Make: Online: Toolbox Archives

Toolbox Archive: Toolbox

February 8, 2010

Maker Business: Venturing out...

Kicking off our Maker Business series is this piece by Jeffrey McGrew, who along with his wife Jillian Northrup, and their trusty CNC machine named Frank, are a two-person (and a bot) design and fabrication juggernaut. From their design-build studio in Oakland, CA, they do custom interior design, furniture, and such artist wonders as the "Art Golf" course they've set up at Maker Faire. Here, Jeffrey shares some words of advice to those who may be thinking of going "Maker Pro." -- Gareth

Venturing out...

By Jeffrey McGrew of Because We Can

We get a lot of friends and folks asking us about how we got started. And we know a lot of folks through the Maker Faire that would love to turn "pro." So, I thought I'd jot down the six big things that I see as being key elements to getting started in such a business. I hope they help, and I'd love to hear more from other folks! [Chime in via comments. -Ed.]

1. Get as debt-free as possible, and try your best to stay that way.
We would have never been able to buy the robot (or CNC machine) and make the jump to working for ourselves had we not had our financial lives in order first. Having six months in savings to fall back on, no debt, other than a half-paid off car loan, and not taking on huge debts to get started, made it possible for us to make a lot of mistakes and learn things instead of going out with a quick bang. I've met a fair number of people who want to start their own business, but simply can't, due to this single issue alone. No amount of great business ideas, hard work, or luck can overcome the burden of an unstable foundation on which to the start. Also, honestly, once you get your business going, you'll find that your priorities, and what you think is important, will change greatly. If you're really happy (which running our own business certainly make us), then you'll need less stuff anyways. So, save your pennies, don't worry about getting the latest and greatest, and pay off all those loans and credit cards before you take that leap.

2. Plans are worthless, planning is essential.
That quote from Winston Churchill sums up nicely a lot of what you'll need to do when you start a business. You don't need a perfect plan, with every step already outlined, in giant Gantt charts. But you do need a plan. And you need to be smart enough to change that plan as circumstances change. Running a business is more like sailing a ship than launching a rocket. What I mean is that you need a plan, and to be prepared, but honestly, at some point you'll just point yourself at the horizon and go. And then everything will change, you'll need to change direction, plans, and ideas. You'll re-aim for that spot you wanted to get to constantly as the world around you changes in response to what you're doing. And heck, sometimes you'll find when you're halfway there, you actually want to go somewhere else. So don't fret too much and over-plan everything (and therefore never get started), or freak out when things don't go according to your plans. But at the same time, don't aim for that horizon without one!

Exploring the business of making

For the next few months, in concert with our "Your Desktop Factory" themed issue of MAKE (Volume 21), we're going to be exploring the world of "maker business," turning your passion for making things into a means of making money. We'll look at everything from casual commerce, selling small numbers of goods online, at places like Etsy and the upcoming Makers Market, to the running of a more serious and sustainable small business. We'll be talking to, and have guest articles by, maker businessfolk across this spectrum, from those just starting out, to those who are making a comfortable living as self-employed makers. We'll also be touching on everything from the most philosophical questions of why to the more pragmatic nuts and bolts of how.

Do you run a small "maker business?" If so, we'd love to hear from you. If creating such a business is something you've thought about, what questions/concerns do you have? What would you like to see us cover in this series? Let us know in the comments, or email me (gareth at makezine). We'd love for this series to be a useful service to you, especially if going into such a business is a fantasy, but you have nagging questions or reservations that hold you back, or just need a little encouragement from those who've made this sort of career change work for them.

From MAKE magazine:
make volume 21 little cover.jpg
MAKE Volume 21 is the Desktop Manufacturing issue, with how-to articles on making three-dimensional parts using inexpensive computer-controlled manufacturing equipment. Both additive (RepRap, CandyFab) and subtractive (Lumenlab Micro CNC) systems are covered. Also in this issue: instructions for making a cigar box guitar, building your own CNC for under $800, running a mini electric bike with a cordless drill, making a magic photo cube, and tons more. If you're a subscriber, you may have your issue in hand already, and can access the Digital Edition. Otherwise, you can pick up MAKE 21 in the Maker Shed or look for it on newsstands near you!

