Maker - Made After Hours

Photo of cardboard boxes with recycling symbols stamped in black ink

Maker

DIY custom packaging: laser engraving rubber stamps on the xTool M1 Ultra

Using a 10W diode laser to make customized packaging at home

entrepreneurship

Making My Side Hustle GPSR-compliant - Part I

AI-Augmented Risk Assessment (Workflow + ChatGPT prompts + Free Bonus)

Photo of a 3D printed MagSafe phone holder for iPhones with a wooden accent tone

entrepreneurship

Why I Started Making After Office Hours

How I Started a Creative Side Hustle Using Digital Fabrication— and How I Balance It with a Full-Time Job While Sharing My Journey

digital drawing of a laser cutting machine, drawing a batch of rounded rectangles on a thin cork sheet

CAD

Using Autodesk Fusion's flat pattern feature

I share my workflow on Autodesk Fusion to export flattened surfaces for laser cutting

Measuring a 3d print filament using an old micrometer

3d printing

Getting the size of a 3D print model from G-code

I wrote a Python script to get the size of a 3D print job from Gcode. Let me show you how it works.

3d printing

Making a macro pad from scratch

I designed and built a QMK/VIAL macro pad from scratch. Let me tell you about the things I learned and useful resources I found as a beginner.

Photo of a 3d printed case with an orange keyboard switch, sitting on a pen sketch of the same design

3d printing

How I avoided typing long passwords - Use at your own risk!

I programmed an Arduino Pro Micro to write a long password every time I pressed a button. It helped me save a ton of time and I'm sharing how you can make one yourself - at your own risk!

Photo of a white 3d-printed electronics enclosure, with a rocker switch and a black cable

3d printing

DIY LED strip voice control with Alexa and ESP8266

I'll tell you how I connected an LED strip to Amazon Alexa, using a Wemos D1 mini. An easy and cheap DIY home automation and IoT project.

Picture of a Canon lens cap and a black, 3d-printed lens cap holder sitting on a wooden table

3d printing

The power of Python and Fusion 360 for 3D printing

I'll show you how to create multiple versions of a Fusion 360 CAD model and export them as STL files for 3D printing, using a Python script.

A Prusa Mini FDM 3D printer, printing a red calibration cube

3d printing

Data about 3D printing, with Python

I show you how I used Python to analyze the data from Thingiverse REST API, and I share more interesting facts I found, including rankings of 3D printable files.

Studio photo of two 3D printed thingies (black and white) on a yellow backgroud

3d printing

What do people like to 3D print?

I try to determine what are the most popular types of objects for 3D printing, using data from Thingiverse REST API and different metrics.

3d printing

That's it: I'm getting a more reliable 3D printer

Let me tell you about my journey with a cheap 3D printer. It was a ton of fun, and I learned many useful things. Maybe you can learn from my errors too!