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!

I was on the BrainPick show!

I think I've watched every episode of BrainPick so far!  BrainPick is a live Q&A show featuring makers and is hosted by Bob Clagett of I Like to Make Stuff, and Bob had me on the show recently.  You can watch a recording of the interview below!

Bob has had many inspirational guests on his show and it was an honor to follow such a great group of people.  One of the main reasons I started making videos is to document and share what I know about woodworking, and to break out of the workshop and talk about it with other people.  This was lots of fun and the time just flew by.

Thanks to Bob and to everyone who watched and asked questions!  The next BrainPick will be Matt Cremona on January 27th, so click below to tune in!