Cool Stuff at Maker Faire Atlanta 2015!

Rainy weather wasn't enough to stop me and my daughter from checking out Maker Faire Atlanta this year!  This was our first time attending a Maker Faire and we weren't sure what to expect.  It was lots of fun and we got to play with some cool stuff.  We were greeted by this huge inflatable MAKE: robot.

There was a small parking lot full of crazy bicycles.  This couch-cycle looked much more comfortable than the bicycle seats I remember having on my bikes.

This marble run was made from cardboard tubing.  This looks like a great use for all of those paper towel and toilet paper cores that you're not sure what to do with but yell through them.

The Google booth was showing off their Google Cardboard Virtual Reality goggle thingies.  We checked out a Jurassic Park style one with dinosaurs and an Amusement Park one with roller coasters.  Basically, you can pan around a virtual 360 world and look around.  Pretty cool stuff.

Georgia Tech students were showing off their Solar Powered Racer.  They said this one maxes out at 55 mph, but the best cruising speed is about 25-35 mph.

I finally got to meet the Geekspace Gwinnett folks at their booth.  They meet regularly within a few miles of my house, so I'm going to have to go check out their maker space.  I understand that their X-Carve CNC Machine is larger than the 1000mm version that I have.  Wow!  Evelyn enjoyed shooting their adjustable catapults that help kids learn about physics.

Carmichaels are suckers for musical instruments.  We had to have a turn at the thumb drums in the Geekspace Gwinnett booth.  They were very cool and sounded great.  I've added this to my project To Do list.

This giant robot was on display at the Geekspace Gwinnett booth as well.  I wonder what goes into making a big robot like this.  It looks really cool and heavy, but I see shoes there, so you must be able to wear it.  Rad!

It was good to see some woodworking going on.  Rockler had a nice booth with live woodturning.  Check out the smile on that kid's face.  Love it!

There was a giant Wolf puppet in one booth.  This is just the head.  It's legs were next to it.  Pretty cool and creepy at the same time.  I didn't catch what the booth was though.

For the second weekend in a row, I got to chat with Bob Clagett of I Like to Make Stuff at his booth.  It was cool to see some of the projects that he made in his videos, plus I got to meet his wife Ginny.  They are really nice folks from just a few hours down the road in Savannah.

We ended up bringing home some Google safety goggles and pencils, plus I got some ILTMS gear.  Thanks for the ILTMS Pencils and X-Carve Knob Bob!

The Woodworking Shows are coming!

The Woodworking Shows just posted this video about the upcoming shows.  I'm looking forward to the show in Atlanta in March of 2014.  I'm sure our Gwinnett Woodworkers Association will have a booth again and I had a blast helping out in the booth last time.  As if the last show wasn't fun enough, they are making some more changes to improve the show. 

It's especially exciting to see increased focus on getting children involved in woodworking.  The project showcase is being changed to organize projects into different categories instead of lumping them all together which will be a nice touch.  If you have the opportunity to go, I highly recommend checking out The Woodworking Shows! 

Here are some highlights I captured at the last woodworking show in Atlanta.  If you attend the Atlanta show, be sure to look for me and say hello!