All Roads Lead to Maker Faire:NC

We just added a new section to give you some information about getting to the Maker Faire:NC.  There are links to driving directions and estimated travel times for nearby cities, information about Amtrak, the nearest airport, and Greyhound.  Start planning your trip now to save yourself the hassle later!

Make:RDU Meeting Today at 2:00PM

Today is the third Saturday of the month! That must mean it's time for Make:RDU!
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Come out to Camille's Sidewalk Cafe today at 2:00PM and get your MAKE on with other like-minded hackers, artists, and technical wizards.  Project sharing is highly encouraged in this friendly roundtable discussion.

There's likely to be a good bit of chatter about the Maker Faire:NC too!

Ladies and Gents: We have a Date! MF:NC Is a Go!

Save the Date! Maker Faire:NC is Sunday, April 25!I'm overjoyed to announce that the Maker Faire:NC will be held on Sunday, April 25 at Loehmann’s Plaza on Hillandale Road in Durham, NC.

The address of the shopping center is 1821 Hillandale Rd, Durham NC 27705.

The MakerFaire:NC will be held in conjunction with the annual very-awesome, never-boring ShopBot Jamboree!  Come hang out with Team Shopbot and stay for Maker Faire:NC!

There is a Hampton Inn across the street from the event and a Red Roof Inn around the corner.

Hotel:Durham Courtyard by Marriott, 1815 Front Street, Durham, NC 27705,

Closest Airport:RDU International Airport, 2400 W. Terminal Blvd, Morrisville, NC 27623

In the coming few days I will be announcing more details about the schedule including dropoff/setup times for Makers, volunteer coordination meetings, etc.  Until then, spread the word for us, submit your projects, and GET MAKING!

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Open Source Objects and Furniture

Having access to a CNC router, LASER cutter, 3D printer, and CNC plasma cutter has changed how I see the manufactured landscape.  I don't automtically assume that I must buy the things I want because it is now an option to fabricate them all.  The decision, instead, is whether it's worth my time to engineer the item from scratch, build it, and then ultimately have the design languish on my hard drive.

I want a marketplace for machine-ready designs: an iTunes Music Store for objects.  I recently purchased an assortment of IKEA's iconic Billy bookshelves knowing full-well how trivial it would be for the ShopBot to cut them out.  I would have been far happier had I been able to download a toolpath from some sort of ShopBot App Store or Ikea's Build-Yourself Store, thrown in a piece of veneered particle board, and not had to drive three hours each way.

There are services and communities that are close to working as a repository of manufacturables but they're not quite there yet. There isn't one that has it all.  Part of that is the industry (few standards, wildly different tooling options, etc.) but perhaps a bigger part is that the culture.  Many of us want to buy things.  I like the mall and I'm in the revolution!

One operation that's in the revolution yet doesn't eschew commercial interests is Ronen Kadushin.  Kadushin's furniture sells in galleries and boutiques (at gallery and boutique prices, mind you) but that doesn't mean you can't have one.  Kadushin's designs are all available for free under the Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial/Share-Alike license!

The Bird Table (left) can be made in minutes on an CNC router out of 12mm Birch plywood.  Why don't you go make one now?

The only thing missing is the centralized store for dowloading (buying?) the designs.  When you build that, let me know.

Location, Location, Location

Just a quick update to tell you that I am narrowing down on a location and date for our MakerFaire:NC!

ShopBot has found a space that I need to check out and the new TechShop Durham location could work.

I need to find a space before I can finalize a date. I'll let you know as soon as I know for sure!