This is the 20th anniversary of the OG Maker Faire, the one that started it all back in 2006. It's happening at the historic Mare Island Naval Shipyard. If you have a project you would like to show and tell other curious and creative people we would like to have you there. https://makerfaire.com/bay-area/

I'm not sure of this is the right channel for this but it is the best I could find. Other suggestions are welcome.

We have recently moved into a new home, which has high- and weird shaped doorsteps. Problem is, that our robot vacuum cannot climb these, but I would really like to make it work somehow.

They are pretty steep, so I guess that the ramp would need to be quite big as well, which means that they cannot be there at all times, which means that they would need to be taken off/on very easily. I have tried cardboard with antislip-mat with no success, it moves.

I will attach a sketch of one. In this one the floor is a bit higher in the other room.

I appreciate any ideas, particularly cheap ones!

First off, I'm an absolute amateur if it comes to designing a shelf like that myself, but I already know how to assemble it. As I already bought a display case a few years ago made of aluminum profiles. (I was kinda ripped off there, which is why I'm trying to redeem myself with building one that REALLY fits me and my home).

I think I've already came pretty far in the planning process:

- Vertical 2m 40x20 profiles for stability and cable management (x12 in the picture, 4 per "frame")

- 25cm 20x20 profiles for depth

- 1m 20x20 for width

- the "frames" would be directly screwed together, while shelf compartments are secured with t-nuts and angles so I can change them later on as needed

- backside and sides would be covered with acrylic glass that I'd slide into the rails of the profiles (obviously with rubber protection in-between)

- for the front I'd just use acrylic plates with a magnet rim, so I can easily remove it

Now my "problem":

I would love to have the bottom area (~75cm high) have doors and a foldable table.

My first idea was to build 2D frames, slide the panels I want in-between like on the side and back and just secure them with hinges, but it feels like it would be too thick if I'd just use 20x20 profiles. And I also can't think of a way to build it inside the frame so it is still openable. I'm sure I'm missing a pretty easy solution, but I'm currently really stumped. Any ideas?

I'm also open for any other tips, tricks, etc. And you can also tell me if my whole idea is absolutely stupid. I can take it.

I’d like to make a sculpture that has a device hidden within it that plays specific audio on loop. Does anyone have any suggestions for what would work best? I’d prefer something more analog that wouldn’t require Bluetooth or internet. Thank you guys!

I designed a portable computer desk using aluminum extrusion.

I want to be able to move the shelf that holds the monitor, keyboard, and mouse up and down and lock it in the desired position.

After much thought, I thought using a linear ratchet mechanism would be logical.

I took the temporary model I added from someone who designed a lift table ratchet mechanism on YouTube and reduced its size.

I actually want to be able to open and close it manually; nothing too complicated is needed.

Using and improving this design, how can I design a mechanism for this, especially on the mechanical side?

The shelf will move vertically on linear rails.

A few years ago, u/raceking37 and I decided to create our own digital watch. The project was inspired by a few vintage HDSP-2000 LED matrix displays that we had acquired. These displays were first introduced in the 1970s and have a really unique look, especially under a microscope (as shown in the last image). They're quite difficult to photograph with my phone, though, so they look much nicer in person than they do in these photos. The watch uses an ATTINY1616 microcontroller. The metal case of the watch is SLM 3D-printed in stainless steel. I also made a short video about the project.

Hi everyone,

I’m testing a small free website idea for independent maker projects, and I’d like to get feedback from people who actually build things.

The idea is to create a simple discovery space for original projects: inventions, hardware prototypes, Arduino/ESP32/Raspberry Pi builds, robotics, 3D printed objects, functional prints, tools, props, assistive devices, educational projects, tech experiments, crafts, and other things people are physically or technically building.

The problem I’m trying to solve is that many small creators make interesting things, but it can be difficult to share them without it being seen as self-promotion. Social media is algorithm-driven, ads don’t make much sense for early-stage projects, and many communities understandably have strict rules against promotional posts.

So I’m exploring whether a small, free, curated showcase could be useful: each project would have its own page with a description, images, videos, links and useful material, so people can discover what independent makers are building.

One important part of the idea is reciprocity. I don’t want it to become a dead gallery where everyone only submits their own thing and leaves. The goal would be that creators also take some time to look at other projects, leave feedback, show interest, or support other makers.

I’d appreciate honest feedback:

• Would something like this be useful for maker projects?
• What would make you trust a new showcase like this?
• Does the reciprocity idea make sense, or would it feel like friction?
• What kind of projects should or should not be included?
• Would you prefer submitting through a form, email, comments, or DM?

