
DOCUMENT!!! [↩]
And, now that I think of it, it may be the enclosure which causes more even heating… [↩]
Not that this is a bad thing. But, I’d rather have to go because I want to do go [↩]

Rocklin Mini Maker Faire 2018

15 Second Drawings

My daughter, TinkerGirl, and I are going to be demonstrating our 15 second drawings at the Rocklin Mini Maker Faire this Saturday. We’re pretty stoked about this since it will be our first time as Makers at this Mini Maker Faire. We’ll be the ones wandering around with a DIY dry erase board.

If you’re wondering what the heck “15 second drawings” even means… it’s just what it sounds like. Both of us will each draw whatever you want in 15 seconds. Whatever you want, no matter how complicated or absurd, drawing before your eyes in just 15 seconds.

Or, we can teach you how to draw anything in 15 seconds. Or compete against us or perhaps challenge a friend (or enemy?!) to a 15 second drawing.

You want to learn more?!

Maker Faire 2018 – 3D Printing for Home Improvement

If you’re here checking out my site after my presentation, you can check out all the slides from my presentation above. If you’d like more information about the individual things in the slides, I posted an update for most of them over on Hackaday. If you’ve still got some questions, feel free to leave a comment below, hit me up on twitter, email me directly.

Bamboo Illuminated Dome

I’ve always liked the idea of geodesic domes, but haven’t had the space, time, or ability to actually assemble one. On top of all that, I was having trouble coming up with an idea for struts that would be both sturdy and cheap enough to build a dome at a reasonable cost.

Until I went to the grocery store recently. The local supermarket had a clearance table with long bamboo skewers. I realized these could probably work really well as struts and they were extremely cheap to boot. I bought a few a the store to try out, but ultimately turned to Amazon for my bulk bamboo purchase.

I’ve already designed the connectors to work with these bamboo skewers. You can try them out here on Thingiverse.

Once I’ve got the skewers cut to size and the remaining connectors printed, I’ll be wrapping the entire structure in that stretchy plastic wrap used for protecting furniture when you are moving. ¹ Then I’ll be putting some LED’s and possibly a laser inside to make it more interesting. :)

Lasers.

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We have two rolls left over from the last two times we moved… [↩]

Practical 3D Printing for Everyone

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3D printing can sometimes get a bad rap. At first people are excited by the possibilities, then after printing a few trinkets the novelty can really start to wear off. However, our 3D printers have become an absolutely critical part of our home repairs.

We have printed literally dozens and dozens of things in and around our home. As of the time I’m editing this post, we’re up to 82 things so far! The vast majority of these are completely bespoke custom creations, with a few things that are printed from Thingiverse or mashups with things from Thingiverse.

My proposed Maker Faire Bay Area 2018 Presentation submission is for a presentation that discusses:

Practical things everyone can 3D print for their own home
1. Repairs
2. Improvements
3. Other useful things
3D Printing with Family and Friends
1. Specifying a purpose (“Honey, can you make me something that…”)
2. Specifying dimensions and purpose (“I need something that will…”)
3. Simple techniques for creating replacement parts (using good reference photos, GIMP, Inkscape, and OpenSCAD)
3D Design with Family and Friends
1. Photographs
2. Sketches
3. TinkerCAD and Sketchup

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Hacked Tap Light Enclosure

Just seeing a post and pile of code about a project isn’t always that interesting. The nifty thing about this project is also one of the problems. They’re cosmetically identical – so you can only tell which one you’ve got by activating it. :)

I couldn’t be more pleased with the way this project came out. I basically took my daughter’s setup based off an Adafruit Circuit Playground, built a more specialized (and louder!) version into a breadboard using an Adafruit Trinket, and then ported the entire design into an ATTiny85. The only thing I would change about it would be to add a socket for the ATTiny to make it easier to modify down the line.

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Cheapest Easiest Easy Button Hack EVER

But... could it be even EASIER?! — But… could it be even EASIER?!

