We are spending time with the kids at our aunt and uncle's cabin in northern Michigan. This is an old hunting cabin but it is not exactly roughing it. There is air conditioning and internet.

I am worried that the kids are spending too much time inside on the devices …

We through a Star Trek themed surprise party for my wife and I thought it would be fun to see if I could make a transporter effect.

To start we took two pictures, one with everyone in an away team formation and one with just the background

I then wrote …

I like the simple fun of brushbots; little robots, typically made with toothbrush heads, that use a cell phone vibrating motor to scoot around a table (you can buy kits here: http://www.makershed.com/products/brushbots). I decided that this would be a great project for me to do …

The kids have really done a number on our living room coffee table. The top has been "distressed" by biting, thrown toys and lots of drumming.

The drawers have also been used as steps to get up on top of the table. Most of the hardware components have broken under …

The theme for the kids VBS (Vacation Bible School) this year is "Workshop of Wonders" by Cokesbury. I participate every year with my kids but was extremely enthusiastic that the theme this year was for makers so my goal is to show off the 3D printer and make some things …

My eldest daughter wanted to make a birdhouse/feeder. It was the middle of winter and I think she was thinking of building it out of wood. However, I realized what she really wanted to do was decorate it using some extra stickers she had. So, we compromised and I …

As any true geek dad, I have always wanted to do the Diet Coke and mentos experiment. However it is messy and the logistics of getting the mentos in the coke without getting crazy sticky is challenging. I did a quick search of thingiverse and found a couple of wonderful …

I got a tripod for my birthday this year. It is a really nice one, but I lost the quick release mount. Here is a picture with a quick release mount from another tripod. Obviously, it doesn't fit:

After some shopping online this one looks fairly good, but possibly not …

I like to watch Curious George with my Kids. That little monkey is a bit of a maker. I really like the episodes where he tries to build things. In most cases he doesn't get his design right and has to debug and iterate on the design until he has …

A few weeks ago we caravanned a group of family and friends down to the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire.

It was everything I had hoped: there were plenty of robots, 3d manufacturing devices and other things to touch and play with. My oldest daughter (with help from her papa …