What a crazy day at Maker Faire in NYC. We were mobbed all day (which is good) but actually so mobbed I didn’t get to do the live making which we planned to do (I did some forging which worked great, but haven’t even opened my Dragon Skin silicone provided by Reynolds Advanced (who sent some folks over to see our work)). Nicely as part of the GF grant they had a special WiFi network which was reliable so didn’t have any apparent problems. Met @Dan and @Bailey which was a treat (and even met Dan’s wife who is very nice as well). I also got to meet @Tom_A and his son (who seemed somewhat interested in cardiac surgery simulators), along with @markevans36301 dropping by (he’s down the aisle from us nearer the GF booth) and @karaelena dropping by (sorry it was so crazy couldn’t get much of a chance to talk) .
So while not as cool a story as @Dan’s violin bridge story, I looked down at the table today and in my comically naive plan to actually cast silicone in the booth, I realized I was missing a critical mold (which was 3D printed). And I said, hey while I don’t have a 3D printer in the booth (after the nylon incident) but I do have a Glowforge, a quick trip into OnShape to figure out the parts to export and bam, cut it in Blue acrylic which I stacked to form the mold. Worked perfectly (fits a previously molded part so I know it will work) (it’s a bit shallower but that’s not an issue - luckily I had thrown in some acrylic glue in my toolkit.
The booth was mobbed from 10-6 with basically no slow periods. It looked like this all day (and we were demonstrating cardiac surgery stuff!) my voice is so hoarse. I did bring a PA system, probably should use it!
And I can’t thank @Dan and @Bailey enough for the mid afternoon water and ice cream (Dan has strange taste in ice cream treats - that was pretty crazy!) it was a life saver (and thanks Bailey for the spoons!). Alex and I were joking that since we hadn’t peed since 7am that by hospital standards we met nursing “trigger” criteria that we were potentially becoming critically ill…
The only interesting problem I had (not really a problem but an issue I noted) was the 2 first sheet of Draft Board I pulled out of the box has razor slashes in them (clearly a box at manufacturing had been opened by a razor knife) so Rachel from support is addressing that (always handy to have folks from GF wandering by to check on things), since this is the non-cosmetic part of my build it didn’t matter at all, but if that happened to acrylic that would be a problem. Draft board is much harder to get the masking off of, which was slowing me down, but grips super well with CA glue.
Your booth was very interesting! It was good to meet you, and @DarthChesnick, and of course @dan. I’m not good at identifying people, so I wandered around a bit but wasn’t really sure who was who. Nice to see all the lasers going and the cool stuff people are making with them. I was lurking a bit just to listen in on some of the people encountering Glowforge for the first time, and the questions they had.
I feel like Maker Faire itself is in a bit of a decline. I don’t know if they are just being greedy, or poorly managed, or just that corporate interest in appealing to makers is fading. Some of the big players don’t even bother to show up, and many of my favorites have a noticeably smaller presence. Glowforge had one of the larger and more visible booths. I appreciate the investment in MFNY and the community in general.
Thanks so much for taking the time to report. So glad it is working out so well. A big plus to have working wifi. The weather looks super and that surely helps. Enjoy it so much!
Yeah, hard to tell street names vs forum names and the avatars here don’t usually correlate to the person in real life.
My wife & I made the same observation on the drive back home. Heck I didn’t see Google anywhere and Make Magazine didn’t bother with their huge kit shop - the guy I asked about it said they didn’t want to send another tractor trailer from the West Coast.
It was great to meet @henryhbk, @bailey, @chris1 and @nancielaing! I’m mostly a lurker here since I don’t have my GF yet, but I’m impressed by all of you!
What an incredible day. These are my people. Geeks, nerds, engineers, and artists.
I have no point of reference on whether maker faires are declining or not as this is my first. I do know that those her are mostly awesome and love to share their knowledge.
I spent a large part of my time with the ShopBot guys helping out with their booth.
The best parts of the day are right at the beginning and the end as that is when folk have some time for deeper conversations.
As much as I am thrilled at the ones of you I met, I’m disappointed that I also was missed several of you.
Of those of you that are returning tomorrow we we really need to arrange a rendezvous.
Met @dan and his wonderful wife late in the day in front of @henryhbk booth and ended up taking about 20 minutes! Worth the trip right there. The man can speak in depth in quite a few disciplines. I’m more confident about this project than I have ever been before and I was a believer already.
The booth was incredible! I loved seeing the mitral valve repair simulator in person. Even better was meeting everyone. We’re so lucky to have such awesome folks as customers!
And if you’re wondering about the ice cream, it was this…
Not far from Maker Faire is Flushing’s amazing Chinatown, one of the best places to eat anywhere. We may have stopped at Snowdays on our way home. I may have eaten a bowl of shaved ice with Cap’n Crunch cereal, blueberries, and peanut butter sauce on top.
I pre-ordered the Prusa i3 mk3 last night actually (if they’d have had them at the show, I would have simply purchased one since my BB is down hard (I’m going to see if I can get that massive lump of nylon 910 off the head and replace the cracked carriage but not hopeful)
Most of the attendees are going to be relatively local. Not many hardcore visitors that are going to travel 1500 miles to go to one. A big company should be doing the bicoastal shows if they want to reach a non-local audience. It’s a marketing expense.
My friends and I have gone to BAMF for the past several years and were quite disappointed with the latest one. We had the same feeling that there was very little of interest. For the first time, we covered it all in one day and didn’t bother going back.
I can’t compare it to other Maker Faires but as far as I was concerned, BAMF was big and bold and well-attended. If it had less energy than before, I can’t imagine what it would be like full bore!
acrylic which I stacked to form the mold. Worked perfectly (fits a previously molded part so I know it will work) (it’s a bit shallower but that’s not an issue - luckily I had thrown in some acrylic glue in my toolkit.
