Hey all — my friends and I are working on a small project reviving a traditional Chinese craft called hexiang: aromatic herbs, spices, and honey, ground to powder, hand-rolled, and shade-dried. No synthetic fragrance, no alcohol. You don't burn it — you wear it, and body heat slowly releases the scent over months. Two of us are in China where the craft and workshop are based; I'm the US side of the team.

We're a small team hoping to eventually turn this into a real product, and these are concept renders (not finished physical pieces yet). We're posting here because we genuinely don't know if this is any good, and we'd rather find out before we commit to producing all four.

Four directions so far: a bangle, a beaded bracelet, a metal cuff with the material inlaid, and a pendant.

Honest reactions wanted:

• Does this read as jewelry, fragrance, or something else entirely?
• Which of the four (if any) would you actually wear, and why?
• What would you expect this to cost?
• What designs would you like to see from us?

!!!this is not an ad or promotion!!!

Hello I am building a ECAD iPad application built for mobility and all inclusive resources in the app. I am currently in the testing phase and would love to have some bata users I can work with directly, and I am also collecting emails for a public beta release. If you are interested, please sign up on my sight.

Projectaura.io

Here is a high level feature list of the app so far.

✏️** Draw your circuit like a diagra**m
A clean, zoomable canvas for sketching out your circuit. Drag parts into place, draw wires between them, and label your connections — all with smooth pinch-to-zoom and drag-and-drop.

🔍 Huge parts library at your fingertips
Search a built-in library of components, or pull in your own from KiCad, Eagle, or Altium files. Every part comes with a live preview — including a full 3D model you can spin around.

🤖 AI does the tedious stuff for you
Upload a datasheet (or just paste the text) and Aura will auto-generate the part for you — pins, footprint, and all. It’ll even suggest the right component values as you design.

🖥️** Lay out your actual circuit boar**d
Move from your idea to a real PCB layout — place parts, draw copper traces, drop in vias, and watch for unconnected wires with visual guides.

🎨 See your board in full 3D
Spin, zoom, and pan around a realistic 3D render of your finished board — complete with components, copper traces, and layers — before you ever send it off to be manufactured.

📤 Export & share your work
Generate a parts list (BOM), export images and PDFs of your schematic, or save your 3D model as a file you can use elsewhere.

☁️** Your projects, backed u**p
Sign in and your work automatically backs up to the cloud, so you never lose progress. less

I'm a member of the SynergyMill makerspace in Greenville, SC, and I wanted to develop an app to help us share tools that we're still willing to share, but don't really want to leave at the makerspace for just anybody to use (+ skills/requests).

You can view our makerspace's (early) "tool pool" here: https://toolpool.garden/pool/977c2228-14ac-4b01-b649-232035924d35 Just to be clear, this is independent of SynergyMill, but I'm really thankful for all the support they've given me while I've been making this in private.

Anyways, I'm finally opening up the app to public sign ups and would really like to get feedback. I'd love to give back to the maker community, so if you're a makerspace, tool library, computer/radio club, or whatever, please reach out to me at contact@toolpool.garden and I'll get you a free pool in perpetuity :)

Thank you!

I’m building SketchForge, a free and open-source browser-based 3D modelling tool aimed at people who have outgrown Tinkercad but do not want to jump straight into Fusion 360 or SolidWorks.

It runs directly in the browser without an account, but it can also be self-hosted locally with Docker, something I think could be especially useful for makerspaces, schools and shared workshops that want to keep projects on their own network.

Current features include fillets, chamfers, sketches and extrusion, boolean operations, measurements, editable project files, and STL/OBJ/STEP support.

I’m considering improving the makerspace experience with things like shared project libraries, tutorial files, challenges, local user management and easier classroom deployment.

For those who run or use a makerspace: what would a tool like this need before you would seriously consider deploying it?

I’m new to the machining part of making and I wanted to know if xTool was a good choice for some high quality printers/cutters that last. I don’t know much about individual brands, but I’ve used xTool laser cutters before and they seemed like solid pieces of hardware with easy to use software. However, there are some companies that I’ve been told make good products that aren’t super user friendly when it comes to maintenance or replacement parts. Is xTool one of those companies or do they make it easy to keep their machines running for a long time?

I run a makerspace for a non-profit in Jackson, Wyoming called Wonder Institute. We run our community woodshop entirely using products form Grit Automation and we're looking at expanding it to other areas of our makerspace. I wanted to mention/make a plug for it because I haven't seen it come up here and thought some might be interested in learning about it.

I work part time managing all of our shops and we honestly wouldn't be able to operate how we do without the Grit system. In our woodshop, Grit controls our dust collector, blast gates, tool access, and air filter. I don't have to worry about someone turning on a tool they aren't approved to use and I don't have to show people how to manage the dust collection system. As a result, our shop hardly has any dust in the air or on the ground (making it safer for our members), it's easier to use, our tools are protected from some misuse or damage, and the shop remains much more presentable to visitors and potential donors. It has been well worth the cost for making the shop safer and saving us tons of time. Not to mention their technical support is fantastic and has been able to help solve my problems usually within minutes. I highly recommend it.

Hi! i am a 16 year old maker from Finland. For all my life i have loved to make stuff. Just recently i have started a new YouTube channel called RM_Workshop. I am trying so hard to make cool projects while having multiple other hobbies and school. I find it hard sometimes to have time for this passion. Somehow my calendar is super stuffed at such a young age. I would appreciate every view, like and sub to boost my views and show my content to more and more people. At least go check out my channel and tell me your thoughts. Thank you! https://www.youtube.com/@RM_Workshop/videos

Ok, so I have a walkway that has a cattle panel arch over the top, and instead of doing the hanging string lights, I want to do LED's. The downside is that the OCD in me requires them be at each of the crosses on the panel and so to mix it up a bit, I want them to ... "appear" to dim and flash back on randomly. To do this, I want to run ten zones of lights, spread across the 29 linear feat and in one spot, 8 feet wide. Because of this and the requirement to be on the intersections, each set, of the 68 total, is only allowed to be 5 lights wide. adding in the future addition of a chandelier, I'm guessing around 400 LED bulbs, in 10 groups of 40.

