Watch and Learn

I wanted to share a few personally recommended websites, blogs and Youtube channels of that I am constantly returning to.

These inspire and amaze me, I hope they may do the same for you.

 

 

Websites & Blogs:

Hackaday:

http://hackaday.com/

One of the best collectives of hacking culture and insights into manufacture & industry. It is a great community of knowledgeable folks that are interested in all things engineering. Articles and posts range from "hacks" & repairs, coverage of tech conventions, industry perspectives, tech startups & entrepreneur interviews and occasional historic forays into obsolete technologies and innovations. Mostly electronics are covered, but every so often a totally awesome design & construction project gets picked up. Hackaday is home to anyone who has documented a project build online.

Make:

http://makezine.com

Make magazine is an institution. I subscribe to their magazine and visit their site daily. There's always some trick/process/material/machine being written about that will inspire you.

3Ders

http://www.3ders.org/

A great resource for what is happening in both the DIY/bobby and commercial 3D printing/prototyping world.

Ponoko Blog

http://blog.ponoko.com/

Run by a prototyping/fab company, Ponoko, this site has a lot of very useful guides to laser cutting/digital fabrication.

GrabCAD

https://grabcad.com/

A whole world of free high quality CAD engineering models, available in native & non-native parametric/polygon formats.

 

Youtube channels:

Applied Science

Ben Krasnow of GoogleX labs gets up to in his spare time in his workshop. DIY scanning electron microscopes, Supercritical CO2 experiments, lasers, food science! And a lot more..

AvE

(ArduinoVsEvil) A Canadian guy who gets up to a lot of mischief in his garage workshop. He's seemingly a veteran of the mining industry and has worked in hydraulics/automation/electrical/industrial equipment and has a bunch of awesome hacked together projects. This guy rules the powertool tear-downs & reviews (see 'BOLTR' tagged videos).

Clickspring

Another guy's workshop in action. Amazing to see him document his process to scratch build clocks with a mill, lathe, grinder & hand tools.

Dan Gilbert

This man hosts an 18-part series on some fundamentals of prototyping that should I would consider mandatory viewing for any designers/engineers.

EEV Blog

(Electronics Engineering Video Blog)  Tune to see Dave talk & demonstrate everything you want to know about electronics. Old & new tech, there is a video for everything. The old electronics tear-downs are the highlights.

The Post Apocalyptic Inventor

Witness a lone German man's mission to salvage and repair as much as he can in the name of following his passion (and living cheap) In this case his passion is to have an amazing metal/wood/electronics workshop.

GrunBlau (Brian Oltrogge)

Beautiful designs combining CNC machining, sand casting, welding & finishing, all presented extremely well.

Jimmy Diresta

Jimmy has a basement workshop in Manhattan, building commissioned furniture & signage for his NYC clientele. His distinct video style often featuring reuse & recycling old antique junk into beautiful restored pieces is perfectly suited for both learning some tricks & appreciating his sense of design. His "Tips and Tricks" series is also wonderfully useful. Jimmy is a true modern craftsman and a skilled teacher. Look out for his contributions to Make Magazine. 

 

Podcasts:

Still Untitled

Making It

Radiolab

 

 

Enjoy!

JM

Tools of the Trade - Model Making Materials

 

Recently I received a beautiful hand drawn print of Adam Savage's famous tool kit, as seen in Wired, Makezine, Hack-a-day... etc

Being a tool junkie myself, I simply had to have a copy. It is an awesome piece. Not only is it an amazing hand sketch, (reproduced beautifully as a screen print), it is a fully annotated reference to the tools of the former Industrial Light and Magic model maker.

The subject of the drawing is also incredible as a piece of ugly, yet refined, design.You can see the evolution that resulted in two custom build toolboxes that hold each tool in a position where no other tool needs to be moved to access another. AND the tool boxes adjust to work bench height on scissor-lift jacks for maximum working efficiency. Wow.

 

So..

