Maker Faire Milwaukee 2015

 This year's Maker Faire Milwaukee has come and gone but there is still time to celebrate all the great projects that came out of this years event! 

The above sculptural installation was a project that was made by the Betty Brinn Children's Museum's own, Kathy Cannistra. Made out of cheesecloth, wood and LED lights, this piece was located in the middle of the Dark room.

Artemis Bridge

Artemis is a multiplayer, Star Trek influenced, game that takes up to five players on a journey in a space craft where everyone has an individual roll. There is one player manning the weapons, one person who acts as a navigator, another player takes the Captain's position. The Artemis Bridge was constructed by the Betty Brinn Children's Museum and all the finishing painting and light effects was done with the Milwaukee Makerspace.

Tesla Coil Demonstrations

There were also Tesla coil demonstrations that were a sight to behold. The largest coil boasted an impressive 1,000,000 volts, and sent impressive 6ft long arcs of electricity around the expo floor. 

Chad Bridgewater

Chad is a close friend of mine that brought his repurposed old Craftsman tools turned CNC machines to the expo. Above is his Craftsman laser cutter, and below is his Craftsman 3D printer. His machines juxtapose new emerging technologies with the rustic look and feel of rusty, aged old machines.

Sterling Engines

There were a few interesting sterling steam engines in attendance at this year's event. A stirling steam engine works on the temperature difference in a cylinder to cause a piston to fire. Really cool stuff! I would love to build one eventually.

Wood Turning and Wood Jewelry

There were beautiful burls turned into wood bowls at the Maker Faire this year. The gentleman that made these bowls came up from Kansas just to exhibit at Milwaukee's Maker Faire! 

What a drive!

Below is a sampling of some of the wonderful jewelry made by students at UWM's Object club. The jewelry ranged in price from $20-$600 and consisted of woods, copper, and even cast silver!

GE Design & Build Challenge

MIAD and UWM Print Clubs

The Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Print clubs came together this weekend to join forces and make prints with families at the event, while also running some massive prints on a massive steam roller!

Jenie Gao and Melissa Lawler inking up one of Jenie's plate.

Here we go!

First proof of the day.

Looks great Jenie!

Operation Makey!

Makey is the Maker Faire mascot, and this year the Betty Brinn Children's Museum built a large scale operation game. Kids were given the opportunity to pull out Makey's fuel cell, faulty circuit board, a loose squeaky belt, and some broken gears, but watch out not to touch the sides or else the alarm will go off!

Fire dancing demonstration

This year at Maker Faire there was fire, and lots of it! The dark room lounge had two fire dancing demonstrations that were not to be missed.

Fire Cannon

I had the pleasure of working on the fire cannon. Pete Prodoehl did all the tough wiring, while I was able to construct the cannon itself. This project went through various iterations first using a mini torch as the igniter on the end of a single nozzle, then we tried four nozzles with grill igniters creating the spark which proved problematic. The final solution was created by Dan Jonke at the Milwaukee Makerspace which utilized refrigeration copper tubing to create a pilot light system on one nozzle that would then ignite all four in a tremendous display that caused some kids giggling with joy, and some crying in fear.

"Toothless"

From how to train your dragon was in attendance this year. The wingspan was around 20 feet, and all welded steel!

RC racing on the Milwaukee Mile

The estimated number of people in attendance at this year's Maker Faire was somewhere around 45,000 people in two days. That is nearly double last year's attendance!

Frankie Flood and the DCRL (Digital Craft Research Lab)

Frankie Flood was my old professor when I still went to UWM and has become a life long friend. He has helped me tremendously with my car and motorcycle issues,  metals projects, and life advice. At Maker Faire he helped spread awareness for all the awesome projects that are coming out of the Digital Craft Research Lab(DCRL).

Frankie is the creator of the DCRL, which is a high-bred workshop/design studio for students to both learn digital design skills and apply those to traditional techniques.

Below you can see one of the 3D printed prosthetic hands that was designed in collaboration with the E-nable Group that Frankie is a very active member in.

2015 Maker Faire Milwaukee T-shirt designs

I was lucky enough to design all three T-shirts for this year's Maker Faire Milwaukee. The first "commemorative" design was inspired by art deco and features a Tesla coil on the back. The second features "Makey" standing in the arches of the Wisconsin State Fair Park grounds. And Finally the third features the state of Wisconsin with the outline of the Milwaukee skyline.