THE INVENTABLES WORKSHOP

I work at SONR Labs, a company that makes Android speaker docks.  SONR is a bit of a hybrid between a 20th and 21st century product company.  We have a small team, we use free software for design, and we're situated in 1871, a co-working space for 'digital startups'.  On the other hand, we still get our products made in "old fashioned" ways, i.e. manufactured in and shipped from China.  We like to think we draw on the strengths of both approaches.

We have our main product in stores and recently needed to create some signage to help draw attention to our product on the shelf.  These are known as point-of-purchase or POP displays in the retail industry.  My task was to get 35 professional-looking displays made and shipped out, fast.  An international supply chain is great if you need to build and sell thousands of something - but it's no help if you need 35 signs ASAP.  Furthermore, 1871 is an excellent community and place to work- but it's set up for &quo…

During Maker Faire 2013 Inventables On The Road caught up with Aviva Raskin.  Aviva's father Jef was the 31st employee at Apple.  He invented blokes and Aviva is brining them to market.  The interview covers the story of the invention and more.


What are Bloxes? Bloxes are building blocks made of interlocking pieces of corrugated cardboard, folded together. Their unique shape and structure make them exceptionally strong and lightweight—you could build yourself a platform to stand on, and then pick it up and move it wherever you need to. What can you do with them? Bloxes can connect with each other on all six sides, so you can use them to build walls, benches, tables, tunnels—whatever you can think of. And because the varied surface and complex internal structure helps dampen sound, they're great for managing acoustics in offices, studios and other places. How did you think of them? They are the brain-child of Jef Raskin. Aza Raskin brought them back to life when he redesigned …

(republished from the PS:One blog) This Thursday at 7:00pm  Edward Ford will be hosting a ShapeOko night.  Edward can help you build, complete, setup and use the ShapeOko router. He will also give a quick overview of the web based MakerCAM program.  MakerCAM can be used to create toolpaths for CNC routers.  Edward and Inventables are working to develop this program into a full featured CAM program. For those without ShapeOkos, we can talk about your CNC project or work with some of the digital fabrication equipment at PS:One like the laser cutter, CNC router or 3D printers

This week Inventables launched a new TV series called Inventables On The Road.  The concept for the  show is there are lots of people and projects in the Inventables community that are interesting.  We're trying to demystify the process of digital fabrication, give some visibility to people working on interesting things, and have some fun.

The first interview we did was with Adam Wegener founder of Trash Amps.  Trash Amps was started by an experience in college when the founders friend bought an Altoids guitar amp kit online. They thought it was a cool idea, but when they plugged in the amp and started playing some music they ran into a problem...it didn't sound so good.  The reason was of the size and shape of the Altoids container.

They took the same electronics and put them into a soda can and it worked great. Then came the realization: you can put music in anything – Trash Amps was born.


After showing a few prototypes to friends, we knew there was a market for a product l…

Today Crain's Chicago Business did a nice video on the Shapeoko.  It is exciting to see it covered by a more mainstream news outlet.  While an entry level $600 mill is not at the scale of a mill you might see in an automotive factory, it's really starting to reshape the way we think about what is manufacturing and where can it happen.  As more designers learn about what's possible and the technology improves we're going to see some truly amazing things from this little desktop mill.
Here's an excerpt from the piece:
"Last year, Inventables Inc., a Loop-based e-commerce company that calls itself a hardware store for designers, began selling an affordable, automated milling machine. The machine, capable of cutting and shaping wood and soft metals for nearly any project or product design, is another contribution to the digital fabrication boom that has been getting play lately as 3-D printers become more affordable to consumers. The Shapeoko, as the machine is c…