Wake Tech Mini Maker Faire Report

We had a fantastic time at Wake Tech’s Mini Maker Faire this past weekend in Raleigh!  The Faire was hosted at Wake Tech Raleigh in the Student Services building.  There was both an upstairs section, where most of the activity was,  and a downstairs section that had crafts for kids.

Splat Space had about 5 tables total set up:  2 were dedicated to Learn To Solder,  1 held Pete Soper’s hot air soldering station, 1 had Splat flyers and info as well as Shaw’s Serial+Arduino Terminal,  and Bill Culverhouse had his table set up with 3d printed items for raffle,  a 3d printer and his FPV RC cars.

One of our students learning some more advanced soldering techniques.

The Faire was continuously busy throughout the day.  The Learn to Solder table was also consistently busy all day and it was hard to keep up with all the people wanting to learn. There was huge interest in it.  Quite a few people told me they had never soldered before and were excited when their projects worked out.

Bill Culverhouse’s raffle for the T-Rex and other 3d printed items continued to do well this weekend too.  Many people were very excited about the chance to win the 1/6th scale 3d printed T-rex. Bill was originally worried no one would want it,  because of its size but that was quickly laid to rest on Saturday,  when a lot of people specifically entered the raffle just for the T-rex.  One woman told us it would make her the “coolest grandma ever” (no arguments here).

Vulpine Vinyl’s lovely display of vinyl colors. The first one is a glittery gold that looked awesome when cut.

We met a lot of really amazing people too. Our neighbors directly next to us,  Vulpine Vinyl,  were a ton of fun to share space with,  and we hope they come to visit us at the Space and keep in touch.  They do custom vinyl decals and had a beautiful array of vinyl colors to choose from and some fun and great designs.

We also got a chance to talk to ChickTech RaleighChickTech Raleigh is a local group looking to get more young women involved and retained in tech fields. Their goal is to do some great workshops.  They were excited to talk to us,  and hopefully combine forces with us for workshops and classes.  They had a sewable LED display on a tshirt at their table,  so our groups mesh very well.

It was a fun and crazy day,  as is the case with most Maker Faires.