manufacturing

Made in China: The Case for and Against

For three months I lived in Shenzhen, China, participating in a hardware startup accelerator HAXLR8R and trying to get my company Portable Scores off the ground. The goal was to learn about manufacturing in China, pick out some factories, source our components, and get everything ready for when we lined up funding. What I learned during those three months was not just how to do it, but that there are times when you just shouldn’t do it, and for a startup, it’s not just about money, it’s about managing risk. Our plan right now is “Assembled in USA.”

Continue Reading March 26th, 2013 Stett Holbrook18

Space Still Available for Bay Area “Make it in America” Exhibit

California Congresswoman Jackie Speier is organizing a showcase of U.S.-made products June 15-16 during the San Mateo County Fair. The “Make it in America” exhibit will host 15-20 U.S. companies with homegrown production, specifically the Bay Area. The range of products is wide–surgical robots, jelly beans, wine, and electric cars. And there are a few slots left. The exhibit aims to be educational and is free to participating companies, but direct sales are not allowed in the exhibit area. The purpose of the exhibit is to show that U.S. manufacturing yields several benefits including increased employment and technological innovation.

Continue Reading March 19th, 2013 Stett Holbrook

Screen Printing PCBs

Colombian maker Ampletos shows how to screen print PCBs (Google translated from Spanish) using a normal screen printing setup. [via Hacked Gadgets]

Continue Reading March 13th, 2013November 16th, 2015 John Baichtal6

Interview with 3Doodler Co-creator Max Bogue

Peter Dilworth, the other cofounder, was watching one of our Up! 3D Printers do its thing when it made an error. He was kinda miffed about it; he just wanted to take the thing off the platform, fill up the gap, and put it back on. And then he had that “Oh! We can!” moment. That’s when the idea for the 3Doodler was born, and it’s been quite a ride since then.

Continue Reading February 28th, 2013 Eric Weinhoffer18

Maker Pro: Tracking Manufacturing from Start to Finish with OpenERP

If you’re a maker ready to scale up to commercial production, soon you’ll be asking questions about how to manage the process of sourcing parts, ordering raw materials, describing the fabrication process, and scheduling access to equipment.

Software tools that help you plan and operate your manufacturing business are often called “enterprise resource planning” systems, or ERP for short. ERP systems generally include tools for managing inventory, scheduling materials and resources for production, ordering new materials when needed, and accounting systems to keep track of your expenses and revenues.

Continue Reading February 9th, 2013 Greg Mader30

The Making of Evil Mad Scientist’s Digi-Comp II

In the business of producing kits, like the new Digi-Comp II, it’s all in the details. Evil Mad Scientist leaves nothing out, especially in the two CNC cutting processes; everything from the layouts of the large playfields on the router table to the careful nesting of flip-flops in the laser are given extreme attention, to minimize machine downtime and human intervention. Their most recent blog post is a comprehensive walkthrough of the manufacturing process, from sheets of plywood to the boxed product.

Continue Reading January 4th, 2013 Eric Weinhoffer

Fashioning Farfalle with the Lost Wax Process

MAKE contributor and Makeys stylist Diana Eng recently schooled me about the lost wax fabrication process, which she’s been using to craft her new Farfalle jewelry line (yes, named after, and shaped like, the pasta).

Continue Reading November 27th, 2012 Gillian