Tag: makeathon

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Lazzor the Snowflakes!

Snowflake Designers

For the Holiday Make-A-Thon at Milwaukee Makerspace we came up with the idea of using Snowflake 2.0 so people could design their own snowflake ornament that we would then laser cut for them.

We had two computers running and instructed people how to use the app. We had to make sure people didn’t overlap the lines, as each line would be seen by the laser cutter as a place to cut, and people would end up with a pile of little wood pieces instead of a snowflake. We also found a bug where you could drag a node off the screen and then not be able to reach it to drag it back. Besides those little issues, the app was great, and lots of makers had interest in download it and playing with it.

Oh, Lance did all the laser cutting, and he was kind enough to add the person’s name, along with “Christmas 2013” to the back of each ornament, and a hole to hang them. Since it was a minimal amount of etching, and then just two vector cuts, things went pretty fast, which is good, because I think we made over 80 snowflakes!

Here’s a few of the designs people came up with during the event.

Snowflake

Snowflake

Snowflake

Snowflake

Snowflake

Snowflake

Snowflake

I’m tempted to dig into the code a bit and see if I can tweak things with Snowflake 2.0. Not surprising, but it’s been a year since I played around with snowflakes.

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Holiday Make-A-Thon 2012 [Time Lapse]

Hack Friday

Here’s a quick time-lapse video from the 2012 Holiday Make-A-Thon that Milwaukee Makerspace does in cooperation with Bucketworks. We’ve been doing it for 3 years now, and Bucketworks has been doing it on their own even longer.

It seems like a lot more hackerspaces are doing these type of events this year, which is awesome, and there’s even a nice name for it now: Hack Friday. In my mind, part of belonging to a makerspace/hackerspace is the love of creating things, sharing that with others, especially on a day that has become completely over the top in regards to consumerism. Our mission is plain and simple: Instead of buying useless crap on “Black Friday” join us and we’ll help you make something for the holidays.

I figured it was also a good time to test out the time lapse capabilities of the GoPro Hero3. I have a workflow in place that includes taking still images with the intervalometer and then combining the frames into a video, and then resizing and cropping the video to the correct proportions. It seems to work. Oh, and the camera motion near the end is actually the gaff tape giving out before the camera fell face-down. Enjoy!

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Holiday Make-A-Thon 2011 ReCap

I had a fun time at the Holiday Make-A-Thon and everyone else there seemed to as well…

There was painting, and decorating, and soldering, and knitting, and 3D printing, and gourds, and ABS, and PCBs, and yearn, and glue, and even some glitter!

Big thanks to the Milwaukee Makerspace guys for teaching people to solder, and for helping me out with the wooden ornaments. More thanks to Bucketworks for hosting the event. Based on the feedback we got, I’m going to assume we’ll do it again next year.

Here’s a few snapshots I got during the event.

Ornaments

Some of the wooden ornaments painted and glittered up. (Thanks to Brant from Milwaukee Makerspace for the googly eyes.)

Penguin

I’m not 100% sure but I think this dried gourd penguin was made by Amanda from Milwaukee Makerspace. (Please correct me if I’m wrong.) My kids told me it was the most awesome gourd they saw all day.

Reindeer

These reindeer from Brant are extra-cool because they were made from the scraps of the first test of my cucoloris design. They were sitting around the space near the CNC Router and he found a neat way to upcycle them.

Starclops

I may be biased, but Starclops, which was created by hot-gluing a star ornament onto a snowman ornament, adding a googly eye, and using a soldering iron to brand it, may be the best thing I made that day.

And finally, thanks to all the folks who showed up. Rather than battling the crowds at the malls you opted to join us and make something with your own hands… and that’s pretty cool. We need more of that in this world. :)

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Holiday Make-a-thon (Time Lapse)

As we often do here at RasterWeb!/2XL Networks, we made a time lapse video… this one is from the Holiday Make-a-thon that was held at Bucketworks recently…

Some of thing things that were made: LED ornaments, handmade wrapping paper, recycled bags, popsicle stick ornaments, and lots and lots of art… Oh there was also knitting, and at least one maker worked on a YBox. There’s probably a lot I missed, but then I was busy making things as well. It was great to see kids and adults working side by side creating things, hopefully we can do it again.

Thanks to Bucketworks for hosting the event, as well as sponsors Milwaukee Makerspace, and UberDorkCafe.

Oh, and if you missed it, don’t worry, I hear they may be planning another one soon…

You can also see this video at blip.tv or view an MP4 version.

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Holiday Make-a-thon

Make-a-thon

Join us on Friday, November 26th, 2010 for a Holiday Make-a-thon!

This will be a family-friendly event where you can avoid the crowds obsessed with getting the deal of the century on the latest must-have geegaw and actually make something that you can give as a gift this holiday season (or keep for yourself!)

The event is co-sponsored by Bucketworks, Milwaukee Makerspace, and UberDorkCafe. We’re asking for a $5 donation per family, and we’ll provide some snacks & drinks. (Feel free to bring something to share as well.)

make a thing!

So what will you make? We’ve selected a number of electronic kits if you want to try your hand at soldering/building. (And those Makerspace guys will teach you to solder and help you along the way, so don’t be scared if this is your first electronic kit.) Choose from the following SparkFun Electronics kits: Sapphire Bracelet, Diamond Bracelet or Ruby Bracelet for $49.95, It’s a Through-Hole Christmas, Charlie Brown! for $17.95, Simon Game for $24.95, Lectro Candle Kit for $9.95, and Terror-Min for $9.95. (Order your kits NOW so you get them in time.)

If electronics isn’t your thing, you can try to knit a coffee cup cozy or a scarf with Ashe, or try your hand at making Germ Soap (from American Science & Surplus on 6901 West Oklahoma Ave.) or go green and turn plastic bags into a sturdy one-of-a-kind messenger bag with Natali from the UberDorkCafe. (See video.)

We’ll also have James Carlson reading a story (book TBD) and Sam Dodge taking family portraits.

You don’t have to RSVP on The Facebook, but you can if you want… and you can see who else will be there.

(Hmmm, who knows? Maybe I can show people how to make an Arduino Powered Twitter Monkey…)

Update: See a time lapse video of the event.