Lucas Ainsworth and Alyssa Hamel of Kinetic Creatures are already hard at work on the project they have planned for their 2nd appearance at the Maker Faire Bay Area: An enormous, bike-powered, cardboard “Rory the Rhino.” Check out how they are learning to weld, sourcing new parts, and challenging themselves to go bigger for this year’s fair.
In this manual for building a 72-inch amateur rocket, everything but the parachute is repurposed or scratch-built, including the motor and propellant. Detailed, well-written instructions and a clear photo explain each step. If you’re at all interested in amateur rocketry, it’s good reading.
We have another two wonderful Young Maker/Open Make events happening in the San Francisco Bay Area Saturday, March 16. Just like last month, you’ll have to pick just one of these two happenings because they occur simultaneously on opposite ends of the Bay. Each offers a flurry of activity that starts at 10am and ends with an inspiring “meet-the-makers” panel discussion.
The events are at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose and Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Each museum is also hosting a plussing session, where registered Young Makers can develop and finesse their projects for Maker Faire Bay Area.
So far the coolest thing I’ve seen at SXSW has been this clever early-stage prototype from our own Matt Richardson. It’s a “dynamic bike headlight” which can project your speed (and other useful information) onto the road surface in front of you. Matt showed off the proof-of-concept build, this morning, at Bike Hugger’s Built: Make & Tell event. Well done, Matt!
At South By Southwest (SXSW), DIYROCKETS and Sunglass announced a new competition for an “Open Source 3D Printed Rocket Engine” that would be capable of sending nano-satellites into orbit. The competition starts today and runs through June.
To showcase NASA’s new initiatives in Advanced Manufacturing, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden toured the National Center for Advanced Manufacturing Rapid Prototyping Facility at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL.
Are you a hackerspace member? We want to know about cool projects you are working on, or have completed, tools you’re using, fun stories about your space and its members, best practices you’d like to share with other spaces, etc. Say you build a new CNC mill–we want to hear about it! Maybe a member […]
