Maker Education is such a valuable role. These stories will bring you the latest information and tales of maker educators who area spreading the maker mindset. Help others learn how to make things or how to think like a maker at makerspaces, schools, universities, and local communities. The importance of maker education can not be understated. We appreciate our educators.
Turns out itโs also possible to drill hexagonal hole using a very similar tool based on the Reuleaux pentagon. The video immediately above, again from jacquesmaurel, shows a tool he describes as a โVika attachment,โ mounted in a lathe, boring an hexagonal hole in a piece of stock. The video below, part of the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, illustrates the process.
Before there were electronic computers, there were mechanical computers, and one of the most important uses of these was in directing gunfire on surface warships. Mechanical fire control computers took inputs from manned instruments that visually tracked enemy ships, and also considered variables such as wind speed and direction, the firing shipโs heading and velocity, etc. That informationโcompletely in the form of physical displacements of mechanical movementsโwas cranked through a complex train of shafts, gears, cams, and differentials that computed the optimal firing solution, and automatically aimed the guns accordingly. This film series, produced by the US Navy in black-and-white sprocket-clatter 1950s glory, explains the general principles of mechanical computation, as applied to fire control systems, in clear and engaging language with nice animated diagrams. Itโs been ported to YouTube in seven parts by user navyreviewer. Totally engrossing. [via Boing Boing]
To me, public libraries โ the availability of free education for all โ represent the collective commitment of a community to their future. They symbolize what is most important, a commitment to educating the next generation. The role of a public library should also adapt over time, and that time is finally here. It’s time […]
Chad’s a former student of mine who has been doing electric car projects for about six years now. On seeing The Cap Kart project, he says:
If you were to start an electric vehicle school program, I would start by following these guidelines to build an electric go-kart! It looks like they got everything donated and therefore kept the overhead down. After doing this you could challenge other schools in the area to a race. Also, this would be a great stepping stone for moving towards a full vehicle!!
We got this announcement from our friends at The Crucible. Many thanks to them for offering this deal. We hope that some of our readers will use this as an incentive to take some classes.
This month, for our Mechanics Skill Set, we’re happy to have our friend Dustyn Roberts joining us again to help out with the theme. We’ll be excerpting from Dustyn’s book, Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists, doing a giveaway of signed copies of her book, and she’ll be writing some original […]
Most of our readers will know that one of the most common types of residential smoke detectors actually contains radioactive materialโspecifically, an isotope of americiumโwhich is used to ionize air molecules in the detector itself. In this video, the always-engaging Bill Hammack, aka Engineer Guy, explains both the operation of the ionizing detector and, most interestingly for me, also the circuit in which it operates, and the MOSFET which is the other critical component in that circuit (and is, incidentally, the namesake of Phil Torroneโs cat). Characteristic Bill quote: โTo me, this is engineering at its best: Simple, reliable, and inexpensive. And saving countless lives.โ Thanks, Bill, as always!
