Making Stuff
Senator Blumenthal, If Your Staff Has A Problem Giving You A Brief On Firearms And Manufacturing Technologies, I Can Help.
Perhaps then you would not look like a blithering idiot on television. Of course you weren’t the only idiot.
Musing About Pencils
When I was growing up there was a small pencil factory in town, the Ruwe pencil company. They had their shop in a small building on the West side of town and I think that just about every pencil in school came from them. I think that I went on at least one field trip there as well. At least I remember the mills and gluing machines working away.
Using Solidworks For 3D Printing
This looks like it would be pretty easy to do for somebody who’s fairly experienced in Solidworks.
Solidworks is a powerful tool for designing parts. When I think that I have mastered the program, I see stuff that makes me want to learn how to do it. This sort of thing, for instance. I don’t have a 3D printer right here, but I do have a makerspace with printers nearby and some ideas for projects. Now all I need to do is crank up Solidworks and draw them up.
Building A Maker Society
Why is manufacturing important? I wish that I didn’t have to point this out, but apparently many people don’t really understand the difference between service work and work that actually adds real value in goods. The problem is that services just push money around without actually producing any real assets.
Building Platforms
Recently I did a couple of posts about self publishing.
https://theartsmechanical.wordpress.com/2017/01/14/some-more-on-self-publishing/
There’s been a ton of good stuff lately on building a web platform. Right now, I suspect that for anybody who does anything remotely creative knowing how to create and build a presence on the web is going to be essential.
How “How It’s Made” is Produced
“How It’s Made” is a quirky program on the Science channel. What it is a demonstration of how various products are made. Each segment is about 5 minutes long and on the cable channel the program will have four or so to make up the 20 minute show(1/2 hour with commercials). Here’s a short segment from a typical show. This one is for vacuum rated ball valves.
Maybe Corporations Should Inspire Creativity Rather Than Sustainability
Back in the 1930’s and through the 1960’s GM. Fisher Body ran a program and a competition to get young, mostly boys but I don’t think girls were excluded, inspired into making and creativity. This was the Fisher Body Craftsman’s Guild.
Machine Tools And The Men Who Created Them.
Back when I started this blog I posted some pics from the Watts Campbell factory in Newark NJ, a more or less early 20th Century steam engine factory that was stuck in amber for fifty years.
Make Your Own Spot Welder, A Let’s Build Project.
When I was working on the sheet metal post, I had forgotten this article in Make Magazine on how to make a spot welder. Having a spot welder is very useful when working with sheet metal and small parts. It’s also a good start project to develop skills that will help you later.
The Arts Mechanical 