Category Archives: Making

Prepping for Maker Faire 2015

Posted on by

Maker Faire Bay Area is just a week away! I am so excited, and sooo busy.

 

Last year for Maker Faire, I showed my first Hexachord, a 3-foot-tall six-chambered rotary instrument. This year, I’ll be showing both the original and a new version. It’s a single-chambered design with six necks radiating from the center, and played by six servos hooked up to an Arduino Uno. Have a look at all of the in-progress pictures here and stop by the CRASHspace booth in the Expo Hall to see the completed instrument!

 

Hexachord interior assembled

Hexachord top  New Hexachord Necks

 

I will also be running workshops at the FlipBooKit booth in the Maker Shed, so come on by. There will be a sneak peek of my new ‘How to Make a Custom Animation’ video playing in the shed along with the original assembly one. Here’s the finished animation from my demo!

 

 

See you there!

Spring Break Tinkering School, Part 2

Posted on by


rDC Spring Tinkering Camp

Spring Break Tinkering School at reDiscover Center finished about a month ago now, and was great fun, and finally I have the chance to show you more pictures and video from the week! Check out my Flickr album here. The kids got a basic understanding of many of the things that go into creating a movie while building and playing with their creations. Thursday morning, we finished up our sets, props, and costumes, and in the afternoon we had some rehearsals, followed by quick filming. As it turned out, our main character was one of the script writers, and he had his lines memorized pretty much from the get go.

 

There were a few places where the counselors needed to supervise more closely than we might have ordinarily, given more time, so that we could get a video that effectively captured their creations. Several campers took turns operating the camera dolly with a counselor always on hand to keep an eye on the camera angle and record button, and one in particular took a keen interest in the audio recording, spending a lot of Thursday roaming camp with a recorder mounted on a camera tripod acting as a boom and headphones so she could hear what the microphone heard.

 

Thursday night, I edited our footage, a panoply of experimentation, improvisation, and sometimes intentional bloopers. (If I’d had more time, I would have created a blooper reel as well)

 

First thing Friday, after our welcome activity, the campers had the opportunity to see their movie, Attack of the Marshmallow Maniac, which clocked in at a whopping six minutes. Click below to watch it!

 

 

One of the things that most impressed me was that, once we hit our stride on Friday, creating elements of our theater/arcade for the parents’ screening, the campers had reached a point where they were comfortable enough with the tools that they could focus almost entirely on their creations. It is such a satisfying experience to see your campers truly absorb the medium.

 

There are many exciting plans in the works for Summer Tinkering School (one-week sessions starting June 15th – some spots are still available), but I won’t list them here in case any future campers are reading. It’s a surprise! You’ll love it!

Spring Break Tinkering School at reDiscover Center

Posted on by

We are making a movie this week at reDiscover’s Tinkering School, where I am lead instructor. And when I say “we are making,” I mean the kids. They will be designing and building absolutely everything – the script, the sets and props, the camera dolly, and all of the characters/creatures. Today, the campers (aged 7-12) were presented with the week’s big build theme: Monster Attack Movie, and – after much debate and voting – they decided on a Lightning Marshmallow Man for their monster. 

 

Photo Mar 24 12 46 23 PM

 

(The creativity behind this kind of brainstorm list just makes my day.)

 

It’s interesting to contemplate the things that the kids considered monster-worthy, especially as each society’s monsters are a reflection of the threats and concerns of the time period. There is obviously a heavy element of whimsy (a mutant transforming kitten, for example), and a lot of animals or everyday things turned upside down (a zombie vulnerable only to enchiladas), but the story that developed from their chosen monster says a lot. The marshmallow man comes about when a barrel of toxic waste spills on a bag of marshmallows. An environmental hazard makes the fluffiest of sweets deadly, and brings on natural disasters in the form of targeted lightning strikes. It does say a lot about what children see as some of the biggest threats right now.

 

Yesterday, they had training in all of the main tools of our shop: clamps (regular and corner), power drills and drivers, squares and T-squares, tape measures, hand saws, saw horses, jig saws, and the chop saw (the last two always are used with direct adult supervision).

 

The Tinkering Challenges from yesterday were to build a structure from dowels and corks with a trick that can easily knock it over, and – in the afternoon – to build something to move a cup of water around the room without  spilling it or holding it with their hands. We wrote down what we discovered from those challenges, and today we got to use those observations in planning the set destruction and the camera dolly.

 

They absolutely dove into building once we got going. The groups (which I always like to assign after the brainstorm, and based on what sparks their interest) had a few prompt questions to help them think of what aspects they would need to plan for. Fortunately, I had my laptop with me, because our writers have some killer keyboard skills and had enough ideas to need that speed. The monster building group decided on their materials, started building the frame, and learned how to use spade drill bits when they wanted larger holes. The set/props group began construction on a toxic waste refinery, the empire state building, and marshmallow bombs that break apart when they hit the ground (a really effective design, where foam balls are cut in half and held together loosely with a cork in the middle). The camera group assessed the challenge results from before and created their own design for a dolly based on them, which includes spaces for prop storage and snacks. Gotta love crafty. :)

 

I’m really looking forward to tomorrow, and will post again with pictures!

