What's the point of 'maker wannabe'?

A while back I started a blog, over at makerwannabe.com
The purpose of the blog is to share my experiences in learning new things, by explaining and having a 'show and tell' I hope to cement my knowledge. I was planning on concentrating on electronics, but I have many interests that will find their way in :)

What follows is my first post on the blog, I will reveal in the future why I am putting it on here too.

© creativecommonsstockphotos | Dreamstime Stock Photos

To define the purpose of my blog, first we need to know what ‘maker’ means in this context. Let’s use a definition from techopedia.com;

The maker movement is a trend in which individuals or groups of individuals create and market products that are recreated and assembled using unused, discarded or broken electronic, plastic, silicon or virtually any raw material and/or product from a computer-related device.

Source: Techopedia definition of maker movement

What resonates with me the most in that definition is ‘recreated and assembled using unused, discarded or broken electronic, plastic, silicon’. We live in a throw-away society and it pains me deeply to see so much working stuff simply tossed away.

While I have been a tinkerer for many year’s, I have had a disdain for electronics. My attempts have been marked by at best, black smoke and at worst nothing. No worky, just breaky and nothing to show for it. I preferred mechanical stuff where I could visually inspect moving parts and reason out interactions.

That changed when I moved to Cape Town and started working with people who studied and played with electronics, as we are all developers they were making the connection with code and physical devices (arduino etc.)

I got to see how I could actually build machines, that I could control via code! Machines to build other machines (think CNC cutters, 3-d printers etc.)

Problem is I still have a mental block with electronics, so I need to start right from scratch and learn the very basic of basics, hence the ‘wannabe’.

My goal is to create a small, CNC cutter from recycled printer parts. Small but working.

Are you too, interested, but not quite there in terms of skill? Join me in my journey to becoming a ‘maker’.