This is Technology Bytes, episode 126 for August 3rd, 2025.
Technology Bytes is a microcast where I share brief bites on interesting technology.
Enjoy, and here we go.
So this week I want to talk about making.
Some of this is in the past and some of it is, well, all I’m talking about is in the past, but some in the more distant past, months, and some in the less distant past, 24 hours.
But the first thing I wanted to talk about was 3D printing, and I don’t think I’ve mentioned that before in my podcast, but my son purchased a 3D printer.
He’s an engineer like I am.
He’s a mechanical engineer, but unlike me, who I’ve moved into more of management, he stayed in more of the technical realm so far in his career.
But he bought this 3D printer, not exactly sure how he was going to use it, but knowing that it was pretty cool technology and that it might just help him around the house maybe.
And so the first couple things, you know, he’s looking online for ideas and designs that maybe are already made that he can just load up in his printer and print them.
I don’t know how much the printer costs, but it’s got different colors of plastic, but I think it uses just one technology of plastic.
But he made some pretty cool things.
He made a replica of a 9mm clip with 7 bullets in it for his father-in-law and his uncle because they have medicines they take on a daily basis.
So every bullet has a day on it and it just pops out the bottom of the clip and then you reload it from the top.
It’s really pretty cool.
And many people who have seen it are like, hey, can you make me one?
Can you make me one?
And then other things that he’s noticed is just things around the house where he needs a hook here or a little something there.
And so he finds it online and then makes use of it in his house and always doing pretty cool things like that.
And it’s just the idea of making and the technology that is available just in your home to do things like that.
So a couple other things, his wife needed a coffee filter holder for their coffee maker.
And so he found one online.
I don’t think he designed it himself, but he found one that worked for what he needed.
And it’s the molecular structure of caffeine.
Those are the nerdy things that makers usually like to do.
And so it’s pretty cool to see the ability of a person.
In this case, he’s fairly technical.
He is a nerd.
He likes this kind of technology, but it’s available to him at not that extravagant of a price.
And it allows him to do many things that he wouldn’t be able to do otherwise.
And just things to be making and to be creating.
And one other thing he did is he had a garbage can with a foot pedal that hasn’t worked for a very long time.
So he finally turned it upside down, figured out the piece that was broken, which really is plastic, which is why it broke.
And he took the measurements that were needed, figured out how, really reversed engineered it, drew it up on his computer, and then printed it on his printer.
And now he’s got a fully functional trash can step once again.
So these are just things that happen in a maker world.
And that’s the world in which we live.
And it’s a really cool technology.
On a totally different spectrum, I have my daughter who is creative in her own right, but is not in the nerd engineering camp that says I need to make things for myself.
And what she does is finds things that she likes.
And sometimes it has to do with making her house look the way that she wants it to look.
Sometimes it has to do with other aspects.
And the thing that we most recently did was built a bed frame for her.
And it’s something that she did to make her room at her home feel more like her, to be more comfortable.
And as we were putting it together, and it’s one of those things that’s a little bit like a Lego kit, I guess.
But, you know, you need to have some additional tools.
It’s just not snapped together.
But I was thinking about it and thinking about the piece of furniture that she created with some help from her parents just because we were there.
And I was thinking about in the past what it would look like if you wanted that one, you would probably have to make it.
And not everybody has that ability.
And so you end up having to get someone else to make it for you.
And then I thought further, I’m like, somebody designed this bed.
Somebody probably drew it up on a CAD system of some kind and made it look the way they wanted it to look.
Somebody designed this piece of furniture.
And then we have the, or they had the technology and the know-how or somebody did at least to then break it into pieces.
How can we present this piece of furniture that we like, that we designed, that we wanted to look a certain way and get it into somebody’s home and let them make it, build it, construct it so that it looks in their home like we wanted it to look in our home.
And that technology exists.
And so as we were putting the bed together, I think there were 12 or 13 numbered pieces to put this whole bed frame together plus some hardware screws and other things like that.
But it was really fun.
And it’s not the first time we’ve built furniture, but it was really fun to kind of watch it go together.
And it’s actually pretty cool looking.
And it seems to fit her design aesthetic, I guess is how you would say it.
And yet she has the ability to put it together to make it fit in her space.
And yeah, you have to take a screw out here, put something together here, read the instructions for how it all goes together so that it’s stable and functions like a bed frame like it’s supposed to.
But I was thinking, she built this piece of furniture and now she gets to use it in her bedroom and she gets the joy of having something that looks nice, but also the satisfaction of having put it together herself.
Now someone else designed it.
Someone else figured out how to make it into sectional pieces that allows her to put it together when she orders it off of Amazon or wherever she orders it.
But it’s still cool technology that allows people to create, that allows people to make spaces the way they want them to look.
And then somebody with the technology to design and present to other people things that they can use to make their spaces fit their comfort level and to fit their thought process and to make their home a home.
So both of these things are creating.
My son is putting maybe a little more thought into it, not more than the furniture designer, but maybe more than my daughter and I did.
But in the same time, all of it gives us the ability to make, to create.
And that is something that we’re ingrained to do and makes us feel better about ourselves and gives us a good sense of accomplishment.
Well, that is all I have for today.
If you have comments, suggestions, or questions, you can send them to technologybytesatmarigofamily.com.
As always, I want to thank you for listening to the Technology Bytes microcast, and I look forward to the next time we are together taking another bite of technology.