For those who are interested(?) here's my basic tool list (incomplete) that I catalog and add to every now and then. (my recommended brands in bold)

Hand tools:

Wiha Master Technician's driver set
Bondhus Hex keys, ball driver set
Wiha Torx keys/drivers, generic
Knipex Side cutters/diagonal cutters/flush cutters
Spanner set
Socket set
Bench vise
Swivel Vise
Multi grips/pipe grips
Irwin Quick-grips
Irwin locking pliers/visegrips
Assorted G clamps
Jewellers File set
Knipex Pliers/Nippers/Side cutters/ flush cutters set.
Soft (brass & nylon faced) & hard hammers
Scalpel + No.11 surgical blades
Metric & Imperial Tap & die set
Hole centre punch
Pry bar/crowbar
Drill bits, spade bits, hole saws
Dremel bits, cutoff wheels & sanding drums
Wood saw
Hack saw
Coping saw
Tenon saw
Stainless Steel wire & brass wire brush
Knife
Pipe cutter
Rivet gun
Staple gun
Paint scraper
Friskars Scissors
Foam rasp
Tweezers
Paint brushes
Carbide tipped scribe
Dental pick set
Tin snips

 


Power tools:

Corded drill
Heat gun
Hot Glue gun
Dremel
Grinder/buffer wheel
Drill press
Air compressor
Jigsaw
Power sander
Disc/belt sander combo
Butane torch
Shop vac


Measurement:

Vernier calipers
Rulers
Measuring tape
Micrometer
Force gauge
Digital scales
Infra red thermometer
Db meter
Laser rangefinder
Radius gauge
Dial gauge
Calculator
Spirit level
Angle finder
Protractor

 

Electrical:

Soldering iron
Multi meter
Extension cord
Wire stripper
Alligator clips

Terminal Blocks


Safety:

Safety Glasses
Respirator
Ear muffs
Leather Gloves
Latex & Nitrile gloves
Fire extinguisher

 

Consumables:

Zap Cyanoacrylateglue
Two part epoxy & jb weld
Polyester Body filler
Hot glue sticks
Blue masking tape
Double sided tape, Sellotape Preggo
Plastic bond solvent
Gaffer tape
Wet and dry sandpaper, assorted grades
Metho, acetone, turps, thinner
Ptfe Grease
Lithium grease
Silicone grease
Sika Silicone/Polyurethane adhesives sealant, assorted
PTFE tape
Steel wool
Electrical tape
Heatshrink
Flux core solder
Pva glue
Mixing sticks/containers
Rags
Scalpel blades
Sanding discs/dremel cut-off wheels
Wd-40
Kafil Car body filler
Kafil Spray primer
Paint polish
Assorted zip ties


Tool Suppliers:

Wiha - General tools
Knipex - Pliers & snips, crimps etc
Friskars - scissors, & other tools
Irwin - clamps and vises
Kincrome - General Tools
Sidchrome - General Tools
Bondhus - Hand tools/Drivers

 

This list will continued to be updated.  If I can afford it.

 

JM

Building an Extruder

Success! ..Mostly.

Something I've been working on & off on for a few months,

A CNC router conversion to a large format (ABS pellet fed) 3D Printer.

Hopefully will post a build log soon.

JM

 

 

 

The 3D Printer Won't Save You..

"The 3D printer won't save you."

I had said this in passing to a colleague today, as somewhat of an ethos for the design students of the University we both lecture at.

It's currently crunch time for the design students everywhere to submit projects they have been working on for the last semester. Many of whom resort to 3D printers to produce the prototypes & models concepts they develop for presentation for assessment. 

Make no mistake, I love my Makerbot 3D printer, and it's an awesome situation that emerging designers face with the abundance of rapid prototyping options. The ability to go from 3D render on acomputer monitor to physical object in a matter of hours is an amazing thing. And also it makes for lazy, failure-prone designs.

It is an interesting feeling that I love, where I experience a part in front of me with my hands and eyes that I spent hours, maybe months, evolving a deep understanding of an object. An object that emerged from my own imagination. From sketch, to render to prototype, and maybe production. I personally always feel a strange dissociation between the virtual object held predominately held in my mind (from hours in a CAD program obsessing over details) and the real one when it becomes an object I can feel.

However, this feeling in designers is sometimes manifested as surprise when the designer sees their design as real objects. (I have felt this too)

"Oh, it's bigger than I thought it would be!" is fairly common phrase uttered when presented with parts fresh from the printer. That is if printed parts were successful and didn't collapse inside the printer under their own weight. 3D models in CAD usually aren't burdened pesky things like gravity, or other forces (until a simulation is performed at least..) and a designer must usually look to their intuition to imagine if a structure will yield and fail. Even if it is an extremely basic structure or scale model, careful thought must be given to all the functions an object performs. 