February 7, 2010

Awesome workshop panorama

Check out UK maker John Honniball's sweet workshop panorama.

This is an almost-360-degree panorama of my computer and electronics lab and workshop room. The four big CRT monitors that you can see were obtained from FreeCycle, as was the iMac. Far left is a Stag PPZ EPROM programmer. At the right-hand end are the HP stack (1980B, 1630G, 3456A) and a Tek 575 curve tracer. Far right is an HP LaserJet 4+ with duplexer. On the electronics bench, you may be able to see an Arduino and some LEDs.

See the panorama full-sized on John's Flickr page.

February 3, 2010

Toolbox: Business cards

In the Make: Online Toolbox, we focus mainly on tools that fly under the radar of more conventional tool coverage: in-depth tool-making projects, strange or specialty tools unique to a trade or craft that can be useful elsewhere, tools and techniques you may not know about, but once you do, and incorporate them into your workflow, you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. And, in the spirit of the times, we pay close attention to tools that you can get on the cheap, make yourself, or refurbish.

In the next few months, we're going to be taking a more in-depth look at "Maker Business," the how-tos of turning your DIY hobby into an actual business. One of the first "brand identity" pieces that anybody going into business needs is a calling card. I know so much of our business interface is electronic these days, but everybody still needs a card for convenient exchange when pressing the flesh. I personally love business cards. I've saved nearly every one I've ever been given. I have a massive collection, going back decades. It's fun to go back through them and be reminded of the interactions that produced them, see the changing designs and typestyles, what people put on them (CompuServe and Prodigy accounts, USENET newsgroups!), etc.

Of course, the cards that get more attention, that stand out, are the ones that are truly unique and clever. In fact, I have a little display in my office with a number of the special cards covered below (Adafruit, EMS Labs, Tom Ward's dot matrix card -- and one of his flashlight cards from my demo of the same at Maker Faire Austin). As a maker, as someone who's working in a domain that's associated with innovative thinking, clever design, creative and new use of materials, embedded technologies, etc., a really stand-out card is almost expected. Today, there are so many options for cool cards you can make, materials you can use, cards of varying sizes and shapes; there's really no reason to not have a card that creates a special first impression (and hopefully a card that the receiver will want to keep, display, show off to others, etc.) Here are some interesting card ideas, mainly ones we've featured here on MAKE before.

Do you have an innovative, unusual business card? Put it in the MAKE Flickr pool and tell us about it in the comments.

Here's a card I bumped into yesterday, laser-etched onto large popsicle sticks. Lots of great possibilities here.

Business Cards - Laser Engraved Big Pop Sticks

January 31, 2010

Workshop envy!

I don't have my own workshop, just a desk in my bedroom that is more likely to have a pile of kid socks on it than an actual project. (Or, even more likely, it would have both projects and socks on it, making for a huge mess...) Consequently, I'm envious of and fascinated by other people's setups. So, please share your workspace, workshop, desk, bench, what-have-you! Leave a URL in the comments, add a photo to the MAKE Flickr pool, or send me an email (johnb at makezine dot com) and I'll post the most interesting ones.

(Thanks to Pat for the photo of his excellently messy workbench.)

More:

Another Make: Electronics lab journal

We've posted about Jim Kelly's online weblog, chronicling his way through our beginning book, Make: Electronics. But Jim's not the only person taking this trip online. Ian Fitzpatrick is doing the same thing. And he's doing video for most of the entries, giving you another way into the experiments. Nice. Many thanks, Ian.