CRASHspace Signs

Posted on by

If you haven’t gathered, Crashspace is my hackerspace home, and the signs on the room doors were in dire need of update. (“Dante cleaned Shop One! Yay, Dante! Wait, which one is that?”) There were signs, but they were subtle printings on paper, which no one ever looked at.

 

So I made some new signs that are tool-specific to each room. Lasercut acrylic for Shop One, CNC router for Shop Two, and 3d printed for the Library. As I am wont to do, I made some tweaks in Illustrator of Peralta (one of my favorite fonts), and then translated it for the three different tools. Note: I did a little cleanup on the Shop Two sign, this picture shows it fresh off the router.

 

Now if you don’t know which room is which, you’ll be directed to the big, obvious, lovely signs on the doors.

 

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7335/16199540699_938e5283df.jpg
CRASHspace Shop Two sign
CRASHspace Library sign


State of the Makin

Posted on by

I’ve done a lot of instructables lately. Last week was the end of their Makerspace competition, which had a lot of fabulous entries, and our very own CRASHspace won with my Hexachord instructable. Woohoo! My Light-up Hobbit Papercut Bookmark also won second prize in the papercraft contest.

 

Which is not to say that I haven’t been creating physical things as well. The CNC router is just too much fun to leave alone, and I’ve made a couple wood signs, including this in-progress one of one of my favorite quotes from Steal Like an Artist. More pictures when it’s done.

 

B88TpqvIQAAvTas IMG 6262

 

We’ve also been using a lot of T-Glase filament in the Bukito 3D printer, which is transparent(ish) and awesome for things like hanging air plant terrariums. Here’s the STL of the terrarium I designed in the picture above (where the clear filament looks more like silver). Oh, how I’d love to play with a resin printer.

 

This spring break and summer, I’ll be running the reDiscover Center’s Tinkering Camps, for which we have all kinds of fun plans, and starting this coming Saturday, February 7th, I’ll be doing Tinkering Studio afternoons as well. I am super excited about these upcoming events!

3D Modeling

Posted on by

Crashspace has been hosting a number of Instructables Build Nights lately, in which we’re sent a package of new tools or technologies to play with and use for making tutorials for the Instructables site. They get advertising and a greater project presence online, we get to host free events with the latest stuff. It’s fun.

 

3D Printed Spark.io DiffuserFor November, we did a Build Night using the new(ish) Spark.io technology, including Spark Cores and their not-currently-available Internet Buttons. The basic gist is that they’re wifi-enabled microcontrollers that hook up to their cloud and let you do “Internet of Things” projects. Think toaster that prints the weather forecast on your breakfast. As it’s a fairly new product, there are still glitches, so it was a bit of a slog to get them working. But that means that we’ve put together more detailed instructions for starting out.

 

I am systematically attacking all of the tools and media available at Crashspace, in my perennial quest for world domination generalist maker skills. For the last few months I’ve been buried largely in the 3d printers and 3d modeling software. For many reasons, I’ve focused largely on Autodesk’s 123D Design (and a bit of Blender), and most of the things I print are my own designs. I like the mix of virtual and physical, and I like spending time with my beloved calipers. 

 

In any case, I posted an instructable for a couple 3d printed diffusers I designed and printed for the Spark.io Build Night. They were a hit. The instructable shows how to make the model that I did, but the real aim is to show how to design a case/diffuser for a different device.

 

Another recent project is creation of a hybrid car badge for the limited release Rav4 Toyota/Tesla collaboration. The modeling stage is done, it’s been printed, acetone vapor bathed, and made smooth with a sandable primer, and I’m currently in the middle of an education on molding and chrome plating. 

 

Soon, I’ll be posting a new tutorial for a Chibitronics Papercut Bookmark that I made for my dad for Christmas.

Tinkering and Prototyping Materials

Posted on by

Tinkering is an activity, a skill, a way of life. It has so much value when it’s open-ended. A big part of its value for adults is that it requires letting go of the “I’m not creative, I need discrete instructions” mindset. Something for adults to consider is that children can do it, and they don’t have the slightest doubt that they can. Adults, you were once children, it was once your job to tinker. You’ve only forgotten that you can.

 

Hmm, I wonder what this does.

 

Tinkering can also be a more intentional process. That’s where prototyping lives, between making and tinkering.

 

skewer marble run   

 

I have a standard toolkit for tinkering. It’s the set of materials I pull out when I want to tinker with an idea or do a super quick prototype for a specific project. It’s also the basic set I bring along to tinkering classes and events with kids.  Other folks (particularly those in specialized fields) might use different items, some might use more expensive things.  When I’m playing, I like to not have to worry about the cost or availability of my materials. It’s okay if I break something, or waste a bunch in a “failed” attempt (though, there is no failure in tinkering, there are only learning experiences), because I can grab some more and try again. So most of the things you’ll find in my ever-expanding tinkering toolbox are inexpensive and/or available in bulk.

