I work at my university’s makerspace and I absolutely love it. are there jobs like this in the real world?

something that would allow me to be creative and work in all areas of engineering (not just my major)? I get to operate and teach students and faculty how to use equipment in the machine shop, wood shop, electronics lab, 3D printing, laser cutting, embroidery machine, vinyl cutter, cricut, and more. I also get to help organize, market, and run large events for the campus community.

if real jobs like this exist what are some ways I can find them? like job titles to search for or companies to look at?

Was fully expecting to scorch right through this denim cap since keeping the focus on a curved surface without a proper hat jig is usually a nightmare. Stuffed a rolled-up towel tight inside the crown to flatten it out and ran a low-power pass on my aliencell laser just to see if it would bleach the indigo dye instead of burning the cotton.

Somehow it actually worked lol. The faded texture came out a little more uneven than I expected, but the fabric survived, so I'll take that as a win for a first attempt.

Still figuring out the best way to keep curved hats at a consistent height without a proper jig.

Inspired by Pelham Puppets, I made a marionette of a clown character she designed

I'm looking for something to do with this equipment I got for free. I think it all works, but I don't have a need for a concert at my house lol.

Do you have an idea? Can I use them as is for something? Can I repurpose it for something? Can I take it apart to create something useful with the components? Can I make art? A science experiment? Anything other than setting it on the curb?

Appreciate your help. And feel free to suggest other subs if appropriate.

Thanks!

The Problem: Commercial high-torque linear actuators are often closed-box, impossible to repair, or prohibitively expensive. I wanted precision, variable stroke control, and full modularity.

The Build: I engineered this around NEMA high-torque steppers, MGN12H rails (250 mm), and an ESP32 controller. The biggest challenge was getting the structural rigidity right without making it impossible to assemble at home. I ended up designing custom jigs to align everything perfectly.

The Specs:

• Variable stroke control

• Industrial-grade linear motion components

• Fully modular design

Open Source Files: I want to keep this technology accessible, so I’ve documented everything. You can grab the complete STEP files, DXFs, the Bill of Materials, and my full PDF builder's guide here:https://lm42p.com/diy

Let me know if you have any questions about the kinematics or the Next.js/Vercel setup I used to host the docs—happy to talk shop!

Bonjour à tous ! 👋

⛄🎄 NOUVELLE CRÉATION 3D – UN ADORABLE BONHOMME DE NEIGE ! 🎄⛄

Je vous présente ma toute nouvelle création : un adorable petit bonhomme de neige qui ne demande qu’à rejoindre vos décorations de Noël ! 😍

Avec son grand chapeau noir, sa jolie écharpe rouge, ses petites moufles et ses bottes assorties, difficile de ne pas craquer pour sa petite bouille !

🎄 Au pied du sapin, sur une étagère ou pour offrir, il apportera une petite touche de douceur et de magie à votre décoration de Noël ! 🎁

👨🏼‍🎨 : @mika3d_print
🖨️ : Bambu Lab X2D & H2C
🧵 : Bambu Lab
🎨 : Nomad Sculpt
🌈 : avec et sans AMS
📁 : https://makerworld.com/fr/models/3597347-snowman-v2-multipart-no-ams

Hello, I want to ask for some detailed advice on how to create a cyberdeck. I've watched videos before but I really don't know how, any advice is appreciated.

Edit: Thank you to those who gave their insights, I'll look into it, thank you again!

I created an affordable home mist cooling system using a high-pressure pump and SwitchBot automation.

It produces ultra-fine mist that evaporates quickly, helping cool the surrounding air through evaporative cooling.

What do you think of this DIY project? I'd love to hear your feedback!

https://youtu.be/LP7bv_mWxpU

Hi, guys! :)

There’s a scene in Pokémon where Charmander looks so sad out in the rain, and we wanted to make our own little version of it. Then we thought, what if we made it rain for real?

We modeled, 3D-printed and painted the diorama, then built a water circuit to make the rain fall and a small LED circuit to light up the scene. That’s how our little diorama ended up being a working fountain.

What do you think of how the rain effect turned out?

local landfills.

Where I’m at right now:

Unfortunately, I just hit a wall and had to pause my TVET classes because I can no longer afford the workshop fees. Since I don’t own my own soldering station, multimeter, or hot air rework gear at home yet, I feel like my momentum just got cut off right as I was getting into it.

Looking for wisdom from the maker community:

For those of you who started out broke with zero tools:

1. What are the absolute bare-minimum tools or DIY workarounds you used to diagnose and fix basic boards before you could afford a proper bench?

