World Maker Faire New York 2016
I just got back from an extra long weekend in New York City. Definitely a whirlwind trip but the main reason I went was to check out the World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Sciences in Queens. It did not disappoint!
Here’s the highlights of what I saw:
Ono 3D Resin Printer
This is the Kickstarter formally known as OLO which is a $100 resin based 3D printer project I backed (yeah, I know). The simple concept uses a smartphone to activate resin in a container to print a 3d model. It was great to see so many print & resin samples, actual hardware and meet and talk with the creators. While it hasn’t shipped yet, they told me they are weeks away from final certification and shipping. The printer wasn’t printing at MF but to be fair, it’s not the most ideal setting for that given how it works and that their booth was outside. It sounds like we’re also close to getting access to the app the powers everything. The hardware is pretty simple – it’s just a black box with a stepper motor that moves the build platform up from the top of the smartphone.
We The Builders
Next up was my friend Todd Blatt’s booth for We The Builders which is a crowdsourced & printed project. He was showing the previous prints the project had worked on as well as the next one they are taking applications for now which looks like it will be amazing. Todd also had samples of his goblets that he had cast from 3d printed molds which were stunning in person.
Prusa Research
Josef Prusa is truly one of the pioneers of desktop 3d printing. His original Prusa Mendel printer design was the first one I made when I started out in 3D printing and he’s continued to design and innovate new methods. Just before MF, he dropped the bombshell announcement that he’d figured out an inexpensive way to use up to four different colors or materials on a single extruder 3d printer. An extra bonus was that he brought it to Maker Faire and it would be on display and printing as you can see in the photos below. We’ve been connected on the internet since those early days and I was happy to finally meet him in person too. His i3 Mk2 & upgrade kit is quite likely my next printer going into my workshop.
Speaking of meeting people, I was also happy to finally meet the Ruiz Brothers who do most of Adafruit’s great 3D printing projects & videos and we got a photo:
I also got to meet the Great Fredini (aka Fred Kahl) who was one of the first people I found experimenting with 3D scanning using Kinects (and was an inspiration for my work on 3D Canada) and see some of his work and experiments in glass casting from milled molds.
Continuing on the name dropping (sans photos unfortunately), I also got to meet Becky Stern at the NYC Resistor booth and Star Simpson at her booth showcasing the Circuit Classics project she created.
I also got to finally meet Windell and Lenore of Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories (makers of my beloved Eggbot) who were showing their latest project, the AxiDraw.
The Wazer ‘desktop waterjet cutter’ was also on display. It’s awesome but just a little out of my price range.
Sisyphus
Bruce Shapiro’s stunning kinetic art & furniture with embedded automatic sand sculptures created by a metal ball rolling around creating patterns in the sand.
TinyCircuits.com
I couldn’t resist buying this little Arduino powered arcade cabinet that actually works!
SeeMeCNC – Part Daddy
Easily the biggest 3D printer I’ve ever seen, SeeMeCNC was showing their line up of printers along side the Part Daddy, a custom made printer with a 9 foot build area. My pal Joel Telling was at their booth meeting and inspiring fans. Fun facts about the Part Daddy is that it uses raw plastic pellets rather than spooled filament (a lot cheaper) which is pulled up to the custom extruder with a shopvac. While I was there they finished a 30 hour print of the rocket you can see in the photos.
A few more photos of various projects/booths:
As a side bonus, when trying to decide what to do with the extra days I bookended Maker Faire with in New York City, I thought it would be fun to visit a bunch of the filming locations for Mr. Robot for a couple of reasons. The main reason is that they don’t really hide NYC in the show and the locations are quite spread around and gave me a great variety of places to visit that weren’t necessarily landmarks and tourist traps but were close enough that I got a dose of those too. I also happened to be in those neighbourhoods over the course of my trip and would go a little out of my way to get the photo. Coney Island being the only specific excursion but I also got to eat a Nathan’s hot dog at the home of the eating contest and see Fred Kahl’s amazing Luna Park 3D printed model inside the Coney Island Museum.
I primarily used this guide for the key locations but had to suppliment it with additional Googling since newer episodes had aired since it was published. So spoiler alert! I didn’t have enough to hit all the locations but I think I got most of the iconic ones given the time I had in NYC.
On my last day in NYC, while walking through Central Park, I wondered if I’d run into anyone I knew (or a celebrity). Of course, of all the people to run into, I ran into Joel…so here’s the unplanned meetup but slightly staged high five photo:
Special thanks to my friend, Liisa for letting me crash at her place, indulging in my Mr. Robot adventures and letting me drag her to Times Square on a Saturday night grab souvenirs for my girlfriend.
