manufacturing

Made in China: The Case for and Against

Made in China: The Case for and Against

Bob Baddeley

By Bob Baddeley

Bob Baddeley

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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.”

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

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

By Stett Holbrook

Stett Holbrook

Stett Holbrook is editor of the Bohemian, an alternative weekly in Santa Rosa, California. He is a former senior editor at Maker Media.

He is also the co-creator of Food Forward, a documentary TV series for PBS about the innovators and pioneers changing our food system.

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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.

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Interview with 3Doodler Co-creator Max Bogue

Interview with 3Doodler Co-creator Max Bogue

By Eric Weinhoffer

Eric Weinhoffer

Eric is a Mechanical Engineer with interests in machining, mass manufacturing, product design and kinetic art. While not building things, he enjoys skiing, cycling, and juggling.

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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.

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Maker Pro: Tracking Manufacturing from Start to Finish with OpenERP

Maker Pro: Tracking Manufacturing from Start to Finish with OpenERP

By Greg Mader

Greg Mader

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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.

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

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

By Eric Weinhoffer

Eric Weinhoffer

Eric is a Mechanical Engineer with interests in machining, mass manufacturing, product design and kinetic art. While not building things, he enjoys skiing, cycling, and juggling.

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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.

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