The hours spent developing this designer's intuition must come from experimentation, and in my opinion is a crucial attribute in a designer. Experimentation with materials and processes to learn the most fundamental properties of construction in real world is very much outside the abilities of even the best 3D printer. To say nothing of the limited range of materials that you must use for 3D printing processes makes for some uninspired design outcomes.

Designers who only consider the form without considering the function are destined to be unsuccessful.

Don't forget that simply "not falling apart" is a pretty important function that everything needs to perform.

 

JM

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earthbound Problem Solving

"..I solve Problems. Not problems like "what is beauty?"
Because that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy.
I solve practical problems."

The Engineer , Valve Corporation.

 

With the movie adaptation of Andy Weir's The Martian being released this week in Australia (I Haven't seen it yet, but I can highly recommend the Audio book) I've had the issue on my mind of problem solving as a process and a skill.

FYI, The Martian is basically Macguyver in space. And it is pure nerd escapist/survivalist fantasy. And It's pretty great.

I've had my own problems back on Earth, but they are not exactly as serious as the fictional stranded astronaut Mark Watney's. However, the basic steps taken to solve any practical problem are the same, regardless if you are trying to start your car, or troubleshooting equipment on the real life International Space Station.

Example: I was locked out of my garage on Earth. The same steps taken by NASA apply to solve the problem with the least amount of resources consumed.

 

  • 1: Examine and identify the fault.

What is actually broken? My door is a remotely operated electric door now stuck in the down position. Is the remote faulty? is the battery dead? Is the main power off? Is the door just stuck on something?

 

  • 2: Assess the consequences of the failure.

Garage door is only accessible via the electric door. It must be fixed.

 

  • 3: Decide priority of resources to fix it.

Most obvious: Replace batteries in remote. Did not solve problem. Proceed in succession to test other failure modes.

 

  • 4: Stop, think & plan how to actually fix the problem.

Ultimately, the mains power is discovered the failure point. At which point a locksmith is arranged, breaks in and overrides the electric powered door to a manual lock as a temporary fix before the more tedious task of re-wiring the garage.

 

In my vivid imagination, parallels can be drawn between the ISS astronauts solving power supply failures for their life-sustaining equipment, and my stupid stuck garage door.
(similarly we both can't just break open a window to gain access to a stuck hatch. I rent..)

And for those who are not "technology people" and you must rely on radioing mission control for help.. If you are frustrated by calling IT support and think they are condescending for asking you "if it's plugged in?," Calm down, they are following NASA style protocol to diagnose and solve problems as quickly and efficiently as possible.

JM

 

 

 

 

 

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A Maker and a Baker

Hi,

Welcome to what I hope will be a regularly updated collection of my thoughts and insights about my work,  my life and my relationship with design.

I'm a designer.

And I'm a maker. 

I design things, and I make things. It's what I do. Professionally and personally.

CNC machining, laser cutting, 3D printing, welding, scultpting, sanding, finishing, painting.. Anything goes in my workshop.

The latest thing I designed & made was this website. I had time to make it because I recently lost my day job as a product designer, but that's another story..

So now that I've had time to make a website, update my portfolio, speak to potential new employers and reflect on things a bit.. I realize how cathartic, and personally satisfying, it is to me that I make things. Now including bread.

The time I had spent for a month of unemployment has lead to me finding new ways to find satisfaction in what might otherwise have been a rather depressing time. What to do with all that time? Well.. Make some bread.

I had only read about Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's former CTO with degrees in physics mathematics, now turning his mind to the art of cooking as his obsession (among other hobbies like attempting solve some of humanities biggest issues, like eradicating malaria). But I didn't understand his food obsession. Now I am stumbling into embarrassing realization of how well the world of cooking gels with my world of design, and how addictive it can be.

As I type this, the dough for my next loaf is literally rising in the kitchen.. It requires 6h hours minimum before preparing to bake.

It is pure methodology mixed with attention to detail.

In my mind baking bread is like spray painting, for example. The skills translate directly.  You need patience & timing, precise measurement mixed with feel for subtle textures (and their changing properties).

If you rush, you will ruin it. You cannot skip steps. It is a science and an art where you work with raw materials to form something new. And when it succeeds it's a rush.

I'm still spending a lot of time spare in the workshop.

But fundamentally, I think the main appeal is when you design in the kitchen, the results are usually instantly gratifying.

JM

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