Blog | MakerSpace | the north-east space for creative geekery

Saturday 27^th September saw the 3rd Annual eDay technology and maker event take place at Gateshead Central Library.

Maker Space was there again with plenty of Laser Cut Models, 3D Printing, Raspberry Pi, Arduino and electronic projects.

Above photos By David Charlton Photography Courtesty of Gateshead Libraries

Jon’s “Over Eng’D” flying duck and Iain’s Polar Pong gave a new meaning to the words physical computing with a mass of stepper motors and pulleys.

Tony’s “R-Kade” a Raspberry Pi based mini arcade was brought out again to entertain those people wanting a trip down video gaming history. Who would have guessed that Pacman, Galaga and Donkey Kong would still appeal the younger audience.

We had giveaways in the form of Alistair’s designed and laser cut Maker Space keyrings and custom prints on “ball pool” balls from Glen’s “Egg-bot” plotter.

The local radio amateur group, Angel of the North Amateur Radio Club (ANARC) were there for the first time. They had brought various radio receivers and transceivers for everyone to listen to.

Imperial Troops from the 99th Garrison were posted made sure no droids got lost during the days proceedings 🙂 The Stormtroopers, Tie Fighter pilots, Bounty Hunters and Imperial Officers made an impressive sight.

Here’s a short Video of one of the Storm Troopers playing with “Over Eng’D” 🙂

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzU7Yh0jQLQ&

Also present were Vector 76 with their Oculus Rift Demos, HTML workshops, Retro Gaming, ChromeBuild Lego sessions and drop-in maker activities from Victoria Bradbury.

Thanks to Tony for the bulk of the info for this blog, Jon for the video and Jacqui from Gateshead Library for the images

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Sugru Build Night – The Results

We all had a fantastic evening last Wednesday ‘playing’ with Sugru. The guys from Sugru gave us their product for free to make something with so long as we promised to write up what we made on Instructables.com. The idea was to create something new out of Sugru rather than just using it to mend or modify things.

A variety of ideas and designs were created on the night. Some worked better than others. We didn’t have much success making ink stamps using 3D printed moulds. The Sugru just stuck to the mould so still some work to be done there to come up with a solution.

Dragon

Colin dragon Colin made this lovely little model of a dragon to fit on the aerial of his little sports car. I didn’t know he was so artistic!

Tablet Stand

Jon, being the over-engineering genius that he is, came along with a fully designed blue print for his tablet stand made from Sugru and coat hanger wire.

Very original and very well made. Read more about Jon’s tablet stand on his Instructable.

Sculpture

Having completed his stand so quickly, Jon moved on to his next idea. To sculpt a self portrait on the cover of his laptop using Sugru.

So working from his favourite selfie,
Jon portrait he proceeded to sculpt himself out of Sugru with an attention to detail that would rival the best of Madame Tussauds. I think you’ll agree the resemblance is striking. Jon was pleased with the result.

Memo Stand

Alastair came up with a memo stand idea to demonstrate the art of ‘under-engineering’. The beauty is in its simplicity.

Read more about his memo stand in Alastair’s Instructable.

Torch Keyring

Last but not least are Tommy’s fabulous Sugru LED keyring torches. A design classic and beautifully constructed. (We’ll keep quiet about version 1.0 which failed to light up! The LED legs embedded themselves into the Sugru and could not make contact with the battery. Version 2.0 however, with a bit of card over the legs worked a treat). Check out Tommy’s Instructable.

Don’t worry if you missed out on this Sugru Build event. We have plenty of Sugru left over and are planning to run another build evening in the near future. Watch this space!

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Eday3 at Gateshead Central Library