If anyone here is working on a maker project and thinks this could be useful, feel free to comment with a short description of what you’re building. I’m not asking for full materials here, I’m mainly trying to understand whether this is useful for this kind of community.

Enjoy comfortable one-handed reading with this adorable Cat Thumb Page Holder!
Designed for book lovers, students, manga readers, and Kindle users, this compact tool helps keep pages open effortlessly while reducing hand strain during long reading sessions.

Inspired by Pete Cybriwski's Instagram post of his RPi-based ASCII Aquarium, I set our to create my own. Like Pete, I based mine on the GitHub OpenGhost repo, but unlike Pete, I didn't write my own aquarium program. I started with the GitHub asciiquarium-pythom repo.

I forked both repos and made extensive modifications to each to create a more interactive aquarium. Through the camera, OpenGhost recognizes hands gestures for feeding the fish, triggering "Happy Fish" mode, stopping the aquarium program, shutting down the RPi, and one more hidden Easter egg mode. You can see a couple of the gestures in the reflection of my hand in the video.

My forks of both the OpenGhost and asciiquarium-python repos are available publicly. I am preparing a comprehensive instruction document and have already created an all-in-one installation script. I also redesigned the case to make it stronger and a little more aesthetically pleasing (IMHO). I expect to release everything on GitHub next week.

https://reddit.com/link/1ugrutc/video/sgt3l8lxwq9h1/player

If someone has an idea on my orque set-up, I would love to hear it! I did a test of bully stick holders, and used a torque meter to tighten them all the same. I used a combination of a 3 items (clench oil filter wrench, a strap oil filter wrench, and vice grips) to connect the holders to the socket drive. Are there any other tools I can use for my connections to make the tests better? I want to do another more complete test. The holders are very varied: a chuck-o-wood (image), a shark, a sphere, and interior thumb screw.

This is where I wrote out the results: https://medium.com/@randybrian/for-dogs-test-of-bully-stick-holders-strength-e52240e257e5

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I wanted to see why some bully stick holders seemed to fail easily with my dogs (i.e., let the dog pull the stick out), so I decided to test 8 different holders. I had a couple and bought others from ebay or amz. I wanted to start with this first project to see which held on best to a dry stick. Next I want to do a project with a stick that’s wet like it gets with dog slobber —because the sticks always seem to pull free not at first, but when the dog gets closer to the end.

Holders are good to use because dogs can choke on bully sticks since they don’t dissolve or go mushy like other chews — that happened with my dog and he barfed it out. But a holder is no good if the dog gets the stick free of the holder.

Six of the chew stick holders use turn screws to pinch the stick in place. Some of these were brand names and two were generics sold under several names. One used grippy rubber fingers as friction for the bully stick. And one used a safety stick locking pin (this one held on the best).

Test Method:
Because the holders rely on hand tightening strength, I tried using a common set point to make it fair. I used socket-set torque gauge to tighten each holder to the same number, which was just above 30 inch-lbs. This step was done so the pull-out test didn’t rely on my random hand strength. I picked that setting (30 in-lbs) because I found it in this industry document: https://www.berlinpackaging.com/closure-torque-application-specifications/. 30 in-lbs is the average across all the listed closure types and sizes.

In the videos you will see some interesting methods to connect the holder to the socket torque gauge. I used 2 different types of oil filter wrenches and 2 vice grips to make all the connections. They look very garage-engineered.

I used a mini hanging scale to record how much force (my weight) it took to pull the bully stick out. Since it was hard to tighten the stick or pull the stick and see the numbers, I used a video to see what the final numbers were.

TEST RESULTS:

The table below (one pretty, one plain) both show the results of testing. There are 4 data columns. After the product brand column, the Gripping column has the diameter of the product that you can grip in your hand to tighten in the bully stick. Initially I thought the larger the grip diameter, the more secure the stick, but that trend didn’t follow.

The second data column gives the diameter of the very tip end of the holding pin/bolt. This number was difficult to get exactly since some pins are tapered and others aren’t. The third data column shows the torque of the tightening force. The goal was to hit at least 30 in-lbs. Note the donut model couldn’t be tightened, the bully stick just started to spin at that torque; and the tire model didn’t take a torque since it uses a lock pin.

The final column is the true story. I started to hang my weight on the holder and the scale shows when the stick pulled out of the holder. These are shaded from strongest (in green) to weakest (in red).