Domo Domo, Ian Fitzpatrick's Project's Log: Learning Electronics

More:
Tom Igoe raves about Make: Electronics
They call it "trouble" shooting for a reason
Jim Kelly's Make: Electronics lab update
Make: Electronics: "Teaching at its best!"
A Make: Electronics lab journal
Make: Electronics - Interview with Charles Platt & Gareth Branwyn
Make: Electronics and the 555 man

In the Maker Shed:

Make: Electronics
Our Price: $34.99
Want to learn the fundamentals of electronics in a fun and experiential way? Start working on some excellent projects as soon as you crack open this unique, hands-on book. Build the circuits first, then learn the theory behind them! With Make: Electronics, you'll learn all of the basic components and important principles through a series of "learn by discovery" experiments. And you don't need to know a thing about electricity to get started.

Deluxe Make: Electronics Toolkit
Our Price: $124.99
Do you want to learn the fundamentals of electronics in a fun and experiential way? Not sure where to start, or what tools you might need? We've taken care of all the questions with our deluxe tool kit from the Maker Shed, featuring our best-selling book, Make: Electronics.

January 29, 2010

Help torture-test Craftsman tools

Craftsman has a social-media marketing campaign going right now where you can suggest ways to stress test the company's hand and power tools. The above videos are the first two in the series.

Creating these tests was insanely fun -- and we're going to create more. But it would be selfish of us to have all that fun without you. So, we're inviting you to help us create the next round. Give us a few good ideas, and if we choose them, we'll shoot them. And you'll get all the glory. So put your thinking hardhat on and let's get freaky.

What do you think, readers? Cool idea? Waste of time?

January 24, 2010

Dream workshop

Flickr user Mtneer sure has a sweet setup! Click on the link to see a bunch more photos of this workshop and some older ones he's had. I'm conflicted, however: on one hand, I'm concerned at how neat his shop is -- the only mess is a beer can on the bench! On the other hand, if I somehow cleaned my workbench I'd take a picture of it too.

More:

January 22, 2010

Gouge a drill press table, hurt a kitten

Gabriel Hargrove, Lynn Lim and William Newhouse at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago's Architecture, Interior Architecture and Designed Objects department found the perfect way to keep students from drilling through the drill press table: hold a kitten hostage. [via Core 77]

January 21, 2010

Clever die makes biodegradable seedling pots from newspaper

The "PotMaker," from Toronto herb gardening specialists Richter's, is a two-part hardwood die that makes it easy to manufacture free biodegradable pots for starting seedlings. The pots are made from strips of newspaper and don't have to be removed before planting. Anja Bartlett has posted a good phototutorial demonstrating its use; if you're interested in buying one please consider getting it through her site!

January 15, 2010

End-cut log cabin studio

AND it's on wheels (and as far as I know, by "wheels," they don't mean logs underneath) [via Dinosaurs and Robots]

Log Cabin Studio

January 14, 2010

Alt.CES: Nexus One on Tim O'Reilly's Radar

Over on O'Reilly Radar, Tim O'Reilly gives his first-blush assessment of the Google Nexus One.

There will be many posts focusing on the look, feel, and features of the Nexus One, so I'm going to focus on what Android's latest incarnation says about the competitive landscape - what I've elsewhere called the war for the web. Android vs. iPhone is one important front in that "war."

One from his plus column:

Google Goggles is still a bit rough, but really promising. I understand why it's not pre-loaded on the phone, but think it has real promise as a must-have app, and one that plays to Google's strengths. I believe that image recognition and speech recognition are key to future UI improvements in mobile devices, and I applaud Google's long term commitment to these areas, even though they aren't yet fully baked. And the awe factor when you see someone point a camera at you and have the app say "That's Tim O'Reilly" tells you just how much more a device can do when it is backed by big data and powerful algorithms running on a cloud platform. (Google has kept face recognition out of the production version of Goggles, but I had a full version demoed to me a few months ago, and it was truly a taste of the future.) Augmented reality is coming to the iPhone as well (Layar, the Yelp Monocle, and ShopSavvy being only a few examples), but this is Google's home turf.

