Mini Maker Faire Orlando Report: Hardware

I had a lot of fun at the Orlando Mini Maker Fair today!  In this post I’m going to highlight some of the hardware vendors who took the time to come out and show their stuff to the community.

80/20: The Industrial Erector Set

80/20 is a company that makes modular aluminum framing systems.  Their motto is “The Industrial Erector Set,” and it’s a good description of their product.  Our local distributor is Florida Motion and Control.  If you ever might need to build any kind of machine or robot, you need to browse the 80/20 web site and bookmark it.  I have never used it, but I am desperately looking for a project that will require this!

Modulox Components

Modulox sells smallish industrial-strength modular gearboxes.  They are probably a little too big, sturdy and expensive for small hobby projects.  Once again, a link worth bookmarking.

Woodcraft

I’m not a big fan of woodworking, so I almost bypassed this booth.  Fortunately, I didn’t, because Woodcraft does a lot more than sell wood and woodworking tools.  The Orlando Woodcraft also offers services like millwork, custom laser engraving and CNC machining at very reasonable rates.  As someone who appreciates fine woodworking but has no interest in actually doing it, it’s good to know that I can always outsource that to a local shop!  A helpful employee gave me this tip about CNC and laser engraving: do prototypes in acrylic plastic instead of wood, because acrylic is faster and easier (thus cheaper) to engrave or machine.
In future posts, I’ll talk about some of the local artists and electronics companies that I found!