The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the industrial arts from metal and woodworking to CNC machining and 3D printing.
There’s something about shipping pallets that makers are drawn to. They’re easily obtainable on the roadside or by dumpster diving (don’t steal!), the form-factor lends itself to certain types of construction, and the rustic finish is just appealing in terms of aesthetics.
On a recent visit to Manchester to attend the Future Everything summit, I couldn’t pass up the chance to visit the UK’s first fab lab, housed in a striking, slab-like building in the waterside district of one of Britain’s great industrial cities. I spoke to Eddie Kirkby (of the Manufacturing Institute) and Haydn Insley (fab lab manager) to find out how the fab lab movement is spreading into the UK.
Brian Matthews of Flapping Sprocket creates beautifully intricate machinery, wings, and other contraptions in his Los Angeles studio. For the second year running, he will be at the Maker Faire Bay Area as a mobile exhibit, roaming the Faire with his hand puppet Francis, a metal marvel finely articulated enough to shake your hand.
The video below is a lengthy but insightful interview with legendary Italian maker Enzo Mari. His 1974 manual Autoprogettazione offered nineteen designs using readymade cuts of timber, to build tables, chairs, bookshelves, and even beds. He essentially open-sourced the home furnishings industry. His designs usually required nothing more than a hammer and nails. You can […]
Maine-based Grain Surfboards is a small maker-run company on the coast that hand-makes sustainably cut, locally milled white cedar wooden surfboards. Aside from their dedication to environmental responsibility, what sets Grain apart is that they also offer DIY surfboard kits and a variety of surfboard-building classes. Their newest undertaking is their successfully funded mobile surfboard-building […]
It’s remarkable how the MIT Hobby Shop presages aspects of the hackerspace movement… In the 1937-38 academic year, Vannevar Bush, then Vice President of MIT, granted a group of 16 MIT students permission to use a room in the basement of building 2. With equipment they found around the Institute they set up a wood […]
On this episode of DiResta, Jimmy casts a skull buckle from delft clay and a tin alloy to make any metalhead swoon.