2. What’s the best way to safely salvage components (capacitors, resistors, regulators, wires) from dead electronics so I can keep practicing and doing small local repairs for neighbors?

Any advice, budget hacks, or pointers on keeping the maker spirit alive when resources are tight would mean the world to me right now. Thanks for reading!

Hi all. I’m a product designer from Italy. My first portable espresso machine was my university thesis: Open Sorso, 3D-printed with a manual syringe pump. It’s shared under CC BY-NC-SA. This is the second prototype, Briù. It’s still a rough prototype, and I’d love feedback from people who build things.

The build

• Shell: 3D-printed in PETG

• Power: 3S 18650 pack with a BMS

• Brain: an ESP32-S3, with an MP1584 buck converter giving 5 V to the logic and the LEDs

• Heater and pump: switched by MOSFET modules. The heater is ON/OFF, the 12 V pump runs on PWM, and an NTC reads the temperature.

• Interface: one button and 3 WS2812B LEDs. Double click to heat, long press to brew.

• Coffee: ESE pods. It heats 35–40 ml to 85–90 °C in about 7 minutes (I measured with a thermometer and a stopwatch).

A friend handled the electronics. I did the design and the printed parts.

What I learned the hard way

1. PETG vs heat. I took it out on a boat. In direct sun, the shell near the heater partly deformed inward.

2. Tank fitting. I made a barb from a PP medical syringe and glued it into a ~1.5 mm hole with silicone. In a cold test it came off. My backup plan is a brass barb.

3. Printed channels have a downside. The water path from the pump to the pod is printed into one part, so there’s nowhere to fit a pressure gauge. Pressure is unmeasured, and the coffee is good but has no crema.

4. Standby drain. When it sits unused, the battery is flat in 2–3 days. The current wiring wasn’t designed for low power.

Next step: a custom PCB with proper MOSFETs, a thermal fuse that works independently of the firmware, and USB-C PD charging for the 3S pack.

What I’d love your input on

• Materials near the heater: what would you print parts near a hot boiler in? ASA, PC, PP, or would you design them out of the print entirely?

• Water fittings in printed parts: what has worked reliably for you? Brass heat-set barbs, threaded inserts, something else?

• Testing points: how would you design in a test point for a pressure gauge without adding a leak point?

• If it were released one day: what would you actually want, and in what form? STEP files, STLs, firmware, a PCB, a BOM, a kit?

It’s not for sale and the files for this version aren’t released yet. Happy to share more photos and details in the comments.

You can follow the project on insta (sorso.of.coffee) or www.sorsoofcoffee.it

Have a cheap crappy USB Peltier mini fridge to keep a small amount of milk cool for tea and coffee.

Peltier module works fine, but the bottles I have, have bugger all contact area. Any ideas on some kind of non-stick thermal pad or gel I could put down to increase thermal conductivity between the bottle and the peltier module, so it's not trying to conduct through air?

Maybe some kind of oil or wax pad I could put in?

Hi, some months ago I posted about a PCB CAM tool I'd been working on. A lot of development in the mean time has been mostly around non-pcb stuff so it didn't make sense to post about it but by now there's enough new stuff that's worth an extra mention.

There's a laser pipeline for anyone with access to Fiber/UV lasers, there's a soldermask stencil operation that was made with cnc, laser and vinyl cutters in mind.

Tool-changing is in there but consider it experimental until proven otherwise.

Latest update I added i18n translation support. There are a few languages included (very LLM generated, although I'm going to review Portuguese next and already have 1-2 friends willing to help with 2 other languages and I'll be pestering a few more friends later).

It also added the ability to drop custom files of a few kinds, including language packs (which means you can make your own if you have trouble with the existing ones) or post-processors (not full post-processors logic yet but more like machine/controller setups, say I set a wrong flag or you don't want to manually change 4th axis alignment all the time).

Still 100% free, client-side and open-source.

Live version moved slightly to https://cam.eltryus.design/easytrace5000/ and source code is at https://github.com/RicardoJCMarques/EasyCAM5000 .

Day 1 of making papercraft italian city. I have detailed templates of whole city.. I am so excited .

I’ve been looking all over Berlin for some affordable PC fans. Wandering around, I’m hoping to find some hidden gems where I can snag parts on the cheap or even for free to finish my project. Kleinanzeigen isn’t really cutting it. Does anyone know a good spot?

I took apart my mini fridge to clean it now it won't turn on and idk if the thermal paste is any good any ideas?

Our latest little metal creature. Looks like it belongs in a sci-fi workshop.Pretty happy with how those wings turned out.

I made this custom design at STLPlayground.com using one of their parametric STL builders