Make Your Own Circuit Board Luggage Tags

If you’re like me you hate the paper tags that transportation services give you to identify your bags when you travel. Recently I decided to make myself some that were more durable and would look WAY cooler.

I dug around in the shop and found some machinable circuit board blanks that were left over …

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Prototype to Production: A Case Study

At ShopBot, we’re understandably passionate about making things with CNC machines and about the power of digital fabrication tools. We’re always looking for ways to help show what these amazing tools can do, and for items that are made with a ShopBot that showcase several of the processes that a ShopBot tool can handle. …

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Popular Pastime Reintroduced by ShopBot Tools at the Maker Faire Bay Area

The 13th Annual Maker Faire Bay Area, which took place May 18th-20th, once again did not disappoint. The weather was beautiful and there was an estimated attendance of 90,000! Packed with hands-on and how-to sessions, makers young and old were inspired and excited. New programming was added this year: Thursday After Dark at …

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Makerspaces in Education: Becoming Comfortable Using Your ShopBot and Other Digital Fabrication Tools

Showing off projects created on a ShopBot CNC and a laser cutter

Do you own or have access to digital fabrication equipment such as a ShopBot CNC machine, laser cutter, or 3D printer, and an interest in education? Do you want to know more about the software and machines available for digital fabrication in …

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Robota Soars the Skies with ShopBot

Robota’s Eclipse taking flight

While working for a military systems manufacturer, Antonio Liska developed a sensibility regarding unmanned aircraft (UAVs). He was of the mind that unmanned aerial systems could be utilized beyond military applications—functionality that extended into more commercial applications and where they could serve far more altruistic purposes.

When …

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Handibot at the Pilchuck Glass School

Iceberg glass vase in progress – on pipe after being rolled onto textured plate.

In August 2017, Brian Gillespie and Tara Broyhill were artists in residence at the Pilchuck Glass School. During session 6, “Exploration”, they explored how generative design and digital fabrication can inform the form and texture of glass in new ways. It …

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Collaborations and Workshops, Bringing Fab Labs Together in Santiago, Chile

Fab13, the 13th International Fab Lab Meeting, was hosted in Santiago, Chile from July 31 to August 6, 2017. This year’s “Fabricating Society” theme was in action throughout the event. There were six strategic categories: city, housing, innovation and entrepreneurship, environment and energy, education, and decentralization–and each had clearly defined projects.

I …

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ShopBot Joins the 2017 National Scout Jamboree’s Makerspace

One of the many campsite areas from the 2017 National Scout Jamboree

The 2017 National Scout Jamboree at the Bechtel Summit Reserve in West Virginia was a huge event for makers and an opportunity for 40,000 scouts and scouters to learn how much fun a Makerspace can be. The National Jamboree set up a …

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CNC, Skateboards, and Sunshine: ShopBot at Maker Faire Bay Area

This last May, ShopBot headed to San Mateo, CA for Maker Faire Bay Area, the West Coast’s premier gathering of makers, tinkerers, creators, and thinkers. While the event’s intensity and creativity was familiar to past Maker Faire events, there was also a distinctly Californian vibe to all of the proceedings, from the consistently beautiful …

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Digital Fabrication for Educators: Your Place or Ours

Whether it takes place at ShopBot, or on site, a 2 – 3 Day Professional Development workshop gives teachers a chance to hone their skills with digital fabrication machines. Educators starting at all levels, from newby to someone with a year or more experience running their ShopBot CNC router, end up with new techniques …

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