Maui Makers Having Fun Making and Learning Together in Paradise!

Oops. Its been over a month since I posted here. Our makers have been busy, just not posting here. Most of the activity has been over on the GoogleGroup, with a smattering of updates to the Flickr Sites (Jerry’s, and MauiMaker) and Picasa albums. I signed up on Google Plus and its been a busy there too. I like it ... Read More »

This past week saw a few major steps in the chill box. This post describes building the acrylic container holds the parts and the plantings.. Cole came over to my (Jerry) home on Friday to work on the container.  I had a couple long (8×2′) sheets of 1/4″ acrylic.  We picked one and then cut it in half with a ... Read More »

I’m going to host a Maui Makers meeting at my home on Thursday November 18, 2010 from 5:30-11pm. I’ll show the Epilog Laser cutter, Makerbot 3d Printer, and some of the other tools and toys I have here. Festivities will start in late PM (5:30) and continue until everyone (but me) leaves. I’ve got a grill if you want to ... Read More »

This post is an amalgam of several news items I read recently. First off an article on the LilyPad’s success in bringing women into electronics projects. From a post in BoingBoing: “MIT’s Leah Buechley and Benjamin Mako Hill recently published a paper called LilyPad in the Wild: How Hardwareʼs Long Tail is Supporting New Engineering and Design Communities, about the success ... Read More »

A long-in-process project here at home has been laser etching the stairs in my home.  I had new bamboo flooring put in, and that included the stairs to the loft.  The project took several months because I was commuting back and forth between Maui and So Cal.  Last visit I got all the panels etched and painted.  Yesterday the installer ... Read More »

Continuing my experiments with the Epilog Helix laser cutter, today I decided to try some photographs. I found some old black and white pictures I had scanned, and a couple recent digital snaps. I tweaked the B&W photos in PhotoShop to adjust colors, levels, etc. For reasons I dont quite understand yet, the B&W pictures did not transfer into Corel ... Read More »

I’ve been experimenting with the Epilog Helix 24 the last week or so.  I picked up several new types of wood, including some 1/8, 5mm and 1/4″ plywood.  My flooring vendor also gave me a whole bunch of samples/discards.  I also acquired a few narrow pieces of pine (?) when my wife ran a cheap cutting board through the dishwasher. ... Read More »

The new HP desktop seems to be working fine, although it has to stop and think sometimes.  Amazing that with such great increases in computing and graphics power, the user experience is still pretty much what it was 20 years ago. Yesterday I burned some more flooring samples. I had to recreate (again) the artwork, since previous versions are stuck ... Read More »

So that Acer 7736 that was recommended for Fab Labs died on me.  First it would not read USB flash drives – they wouldnt insert and when inserted were not recognized.  It refused to recognize any USB devices plugged in.  Then after I’d gotten a couple test articles done on the Epilog Laser Cutter, it refused to wake up.  The ... Read More »

We now have a Laser Cutter/Etcher!! This afternoon (6/24/10) my Epilog Helix 24, 40 watt laser cutter finally arrived at my home in Haiku, HI (Maui).  The laser can do a variety of cutting and etching.  The manufacturer provides a good reference page that shows the types of materials that can be cut and/or etched. The laser shipped a week ago ... Read More »