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A step-by-step guide to becoming a successful inventor

Edison Invents! Wikimedia Commons

The path to becoming a successful inventor is easier than ever--but there are also a surplus of options, and it can be difficult to know where to start. Here's a step-by-step plan to inventing your own anything.

Step 1: Think Big

Think Big: Click here to see this image much larger.  Katherine Bagley

The most original projects combine two or more disciplines. Look to mash them up.

Step 2: Team Up

Team Up: Here's a map of hackerspaces all around the country. We've picked out three--one in Brooklyn, one in Chicago, and one in the Bay Area--to give an idea of how these work. Find more at Hackerspaces.  Katherine Bagley

Shared workspaces let you learn new skills and wield expensive tools. These are some of the largest and most active.

TECHSHOP

Each of TechShop’s five 15,000-square-foot locations contains more than $1 million in prototyping equipment and software. Its 3,000-plus members include entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize and the makers of the fastest electric motorcycle. Starting at $75/month; techshop.ws

PUMPING STATION: ONE

Chicago’s first hackerspace, Pumping Station: One lets members use its tools, such as CNC machines and laser cutters, 24/7. Projects include pants that produce music and a biosensor array that reads patient vitals. Starting at $40/month; pumpingstationone.org

GENSPACE

Genspace in Brooklyn caters to professional biologists and amateur beaker jockeys alike. It has everything from microscopes and incubators to PCR machines and spectrometers. $100/month; genspace.org

Step 3: Gear Up


Click to launch the gallery.
Some tools are for research, some make other tools, and some just tear stuff apart.

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7 Comments

Some great suggestions here. I love that there is workshop space available for inventors to develop their ideas!

Great article! Strangely enough, inventing things was on my mind this morning before I went to work. I have been hearing about work spaces for year but I never really thought about checking any out. It was a stroke of genius for whoever thought of it first. Its like a band space but for science!

hacker and maker spaces are great, if you have some around you that is...

personally i've had one or two ideas that i'd have liked to make myself or at the very least see made. i should talk to tech shop about possibly opening up a space somewhere here on the east coast...

to mars or bust!

1) This is awesome, I had no idea places like this existed.

2) Doesn't the guy in the top photo look kind of like Ellen DeGeneres?

... and by "the guy in the top photo" apparently I meant Edison. Who knew?

very handy

you may also use Solutioninn.com for freelancing services.

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