I’ve always liked the idea of the Staples Easy Button. Not so much a button that says “That was easy,” but the idea of having an enormous button on my desktop that would do… anything at all. Official “Staples Easy Buttons” used to sell for about $20 and are now only about $7. But, this is still a lot to pay for a big button that I’d want to gut anyhow. Recently I figured out a way to build a big useful button, very inexpensively.

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The secret sauce is … a tap light! You can buy a pack of 4 big (10cm diameter) tap lights for under $4 and they’ll ship free as a “Prime add-on.” For less than $1 each, you get a three AA battery holder, toggle on/off switch, a bright LED, all neatly organized into a big plastic button. This button also has another “feature” which is missing from many other pricier options. The dome over the light is white – which means you can put any color LED or, as I did, an Adafruit Neopixel inside and the dome will change color accordingly!

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Here are some pictures of the disassembled tap light so you can see if it would work for you. I had originally bought these so that I could put a light right next to my newest 3D printer.¹²³

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There’s actually quite a bit of room inside the tap light for a small project. I was able to pack a Neopixel, a small buzzer, an ATTiny85, and a rat’s nest of wires. I expect this project to take a lot of abuse at Maker Faire, so I applied a liberal amount of hot glue inside to hold the wires down and out of the path of the springs, switch, case, and the likely path of the button dome.

Once reassembled, there really isn’t any way to tell the button was hacked. It looks identical to three other tap lights. I just love that I was able to make use of the battery holder and existing switch inside the project. The 4.5V supplied by the batteries is perfect for powering my ATTiny85 and lone Neopixel. If you’ve got a junk drawer, you could probably build something very similar for about $2-3.⁴ As it is, I “splurged” by using $1 worth of Neopixel because I was being lazy and didn’t want to either wire up three sets of LED’s or track down three resistors to go with an RGB LED. Even so, this is an incredibly cost-effective project enclosure.

In case it’s of interest to you, this project is the newest iteration of our 15 Second Timer-Buzzer from my daughter’s 15 Second Drawings project for Maker Faire Bay Area 2017. The prior version used an Adafruit Circuit Playground, a 100mm Red Button, and a LiPo battery and probably cost around $40 or so. ⁵

All of the code is on Github. Basically, the buzzer flashes amber three times with a very short tone in between flashes, then turns green for 14 seconds, amber for one more second, and then turns red and buzzes angrily to let you know time is up. I had written most of the code to work on an ATTiny45… until the code ballooned to a whopping 4560 bytes and I had to switch to an ATTiny85.⁶ If I had to build this over again, I’d solder in an 8-pin DIP socket for the ATTiny rather than mutilating the chip and hot gluing it directly to the inside. ;)

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I have a power strip next to it, but it’s fully utilized, I only need a little bit of light sometimes, and I was getting tired of holding a flashlight on it at night [↩]
In my tradition of naming my 3D printers after characters from Futurama, my Monoprice Mini Delta is named “Roberto.” [↩]
My prior 3D printers are Bender the MakerBot Cupcake CNC, Flexo the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic, and HedonismBot the Replicator 1 Dual [↩]
I figure about $1 for an ATTiny85 and $1 for the button. Most people can find a way to scrounge an RGB LED or a few different LED’s, an old buzzer or piezoelectric disc, and some bits of wire [↩]
Not counting the gelato we ate, of course [↩]
What a waste!!! [↩]

Maker Faire 2018: The Wandering Artists – 15 Second Drawings

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My daughter and I are super excited about our Maker Faire project this year. Last year she brought her “15 Second Drawing Challenge” project to Benicia Mini Maker Faire and Maker Faire Bay Area.

Her project was so much fun that when she invited me to team up and take the show on the road, I jumped at the chance. This year we’re bringing a new and improved timer/buzzer hacked together from a cheap tap-light and a pop-up table/booth.

We’re taking photos of the build process and will post them along with tutorials, parts lists, and source code for everything. Here’s everything you need to know to build a cheap timer-buzzer out of a tap light.

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Maker Faire 2017 How to Make a Vacuum Former Presentation Slides

In case you missed me at Maker Faire Bay Area 2017 this year, here are my slides! Don’t forget to check out all the blog posts with even more detail and pictures. You can find all the links, including to the 3D printable files, below.

Bucket Vacuum Former