The second DIY presenter was Bre Pettis (Founder, NYC Resistor ) on “Commonist Objects” and Rapid Prototyping Technology.

We have access to a wealth of information on the internet. Instructions for building machines, buildings (I think that’s the weirdest word for an inhabitable structure), furniture, you name it. We can even build machines that can make parts for themselves, like the RepRap . We don’t have to buy objects that were mass-manufactured in some far away country… With what we can find on the internet, we can make just about anything ourselves.

Bre’s Reprap printed mint tin (photo by Chris Casciano)

Bre’s presentation was fantastic. It’s great to see someone who’s really excited about what they’re doing talk about it. He showed a handful of videos about different methods of fabrication – from machines that read punched tape to carve an object out of some material to high powered water jet machines that do the same. He also demo’d a vector graphics program called Inkscape which can be used to create a model for use with many fabrication machines.

Wanna try to do it yourself? Check out Instructables and Thingiverse – you can download designs created by others and fabricate them out of whatever materials you choose. I think that the planetary gear card is pretty neat. You don’t need access to anything special to make it, depending on your choice of material. A razor and some card stock will suffice.

Check out this portion of Bre’s presentation: http://vimeo.com/2955562