SoliForum - 3D Printing Community — Maker Faire Bay Area

Re: Maker Faire Bay Area

2013-05-20T16:30:26Z

I went to the first Maker Faire in 2006, and this is my first time back. I was mostly underwhelmed by the first one (I thought it was small and too "newbie-oriented" for me at the time), but I was positively surprised by it this time. It was HUGE (at least 5x the size of the original) and completely packed with exhibits and people.

The 3D-printer section was sizeable, and I was able to pick up some filament and a 6x6 sheet of borosilicate glass. It was actually nice to check out some upgrade parts in person, and see the many new 3d printers that will be coming to market soon.

I expect this contingent to get even larger from year to year. The only thing I hope is that the MakerFaire folks do a better job of organizing the event and managing the flow of people. The booths were far too close together for the immense crowds present, and the program consisted only of a general map with no listing of the actual exhibitors present.

Re: Maker Faire Bay Area

2013-05-20T15:58:51Z

Fun! I went to MakerFaire last year and was really impressed. So much technology that used to only be available to businesses because of the cost is now available to us makers.

That is also a good price on the Up. I might have got one of those is they were a little more competitive with Solidoodle on price. $899 is in the ball park.

Re: Maker Faire Bay Area

2013-05-20T01:35:39Z

this spool roller is already on thingiverse ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:29594 ) but imo you'd better to print this one.. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:70827
or this one if you prefer a more rigid one http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:32944

one size fit all.. tested and approved..

Maker Faire Bay Area

2013-05-19T19:10:21Z

Yesterday I attended my very first Maker Faire, and I had a ton of fun.

While I was there, I saw quite a few 3D printers, including a few that were getting ready to go on KickStarter. Some looked pretty good, others so-so.

I really liked the Up! Mini from Up 3D. They were selling it for $899 at the show. It looked like a very nicely finished unit. Afinia 3D had a nice looking printer they were selling. Ultimaker was there, but I thought that $1600 for a unassembled unit was a bit much.

MakerBot was there in force, and it looked like they seeded many other booths with the Replicator2. Autodesk was there showing off some of their stuff, including the 123D catch scanning program. nVidia was just showing off, not so much as it relates to 3D printing though.

At the Maker Shed I bought a couple of Japanese Gakken Kit books, one of an electric guitar, and one of Synthesizer. In retrospect I should have bought the one with the Animaris Parvus flying contraption, If you're interested in DIY kits, you might want to take a look at these

http://tsoj.manga.org/gakken/otona_kits.html

The other thing I bought, was the PrintrBot Simple 3D Printer. This is a brand new, tiny printer which they will officially release in June.

They had a few kits there for sale, and I just had to get one. The footprint is very small, and it can only print 3.5" x 3.5" x 3.5", but it looks perfect for printing small things while the Doodle is doing the heavy lifting.

The other thing I got from them was this nifty filament roll holder.

It is less of a holder as it is a cradle, they call it a spool coaster. It has roller bearings and lets the spool ride freely on the rollers. The problem is that it was designed for 8" diameter spools no wider than about 2.75". I have a lot of spools that are 6.25" diameter by 3.75" wide, so I redesigned the parts to fit my rolls.

I don't know if the design is copyrighted by them, but if it's not, I can post the STL if anyone is interested.

Anyway, Ti say I had fun would be an understatement. Unfortunately, being on my feet for nearly 7 hours was hard on the old feet and body. But it only happens once a year, so I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to recover.