Madagascar Institute » News

Dueling Mechanical Bulls in progress

Becky Stern — Wed, 13 Jun 2012 21:47:22 +0000

The bulls are getting ready to go to the Google I/O afterparty in San Francisco later this month, and here’s the recent progress. Above is the first test of the upper deck motor/bucking mechanism. At first it’s solidon, then Hackett started to start/stop the motor manually.

Then Colin got on it to see how it’d fare– just fine!

How about 200 lbs with both motors spinning? No problem.

The sign for the dueling bulls uses LEDs from Adafruit and is controlled by two arcade buttons.

More progress photos in this Flickr set.

Hackett in NY Times

cautionMike — Sun, 18 Mar 2012 13:45:47 +0000

Art Star number 1, Hackett, was recently profiled in the NY Times.

Building a materials rack

Boris Klompus — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 00:49:08 +0000

Go Lindsay & Gaylen!

Mada in Popular Mechanics

hans — Tue, 04 May 2010 20:05:32 +0000

See for yourself, a Popular Mechanics love song to our very own Hackett! Some of us were behind him while it happened: Welcome to the Academy of Mechanical Arts and Ballistic Sciences

Upcoming Classes

hans — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 14:58:58 +0000

We have three classes coming up this month:

Beginning Mig Welding with Hans, $50 ($30 for members) plus a $10 materials fee. Sign up here for:
tomorrow, Tuesday, April 13th 7-10pm

Thursday, April 22nd 7-10pm

Lis is also teaching the ever popular Make Your Own Absinthe in two sessions, 4/27 and 5/4 at 7pm. Sign up here: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/636315236

meeting notes

hans — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:24:35 +0000

We had a good meeting last night, we set the open shop days, ironed out membership details, discussed the carousel projects, and some even fixed the bandsaw. Hackett, Melissa, Mia, Leif, Julia, Rivka, Gaylen, Lindsay, Kim!, Hans, and Lis were in attendance.

Lindsay testing the plywood wheel:

Mia, Gaylen, and Melissa fixing the bandsaw:

New Open Shop Days/Hours

hans — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:31:46 +0000

At this meeting, a bunch of us signed up for our monthly open shop day duties, all full members should pick a day per month. Also, full members should post on the calendar when they’ll be there other times. Here’s what we have so far:

Gaylen – 1st Tuesday 5-10pm
Hackett – 1st Sun noon-8pm
Mia – 2nd Sun 1-7pm
Lindsay – 4th Sunday 1-7pm
Melissa – 1st Wed 5-10pm
Leif – 2nd Wed 5-10pm
Lis – 3rd Wed 5-10pm
Hans – Last Wed 5-10pm
Kim Monday April 12th 5-10pm

popesiversary xi: the siege of mada

hans — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:16:46 +0000

To mark Popesiversary! it was essential to reproduce the effect of standing around in the cold while dodging fireworks aimed directly at the eyes. We opened fire from the backyard up to the fortified windows of the third floor. The window opened a crack and answered with a steady stream of roman candles. And no, Jess was not the ringleader.

(all photos by Jess Bruder)