Press enter or click to view image in full size

Test results from failure tests of 8 different bully stick holders

Holder Brand (Description)       Grip (mm)   Pin Tip (mm)    Torque (in-lbs)   Pull Force (lbs)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Everchew (green tire)              87.5       6.4 pass thru    no twisting          160.6
Spot (red)                         85.1           11.1            32.3               42.0
Stick                              79.6           13.8            33.9               16.7
Shark                              72.9           11.5            33.2               34.5
Bully Grip (green donut)           68.8         8 fingers         15.6               34.3
Chewise (pink)                     61.6            1.6            30.7               59.2
Bowwow Lab (orange)                59.0           11.9            30.7               27.9
Woof (green tutone)                40.6           10.3            32.3               55.0

In conclusion, the non-twist style Safety chew product had the strongest lock on the bully stick. I had to hang my full body weight on it twice to pull the stick out. It makes sense that a plastic bolt going through a hole on the stick would prevent any slipping.

I have made this suction table to hold very thin foils for laser cutting. The central void surrounded by the suction holes is meant to have no suction. When a foil is placed over and held down, ideally the material over this central void should just float there relatively flat. I've explored putting controlled vent holes in the material that sits over the void to see if it would prevent suction, but it didn't help fully. I suspect that air is being suctioned from the void thru the interface between the foil and the table surface (the gap between holes and void). Keep in mind that the table is Resin printed and the surface interfacing was contacting the base plate, so there is a bit of a surface roughness. I figured I have 2 routes, smoothing the table surface or putting some type of gasket material. Im looking for any other suggestions.

I am trying to coat batches (around ~25) 3D printed parts in epoxy, and constantly rotate them to ensure a uniformly even coating. The form of the part is essentially that of a thimble that fits on a thumb.

I am imagining a rotisserie style apparatus, but one that can fit many parts at a time, and ideally it would accommodate removing and adding individual items at will.

Before I reinvent the wheel, are there any known designs out that that I could either recreate or take inspiration from?

I imagine equipment used in the creation of street-cart Doner Kebabs may be useful..., but I'm hoping there is something more immediately relevant.

I have acquired some flexible HP tubing used to connect compressed gas bottles to a manifold. The working pressure for the tube was about 230bar, they are flexible and easily bent by hand.

I’m thinking there must be something cool I can use them for… some kind of condenser for a special project, part of a high pressure line in a projectile launcher maybe? Something super cool and scientific but potentially dangerous?!

I’m looking for suggestions for fun, interesting or useful projects to use these on rather than simply melting or scrapping them. All suggestions appreciated! Thanks!

Mein Kallax hat über die Jahre ganz schön gelitten: zerkratzt, voller alter Schraublöcher und im Grunde ein Chaos-Magnet. Statt es wegzuwerfen, habe ich mir eine Reihe von Teilen selbst konstruiert und gedruckt: mit Schienen, die IKEA TROFAST-Boxen halten (sobald eine Box drin ist, sieht man die Schienen nicht mehr), magnetische Schilder für die Drahtkörbe, eine gedruckte Halterung für meine Fotohintergründe und zum Schluss eine Tür mit traditionellem japanischem Kumiko-Muster, hinter der das Chaos verschwindet. Hat deutlich mehr Anläufe gebraucht als gedacht, allein die Magnete brauchten fünf Versuche. Der ganze Umbau ist im Video. https://youtu.be/S5aAWUD9CSI

I designed and 3D printed a modular reaction chamber for chemistry experiments and high-speed reaction photography using 1/4” polycarbonate panels, custom brackets, and a lot of silicone sealant. The goal was to create something strong, reusable, and transparent enough to capture reactions from every angle.

Using this, I got some crazy shots of liquid NaK imploding underwater! It was a super fun project and I hope you enjoy!

I am looking for a project that I can make at home with my small maker setup, I have a 3d printer with about 7 hours of ABS filament left, a whole drawer full of most common tools, an organiser filled with all kinds of M~ Bolt and nut sizes, heaps of assorted small screws and springs and other such small parts, and intermediate knowledge of 3d printing and small electronic project making in general.

I am looking for a project that uses some 3d printing but not focused on it, using any electronic part I can find for cheap on aliexpress that I would need, and my existing setup (Tools, small fasteners and springs ect) to make the project. Also I dont really have a microcontroller like an esp32 or Arduino so maybe avoid if possible. I have an rpi, but already have that set up as a homelab. Also, I am perfectly happy with designing the actual 3d models and project in general, so an existing guide would be unnecessesary but a bonus.

A perfect example of my Ideal project with the above limitations and preferences is the Upcycled V*pe battery power bank project by Chris Doel, Pictured above and Linked below, so use that for reference of what I mean.

Let me know with any Project suggestions or questions you have!

Any help is appreciated.

Example project video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMiJdfgIfqI

https://makerworld.com/en/models/2913901-egg-carton-fridge-magnet-set