The Alamance Makers Guild at Maker Faire North Carolina 2013

Education
The Alamance Makers Guild at Maker Faire North Carolina 2013
Ben Harris of Harris Educational and Alamance Makers Guild
Ben Harris of Harris Educational and Alamance Makers Guild

This was my third year attending Maker Faire North Carolina, which is in its fourth year itself. I’ve always enjoyed the Alamance Makers Guild exhibit, which features a cluster of makers from the guild, a community for Makers in and around Alamance County, NC.

Ben Harris, pictured above, runs Harris Educational, which sponsors the guild. The guild also puts on the Burlington Mini Maker Faire, which is coming up in August.

Ben demonstrated the Harris Educational Electric Vehicle Troubleshooting Circuit Simulator, which he’s developing for the EV Challenge. The simulator allows students to explore various scenarios that could cause real-world EV problems, such as defective components or broken circuits:

EV Challenge Troubleshooting Simulator
EV Challenge Troubleshooting Simulator

The guild’s exhibit featured some great items made from plarn (yarn made from plastic bags):

Angela Parrish's Plarning and Recycled Crochet
Angela Parrish’s Plarning and Recycled Crochet

Woodturner-Philosopher Nim Batchelor showed off objects that he made, including a combination lock pepper mill that only opens when the letters line up to spell P E P P E R:

Nim Batchelor with Combo Lock Mill
Nim Batchelor with Combo Lock Mill

One corner of the exhibit included Danny Oakley’s R2-Q5, a droid whose creation he is documenting at Make, Break, Fix, Repeat as well as Stephen Chapman, who creates incredible steampunk guns shown here:

Danny Oakley and Stephen Chapman
Danny Oakley and Stephen Chapman

And the Western Alamance Robotics Club was out as well, showing off–and letting attendees try–their robot creations:

Western Alamance Robotics Club

This is just a sampling of what the Alamance Makers Guild had on display. Check them out on Facebook for videos and photos from the Faire.

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I'm a tinkerer and finally reached the point where I fix more things than I break. When I'm not tinkering, I'm probably editing a book for Maker Media.

View more articles by Brian Jepson

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