And one from his minus:

I really miss access to my iTunes music collection, which is also where I listen to audiobooks from audible.com. That being said, this omission pushes me back in the direction of cloud music apps like Last.FM and Pandora, though I'm wishing that Rhapsody was available, since I'm already a subscriber via my Sonos home music system. Google has added its own built-in music app, but it has a limited selection, and what's worse, pre-empts the controls on the headset. At least right now, they aren't available to other music applications - pressing the pause button while in Last.FM just starts a competing stream from the Google music app. Unless Google is REALLY serious about getting into the music business, they should give up on their own app and work with third parties to fill this hole.

A Few Thoughts on the Nexus One

More:
Alt.CES: Nexus One teardown
Alt.CES: Google Nexus One an iPhone Killer?

How-To: Model a skull-badge in OpenSCAD

Hack a Day's Devlin has posted a great tutorial on using OpenSCAD (Clifford Wolf's fantastic, free CSG 3D modeling program) to model Hack a Day's trademark "skull badge" from this year's CES. I posted my own (much, much more basic) OpenSCAD tutorial a couple weeks back.

January 13, 2010

Toolbox: Parts storage (excerpt from Make: Electronics)

In this installment of Toolbox, we excerpt a section from Charles Platt's Make: Electronics book. Throughout the book, there's a lot of really useful information on buying tools, supplies and materials, components, and on setting up a home electronics workshop. The material below is from Chapter 5, from the section on "Customizing Your Work Area." The bulk of it deals with parts storage technologies. As anyone who's gotten even half-serious about electronics knows, very quickly, you end up with a lot of tiny little parts that need to be organized in some sensible fashion, otherwise, working on a project amount to spending half your time frustratingly looking through your parts jumble for the components you need.

Excerpt from:
Customizing Your Work Area

Many hobby electronics books want you to go shopping for 2x4s and plywood, as if a workbench has to be custom-fabricated to satisfy strict criteria about size and shape. I find this puzzling. To me, the exact size and shape of a bench is not very important. I think the most important issue is storage. I want tools and parts to be easily accessible, whether they're tiny transistors or big spools of wire. I certainly don't want to go digging around on shelves that require me to get up and walk across the room.

This leads me to two conclusions:

1. You need storage above the workbench.
2. You need storage below the workbench.

Many DIY workbench projects allow little or no storage underneath. Or, they suggest open shelves, which will be vulnerable to dust. My minimum configuration would be a pair of two-drawer file cabinets with a slab of 3/4-inch plywood or a Formica-clad kitchen countertop placed across them. File cabinets are ideal for storing all kinds of objects, not just files. Of all the workbenches I've used, the one I liked best was an old-fashioned steel office desk--the kind of monster that dates back to the 1950s. They're difficult to move (because of their weight) and don't look beautiful, but you can buy them cheaply from used office furniture dealers, they're generous in size, they withstand abuse, and they last forever. The drawers are deep and usually slide in and out smoothly, like good file-cabinet drawers. Best of all, the desk has so much steel in it that you can use it to ground yourself before touching components that are sensitive to static electricity. If you use an antistatic
wrist strap, you can simply attach it to a sheet-metal screw that you drive into one corner of the desk.

What will you put in the deep drawers of your desk or file cabinets? Some paperwork may be useful, perhaps including the following documents:

• Product data sheets
• Parts catalogs
• Sketches and plans that you draw yourself

The remaining capacity of each drawer can be filled with plastic storage boxes. The boxes can contain tools that you don't use so often (such as a heat gun or a high-capacity soldering iron), and larger-sized components (such as loudspeakers, AC adapters, project boxes, and circuit boards). You should look for storage boxes that measure around 11" long, 8" wide, and 5" deep, with straight sides. Boxes that you can buy at Wal-Mart will be cheaper, but they often have tapering sides (which are not space-efficient).

Figure 5-2. Akro-Grid boxes contain grooves allowing them to be partitioned into numerous compartments for convenient parts storage.

Figure 5-3. Lids are sold separately for Akro-Grid boxes to keep the contents dust-free. The height of the box in Figure 5-2 allows three to be stacked in a typical file-cabinet drawer. The box shown here allows two to be stacked.