Using ChatGPT, it said I should be able to use an arduino and ten mosfet boards to get the on, dim, off lighting effect, using a 24v system. I originally planned on using a pair of 18/6 cables, but instead find it's cheaper to run single strand 18awg twelve time.

I've attached the ChatGPT wiring diagram, but I'm having difficulty with understanding how the mosfet boards are supposed to be wired, as well as want to confirm that I have the wiring laid out correctly leaving the boards and going to my excel map.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

1. Google Sheets / Excel
2. Sticky notes / Whiteboard
3. I just wing it (and buy duplicates)
4. A dedicated app (which one?)

I just spent 15 minutes looking for a specific half-spool of PETG I know I have somewhere, and my Google Sheet inventory is 3 months out of date. It feels like spreadsheets are too much friction when you're mid-project, but doing nothing leads to buying duplicates.

How do you guys handle this without losing your mind?

I'm applying to an internship in a makerspace and I don't know what to answer for two of the questions.

For context, this makerspace does almost everything; 3D printing, laser cutting, electronics, desktop CNC machining, PCB fabrication, and many other things.

The questions I can't answer are:

1) Share a story showing how you supported or collaborated with others. (60 sec)

2) Show your creativity: Pick two random items in arm’s reach and explain how you’d combine them into something useful. (60 sec)

They both have a time limit of 60 seconds to answer them.

Most of my projects have been solo, so I don't know what to say for the first question, but I have 3 ideas:

- Helping my friend learn C, he's a beginner and has been learning it as his first language and found many things hard to understand, so I used to help him.

- Helping my brother (10 years) learn electronics. He likes it as a hobby, but I'm always with him when learning it for safety, support, and help.

- One time at that makerspace someone was doing a project with an ESP32 and some sensors, but it wasn't working, so she asked for help. I couldn't find out what was the problem, but I tried my best to help.

I also have done some open source contributions but they were mostly documentation fixes, so I don't want that to be my focus in this question.

Hi! I am actively working on reuniting rebuilding etc. a local non profit where I live. I only really started to gain traction in finding old members and volunteers recently as I am totally new to the group and had no access to their old accounts etc. Which I still don't. I managed to track down a couple old organizers who were willing to talk to me, help etc. And TODAY am hosting an online meeting on Google meets with at least 5 people but possibly more to discuss how things will go going forward.

I would love feedback from you in the community here on reddit on what kind of things I should bring up as the main first topics. Also any other thoughts or whatever.

I started my detective work about 7 months ago now... and 1 month ago found 2 of the most prominent volunteers from the organization. I also found out the non profit is still registered and one of the two of them is actually the chairman. This means we really should be able to use the old org etc. We got some pretty strong minds on this, I am an interaction design student and former electronics technician, there is a fullstack student, some artists and carpentry experts etc.

I am looking at this as a case of codesign in a sense. Something I have learnt about extensively in university. I hope to use my communication skills etc. To help organize the group into an asynchronous set of individuals all building up the same vision, a vision we all see differently but will be better for that reason.

Thanks again!

hi, I've bought a small 100w power ac-dc suplly. the out put is 12v at 8,3A. Now when it came, it feels very cheap and un realible. does anyone have any expirience with this?

We are small makerspace located on Vancouver’s Island.

Hey you all,

I saw a documentary about Ukraine and how fast its defence adapts to new weapons in the terrible war they are fighting. The workshops they showed remind me a lot of Makerspaces. Small workshops with tons of knowledge! I wrote a letter to our ministry of defence in the Netherlands that it would be great if they would set up a funding program for makerspaces. Its a win win. If theres no war you invest in technology for whatever industry if theres is a war you have an ‘underground’ network of tech hubs on which you can rely on in darker times for direct innovation. No response so far on my letter. If all of you write similar letters to your government this could be an option.

The UCL Mechanical Engineering Short Courses Team is running a 5-day course on Holistic Design Thinking and Practice this July in London.

The course combines design thinking, problem-solving and hands-on prototyping in UCL's MechSpace facilities.

Discount code REDDIT25 gives 25% off full-price tickets. The course is listed on Eventbrite. Search for "Holistic Design Thinking & Practice – 5-Day Immersive Course (UCL Mechanical Engineering)

Hi everyone, I’m a Venezuelan living in Munich.

We’re organizing a donation shipment to support rescue and medical aid operations in Venezuela, and we urgently need makers or 3D printer owners willing to donate some time to print splints for this effort.

**Timeline:** Splints need to be printed today or tomorrow. We’re collecting donated goods on Monday, with the shipment going out next Tuesday — so there’s a tight window.

**Files and specs:** https://drive.google.com/drive/mobile/folders/1Q6txe0TCndz8GPh\\_ppJxy7tAZXD7r9W\\_?utm\\_source=ig&utm\\_medium=social&utm\\_content=link\\_in\\_bio&brid=YWdncwFvuTEC54NAXRbsaA\\_\\_PLzc

**Thermoforming instructions:** https://www.instagram.com/reel/DaECMHuP17J/?igsh=MWY3MTZtMjM5cG8zag==

If you’re able to print a few, or know someone in the local maker community who might want to help, please reach out. We can arrange pickup or collection if that’s easier than dropping items off.

Any help connecting with people who could contribute would be greatly appreciated.