2016 Milwaukee Maker Faire

Just curious if anyone from our Robo community is planning on going to this years Maker Faire in Milwaukee WI? It is Sept 24-25 at the fairgrounds. https://makerfairemilwaukee.com/ I went last year with my son and it was a great event. Same weekend as their harvest festival. So tons to do, eat, and see. The makers area has hands on learning booths for things like stain glass window making, soldering, dremel tools, RC car racing, and so much more. I found it to be a great opportunity to talk to folks from all sorts of industries like injection molding, laser cutting, cnc, 3d printing, electronics, blacksmithing, crafts and more. It's free to attend. Some of the activities cost a small amount to do, but worth it. If you are in the area and have the time, I do recommend it. It is their 3rd year and is a featured faire this year from Make magazine. So I bet it will be even bigger.

The harvest days has carnival rides, farmers market foods of all types to sample and purchase (like local honey farmers honey blends, kettle corn, jams, oh the food and yummy smells), all you can eat pancakes in the morning, and a lot great booths and displays to check out.

The whole event is great fun for the whole family. My wife and daughter didn't come last year, but after hearing what all was there they are wanting to come along this year. It's the same weekend as the big cranberry festival Warrens WI that my wife and daughter love going to. So not sure if I will be at the maker faire both days or if I will be heading to Warrens on of the days.

Just wanted to let some know about this event in case you never heard of a maker faire. They are all over and you can go to makezine.com to find the listings and maybe find one close to you. If you plan on heading to Milwaukee let me know. I would love to meet some of the folks from the Robo community face to face if possible.

 

I'm looking forward to talking to these guys at the Maker Faire. I'm heading to Madison next week for a couple days and will pass their company on the way up (almost). Maybe I'll email them to see if I can stop by and check out their place. Pretty cool, but expensive.

http://www.thevirtualfoundry.com/

 

What is funny, my dad just came up from Orlando this week and will be going to the Milwaukee faire with us. I keep trying to get him to go to the one in Orlando. I think that this is the 4th year for the Orlando faire. I recommend going Mark. So much fun, and you meet some great talented people at these.

 

Well if anyone ends up being there tomorrow, I'll be the tall guy carrying a black zip bag with Printed Solid in red on one side. I think next year I'm going to save up to go out to the New York Maker Faire as well. Fun stuff. Cheers!

 

Enjoyed a nice long day at the Maker Faire. In fact, my dad talked me into driving back to Orlando with him on 10/20 to attend the Orlando Maker Faire with him. I'll just fly back Sunday night. So @mark tomlinson maybe I will see you there. Lot's of makers to check out. http://www.makerfaireorlando.com/makers/

Pretty much lost my voice talking with folks all day. Got several samples of filament I have never used that are all made in Wisconsin. No...there was no cheese filament. I did get some copper filament from thevirtualfoundry.com that is 90% copper and 10% PLA. It was only $10 for 100g with a polishing kit. When you print this you can just polish it or you can put it in a kiln and that melts off the pla leaving nearly 100% metal product. Looked really cool but is a bit expensive ($85/.75Kg). I'll be trying it out and put something in the filament section here.





Tormach was onsite with a PCNC440 and the PCNC1100. Great to see these in person. Would love to have one in my garage someday. They are around Madison and will have to check them out more at their open house next year. Just missed this years.

So many great things to see and do there. I could have spent a whole other day there. I even found a couple new maker spaces I hadn't heard of that are not far from me. Hopefully I can check them out soon. One has a Tormach PCNC770. Neither have a laser yet but they both said they are in the works of getting one.

 

A local pottery shop has agreed to put whatever I print into their kiln. With only 100g of filament I am wondering what to print with it. They also said that bridging and overhangs are great with it since the copper cools so quickly. I just don't want the print to fail in the middle and then I'm done.

I would think Champaign would have a Maker Faire with UofI right there. They have some great tech.