Tiny printable Dremel-powered lathe

While small lathes are of relatively limited value in my opinion, I've gotta give it up to Thingiverse user cathalgarvey for designing and uploading the parts to print this motor-tool-powered, printable micro-lathe. Would love to see some video of it in operation!

More from cathalgarvey:

January 9, 2010

CupCake CNC build, part 7: Building the Y-stage and adjusting the Z-stage

Before we go ahead and make the Y-stage, lets go ahead and level the Z-stage. It's a really easy process. All you need to do is adjust the nuts on the Z-stage threaded rods until they are all the same height. You did add an extra nut on each of the threaded rod, didn't you? I used a mechanical pencil as a reference point, but you can use anything, just get them all at the same height. Note: It's always best to get a second opinion, be it human or feline.

Now it's time to build the Y-stage. This only takes about 30 minutes and goes together fairly easily. One thing to note, some of the parts are laser etched on the wrong side. Take a close look at the pictures and make sure everything is going together the proper way. Apparently this is only an issue with CupCake CNC machines from batches 6-9.

Let's start by assembling the build platform. My kit came with a few extra, which is a good thing since the one in the picture doesn't work! The build platforms need to have (3) holes in the top to accommodate the (3) screws that are on the Y-stage assembly. I guess they redesigned the Y-stage and forgot to change the build platform. Oops! However, I received (2) additional build platforms in the kit, and both of them have the (3) holes allowing them to sit flush with the Y-stage. Problem solved!

January 7, 2010

Make: Electronics toolkit

We have the Make: Electronics toolkit back in stock! Do you want to learn to solder? Not sure what tools you need? We took the trouble out of searching for all the right tools for the job. This kit includes everything you need to get started in the wonderful world of kit making! We even included your first kit, the WeeBlinky, and a Maker's Notebook to help you document your next project.

Features

(1) 30 Watt adjustable soldering iron
(1) Deluxe Solder Stand & sponge

(1) 1/4 lb Spool of rosin core solder .031" (60/40)
(1) 5ft Solder wick
(1) Digital Multimeter
(1) Wire strippers
(1) Deluxe Wire cutters
(3) 25ft spools of solid core 22AWG wire
(1) Deluxe Needlenose pliers
(1) 5 piece miniature screwdrivers kit
(1) Desolder pump
(1) Panavise Jr for holding PCBs

Bonus!
(1) WeeBlinky Kit - Requires soldering

(1) Maker's Notebook

January 6, 2010

Alt.CES: Nexus One teardown

I love how our pals over at iFixit are always the first in line to buy new gadgets as they come to market, so they can race them back to the shop to take them apart and find out what makes them tick. Their excitement and curiosity is almost palpable, and of course, we all benefit from what they find. Kyle and company just plunked down a princely 530 bones for the exploratory thrill of field-stripping the Google Nexus One.

The Nexus One, manufactured by HTC, is the latest and greatest Android phone. It sports:

* A 1 GHz Qualcomm (QCOM) Snapdragon processor.
* A 3.7" 480x800 widescreen WVGA AMOLED display.
* A 5MP digital camera w/ LED flash that also records .mp4 video.
* 802.11n wireless capability for when you can't depend on 3G.
* 7 hours of 3G talk time from a removable 3.7V, 1400 mAh lithium battery.

Nexus One Teardown

Read Engadget's in-depth review of the Nexus One here.

CupCake CNC build, part 6: Building the enclosure

It's finally time to build the enclosure! The wax finish is fully cured, buffed out, and all the parts are ready for assembly. So, lets get on with the build.

The first step is adding the bearing brackets to the middle panel. These screw on the bottom of the middle layer with the included M3 nuts and bolts.

One in each corner, and... Done! Easy.

January 4, 2010

DIY powder coating oven

Flickr user j_tenkely wanted to do his own powder coating, so he bought a commercial powder-gun and built a custom oven in his garage. He says, "[t]he entire oven cost about $250, but when it runs about $150 to do a bike frame & fork, it's easy to break-even." [via Hack a Day]