Category Archives: making

Meetings go so much faster when fewer people attend

Posted on February 20, 2015 by paulwallich

Well, also when you have a basic consensus on what you want to do and most of what you need is fill in the implementation details. The Montpelier Makerspace meeting at the library this afternoon was like that. (Yeah, we’ll … Continue reading →

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Soldering under a microscope is weird

Posted on January 20, 2015 by paulwallich

But I think I could get used to it if I had to. I was at Generator this afternoon, and I forgot to bring my 4X magnifier clip-ons, so I had to use the binocular scopes at their soldering stations … Continue reading →

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Reducing cognitive load

Posted on January 8, 2015 by paulwallich

For christmas, my delightful spouse got me an Eggbot kit. And since one of the resolutions this new year is to build kits instead of just getting them, putting them on a shelf in the basement and dreaming about how … Continue reading →

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Future-proofing the workbench

Posted on December 29, 2014 by paulwallich

I think the workbench was one of the first things I built in the basement after we moved in 14 years ago, out of leftover flooring from the previous place. It’s long since become just one more flat surface punctuated … Continue reading →

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Like kids in a candy store

Posted on December 18, 2014 by paulwallich

This morning I had a short meeting with the Cardboard Teck Instantute (aka Ben Matchstick and Pete Talbot), who have a residency at Generator next month.  These guys are so good at building toys, games, vehicles, whatever entirely out of … Continue reading →

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This year with less risk of exploding batteries

Posted on December 16, 2014 by paulwallich

So there was this spot in our living room that was just perfect for an Ikea lamp. The only problem was that we didn’t want to pay an electrician to put in a new electrical line, or a sheetrock/painter type … Continue reading →

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I am amazed that this works

Posted on December 1, 2014 by paulwallich

I knew those clip-on magnifiers were good for something other than soldering. That’s an 0603 surface mount LED, held down by wire glue. The traces are silver conductive ink, and those huge-looking red and black conductors are 22-gauge hookup wire. … Continue reading →

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A dumb but nice thing I did

Posted on November 22, 2014 by paulwallich

Here’s what I like about having a 3D printer in the basement. Tonight the 9-year-old had a friend over, and we all got some pizza, and on the pizza were a couple of those little legged-spacer things that keep the … Continue reading →

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An unintended consequence of wire glue’s high resistance

Posted on November 16, 2014 by paulwallich

In my previous piece about playing with copper tape and wire glue and silver-ink pen, I was having trouble figuring out a way to hold a surface-mount LED down and get it electrically connected at the same time. Mashing copper-foil … Continue reading →

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With all deliberate speed

Posted on November 14, 2014 by paulwallich

Meeting at the library to discuss makerspace stuff. Way more people than I expected, doing way more interesting things already. We had a lot of discussion about what a setup with multiple spaces might look like, what role the library … Continue reading →

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