 

I should point out that this particular toolkit doesn’t include electronics, or recycled materials. Those are lists for another day.

 

 

Consumables

  • Bamboo Skewers
    • So useful. So so useful. With a pair of snips and a hot glue gun, you can make more shapes than you can shake a stick at. (bad pun intended)
  • Cardboard
    • Cheap/free and somewhat flexible. Some might complain about it not being super solid, but take a material for what it is. There are times and places for sturdy cardboard. Depending on how it’s constructed, you can find cardboard that will hold a shape fairly well, but it can also be especially useful for its flexibility.  A piece of moderately flexible cardboard folded up can make a decent approximation of a spring.
  • Hot Glue
    • I’ll list a hot glue gun under tools, but the hot glue itself can be a material. It’s great for making quick little shapes, it diffuses light from LEDs nicely, and pressing a motor shaft into a piece of a glue stick is an easy way to attach a light load to a motor should you not have the exact shaft collar on hand.
  • Duct/Paper/Gaff Tape
    • Same deal as hot glue. It can be a material and not just a method of attachment. Doubled over duct tape makes a good tab. If you’re slick about it, you can fashion a functioning belt from gaffer tape (as introduced to me by the fabulous Carlyn Maw). 
  • Shrink Plastic
    • You can get a piece of hard material and cut it with power tools until you get the shape you want, or you can take shrink plastic, cut it with normal scissors, and toss it in the oven to get a quick, hard piece of plastic in whatever shape you like. It’s not 100 percent precise (some plastics works more consistently than others), but this is tinkering/prototyping. It’s not meant to be.  Shrink plastic will get you close enough for a lot of tinkering and rough prototyping.
  • Rubber Bands
    • These are a good stand-in for springs or any tightened cord. Also can be quite handy when you want a soft connection that has a little give.
  • Straws
    • Both thin and fat (boba) straws. Among other purposes, thin straws can help create axles for hinges and wheels, and fat ones are good for self-straightening bendy joints. 
  • Zip Ties
    • Another attacher/material. They provide a good resistant but bendy connection.
  • String
    • Yup.
  • Paper
    • Multiple colors. Cardstock is particularly useful.
  • Random Doodads
    • Little (or big) shapes of metal/wood/plastic/what-have-you that don’t have a related purpose. It’s exciting to bring items that you have no ideas for whatsoever to an event (especially one with kids), because they will think of a use for them that will surprise you. Working with kids is always surprising.

 

 

Tools

  • Good Scissors
    • Trying to cut things with crummy scissors is a pain and a half.  You might also consider having separate pairs for coarse vs fine materials, the same way every sewing aficionado has dedicated fabric scissors that ARE NOT used for anything else.
  • Wire Cutters/Snips
    • Good for wires, good for skewers (scissors are a poor substitute and can be damaged by heavier materials), good for anything that needs more of a chop than scissors.
  • Pliers
    • You never know when you’ll need a better grip, to crimp wires, or to bend something stiff.
  • Dual-temp Hot Glue Gun
    • The dual-temp aspect is relevant. Low temp settings are good for a glob of hot glue that holds its shape when joining objects, the high temp settings are good for making stronger bonds, but also make the glue drippy.
  • Sharpies
    • Permanent markers that will draw and stay on anything always make the list. 
  • Toaster Oven
    • For shrink plastic
  • Power Drill and Bit Set
    • There isn’t much by way of power tools on this list, and it’s a more luxury item than most other things here, but I adore my power drills, and always have one within arm’s reach, in case I need to make a quick, clean hole in wood, plastic, or cardboard.

 

 This is hardly a full list, but it is good for starters.  Leave a note if you have suggestions that you’ve found useful!

 

As a footnote, there are a few things that I do not bring when working with kids, because of their propensity for suppressing creativity.

  • Stickers
    • Of the pre-made, fully-designed variety. Yes, they can be great fun. But when you’re creating, unless you need it for a specific purpose, like a logo, it can act as a stop button for one’s imagination.
  • Glitter, Glitter Glue, Sparkly Things
    • Sparkly things are like sugar.  Especially when working with kids, you give them something shiny, they will grab and consume it by the cupful, and it will overpower any other flavors they’ve put into their project.  Sugar is meant to be used in moderation.  If you want shinies, decide specifically where and why before pulling them out.

STEAM Carnival Fun

Posted on by

Many thanks to everyone who came to my talks at Two Bit Circus‘ STEAM Carnival this weekend!  I had a great time and was excited to talk to folks about making my instrument.

  

My Hexachord Talk at the STEAM Carnival

 

What’s more, the event was just plain fun!  Geeky games and carny exhibits? Awesome! I took a ton of pictures (admittedly many of them were of the Dunk Tank Flambé). You can check out the full flickr album here.