Category Archives: the make-o-sphere

Toronto Maker Festival 2017 coming this weekend!

Hey WR, the very excellent Toronto Maker Festival is coming this weekend to the other end of the Waterloo Region/Toronto *maker* corridor. You should go. 9-5Sat/10-5Sun, free-no-pay, tons of hands-on making at the fantabulous Toronto Reference Library on Yonge north … Continue reading

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I helped meta-make this: Maker Expo 2016

It’s been almost two weeks since we delivered another Maker Expo for Waterloo Region. Even when the show was over, there was still a lot to be done like thanking sponsors, returning gear, capturing lessons-learned, submitting expenses, surveying everyone and … Continue reading

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Calling all WR makers!

The TL;DR: I’m asking all makers of all things in Waterloo Region to please apply as an exhibiting maker for Maker Expo. Deadline is Canada Day, which is Friday. The event is Sept 10, but we need to put the … Continue reading

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Repost: MakeKW visits hacklab.to

Well, it is Throwback-Thursday, so I’m bringing back some old stuff  from the deep web after seeing a comment from my friend and hackerspace meta-maker, Seth Hardy. He worked hard helping to build hacklab.to in Kensington Market and then Site … Continue reading

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UW maker study wraps up and looks forward

Remember that UW study in the make-o-sphere that kicked off around this time last year? Well, it came to a successful conclusion very recently and we all met up for lunch yesterday to celebrate. Here is PhD student Katie Kish … Continue reading

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Plumbing and transferrable makerly skills

Regular readers may recall that I had water on my basement floor last month. And despite the necessary washing machine maintenance, the water leak culprit turned out to be this plastic drain pipe behind the furnace. It had been unknowingly … Continue reading

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Demystifying the made world

This is not the hyperdrive on the Millennium Falcon. It’s the pump/motor/transmission on my washing machine. I got the shouted call from the basement last Sunday akin to “Houston, we have a problem” except worse: “Water on the floor, machine … Continue reading

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On DIY injection molding and living in the future

There are few things more beautiful to me than machined aluminum. So, I was delighted when my friend Brett Shellhammer invited me across the Hub courtyard last week to check out the plastic injection mold he had milled and test … Continue reading

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Maker Club–extending innate makerliness

This is Charlie. He is 6 years old. With a little help from his Aunt Dinah combined with gear/know-how/meetup from Maker Club, Charlie is learning how to solder. It is the most fundamental skill required to jump off into the … Continue reading

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Making for the masses–a UW study kicks off

Professors Steve Quilley (above), Rob Gorbet, and Marcel O’Gorman, all of The University of Waterloo, have secured a small Metcalf Foundation grant to “study the impact of accessibility of ‘making’ technologies for ‘ordinary people’ on their sense of self(-worth) and … Continue reading

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