2010 San Mateo, CA Camp/Maker Faire

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Shopbot and the Maker Faire are a great pairing. It draws talented ,creative people who are interested in learning about the latest in technology, and we always wind up meeting, and working with some really interesting folks.
By combining the Camp with the Faire it gives us a chance to share some of this info, and also showcase the work local Shopbotters are doing. We had a good turnout again this time around, and in spite of the hustle, and bustle of thousands of people setting up their booths and exhibits all around us we made a good day of it.
Ted Hall began with the latest news from Shopbot, and explained some of the upcoming products which will be released around the middle of Summer.
Brian Moran of Vectric got up and answered questions about Part Wizard, and Aspire.
Ed Stutz showed us how he is using his machine to make ” building jigs” to aid luthiers in building guitar necks.
Ron Moorehead spoke about his experience in building a variety of projects on the Bot
Chris Schaie showed the group his ” aperture” which has been featured on the Forum before, and he explained what he went through in learning how to cut brass. ( We asked Chris to bring the piece over to our Maker Faire booth so we could show it to a few people, and it was SUCH a success, he won an ” editor’s award” for craftsmanship…!).
David Ten Have of Ponoko explained the history of “100Kgarages.com” for us, and answered numerous questions about how he hopes it will be established.
Jeffrey McGrew, and Jillian Northrup of “Because We Can.org” described some of the marketing techniques they had covered at the Jamboree, and gave a number of great ideas for those trying to expand their business horizons.
After lunch we had a session on building, and using an indexer, and then we all went over to the ” Show Barn” area where we had two new Tyros set up and cutting. The rest of the afternoon was spent discussing individual issues with some people, while
others wandered around the fairgrounds to see the booths and exhibits being set up.
On Saturday and Sunday we were absolutely slammed with a huge number of people visiting our booth. We were sharing a building with the ” Tech Shop” and there was a constant stream of visitors stopping by to see the Tyros, as well as the Buddy we had running. We used the Buddy to cut out a number of large pirate skulls out of Precision board HDU (see picture above), while the Tyros were cutting circuit boards, vinyl decals, key chains, etc.
There was the usual gathering of electric powered giraffes, and creatures. Ingenious ways of using different materials, as well as more traditional crafts were being displayed everywhere on the grounds.
The ” show piece” of the Faire this year was a large rocket ship which appeared to be made from old Airstream trailers, and Angus Hines got to climb into the ship for a look around.
Everyone who stopped by loved the Tyros, and I think there will be a bunch of them headed West once they are available for shipment.
And finally, we will be helping the local owners setup their own “SF Bay area user group” in the near future.
It was a long, but very successful week……..

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