(OT?) Machining at the Faire. . .

[Frank Ford]

I just spent a memorable weekend at the Maker Faire in San Mateo, CA. An annual event that draws tens of thousands, this is quite an assembly of nerds, mechanics, techies, crafters, clowns, professionals, inventors and instructors. A day there will give you the impression that there is hope yet for craft of all kinds.

Some months ago I had donated my old lathe to the Tech Shop, a local membership driven do-it-yourself machine shop and fabrication facility. The founder, Jim Newton, told me that as "punishment" for my donation I'd have to demonstrate the machine at the upcoming Maker Faire. Tech Shop had a large presence there, and had demonstrations of manual and CNC milling, lathe work, welding. plasma cutting, aluminum casting, powder coating, laser engraving, 3-D printing and other stuff. Although it's a "for profit" business, the Tech Shop is the kind of place where the majority of dues paying members are also volunteers for all kinds of projects, so there was no shortage of labor to schlep the tons of machinery and stuff to the fairgrounds.

I tooled up for a simple project, and on Saturday and Sunday I, along with a couple of "relief" assistants, gave nearly 100 newbies their first taste of running a metal lathe:



I had the extreme pleasure of meeting quite a few kids who had an immediate grasp of what was going on and who displayed really good mechanical sense. Here's Alison taking over for a while:




We made these:



A little brass item that looks like an apothecary weight, it has a 3/8" neodymium rod in the bottom so it makes a really strong fridge magnet. Each participant not only went home with one, but also got the feel of facing, drilling, turning, form cutting and knurling. The knurling really lit 'em up - after all it is a little bit of magic.

Should you ever have such an opportunity, I recommend teaching kids this kind of thing - they are the farm team, you know.

More about:

Tech Shop

Maker Faire

Cheers,

Frank Ford
FRETS.COM
Gryphon Stringed Instruments
My Home Shop Pages

[John R]

Congratulations, Frank. You might have pointed some people in the right direction.
Please tell us how to make that knurl
thanks
John R

[Ries]

Thank you Frank, for donating your lathe, and for demoing.

I think the Tech Shop is a great idea, and its interesting to me that it is taking place in hippy dippy (and I say that as an old hippie myself) Bay Area, rather than somewhere in the rust belt.

The entire Make magazine/ Robot Wars / Mark Pauline SRL / Burning Man group of movements is very heartening to me- its young people, by and large, who are making stuff with their hands. If schools dont provide a way to learn metalworking, they make it up on their own.

Its fun, its crazy, and it contradicts prevailing wisdom that all kids today care about is video games
.

[Nick Carter]

I'm finding that more of my lathe and mill customers are interested because of these things, doing art and cool tech projects. It is heartening. Sometimes I have no idea what they want to do, but after we talk awhile I figure it out. Home Machining/Welding/Fab is to these neo-hippies-bohemian-tech-artists-steampunkers the way fine woodworking was to those crusty old hippies in the 70's - a lost art and a way to make cool stuff.

Everyone loves steam engines...

The entire Make magazine/ Robot Wars / Mark Pauline SRL / Burning Man group of movements is very heartening to me- its young people, by and large, who are making stuff with their hands. If schools dont provide a way to learn metalworking, they make it up on their own.

Its fun, its crazy, and it contradicts prevailing wisdom that all kids today care about is video games
.

[Your Old Dog]

Way to go Frank! Tell me that 8 year old kids were cutting threads and I'm out of here !!

It's really a nice feeling to give of yourself. I did several ham radio displays and county fairs and they are fun and it's surprising what you learn by organizing your thoughts well enough to convey them to others.

[Bill Pace]

I hereby grant and bestow Six (6) ATTABOYS to Frank Ford!!

Thanks Frank........

[Frank Ford]

John -

Not having a source for those knurls, and wanting to try something new, I decided to try making my own:



It was a challenging and fun project - here's the full story

[Rex]

Frank
that's very cool! I commend you for giving your time to something as worthwhile as this. Now I'm wondering if there's anything like that around the DFW area.
Thanks for sharing - there and here too

Rex

[rklopp]

Dang, Frank, I wish I'd have known that was you. There was too much to absorb. I did find the TechShop "Dean of Education" and offered to teach a class for them. Now I have to find the time to pull something together.

Anyway, I applaud you for giving them your old lathe and finding time to teach. Your old lathe looks virtually identical to my old Jet.