Maker Faire

Maker Faire is the Greatest Show (and Tell) on Earth — a family-friendly festival of invention, creativity, and resourcefulness, and a celebration of the maker movement.

Part science fair, part county fair, and part something entirely new, Maker Faire is an all-ages gathering of tech enthusiasts, crafters, educators, tinkerers, hobbyists, engineers, science clubs, authors, artists, students, and commercial exhibitors. All of these people come to Maker Faire to show what they have made and to share what they have learned.

Explore below to see the best of Maker Faire, and head to makerfaire.com for more information.

Busy Retiree’s Filament Extruder Wins Fabrication Competition

Busy Retiree’s Filament Extruder Wins Fabrication Competition

Last year, at Maker Faire in San Mateo, we launched a global competition to find ways to reduce the cost of producing parts on a 3D printer that uses plastic filament as its feedstock.

3D printing holds great promise for prototyping and small-volume production, but it has the potential for high volume production as well. Over time, the software interfaces that control these machines will improve, the number of files available for printing will increase exponentially, and the precision of the machines will be indistinguishable from parts made on an injection molding machine. However, to become competitive with conventional manufacturing processes, the unit cost of each part produced by 3D printers must be reduced.

Low-cost 3D printing, including Up! Plus, Makerbot’s Replicator II, Cubify, Printrbot, Solidoodle, and the Ultimaker, range in price from $399-$2200. These machines require extruded plastic filament that costs about $40-$54 per kg. This is between 5-10 times the cost of the raw resin pellets.

Continue Reading Dale Dougherty14
First Time at Maker Faire?

First Time at Maker Faire?

I’m writing a series of posts aimed at folks looking forward to their first experience at the upcoming Maker Faire Bay Area (May 18-19 in San Mateo, Calif.). I’d like to help out by answering your questions directly, documenting some of my own experiences as an exhibitor at Maker Faire, and interviewing folks at MAKE for advice on enjoying the fair.

Continue Reading Karen Tanenbaum8
Challenge the Kids, Challenge Yourself

Challenge the Kids, Challenge Yourself

I had twenty-four kids to walk through a detailed robot kit build. I thought we’d get through the physical build in one or two classes, and have two classes to play with the circuit and make the robot do different things. Boy, did I mis-judge things. By the end of the first class, we had barely managed to finish the first two steps of the build. I went home and collapsed for a bit. I was exhausted and not a little bit panicked.

Continue Reading Andrew Terranova20