The guys behind us with the 9′ Tesla coils just fired ‘em up for a short test.  Even the “tiny” sparks generated by the test drew a crowd of a hundred or so.  We can’t wait for the full show!

The Wrightspeed “electric supercar” is on display right inside the front door of the pavilion here at Maker Faire, and it looks pretty sweet.  It’s essentially an Ariel Atom chassis that’s been converted to electric — with spectacular results.  Try 6.8 seconds to 100 mph.

Our friend (and reader) Jordan stopped by today to show us his kick-ass homebuilt Segway.  For about $2,800 — most of it in batteries — and some serious learning and work time he put this beauty together with help from friends in the Bay Area.

He had to move on, but we’re going to pester him to give us the lowdown soon for all you Toolmongers who’d like to follow in his tire tracks.  Thanks, Jordan!

Commuter cars are here in force with tiny rides for every occasion.  Their rigs are super light and seat two people in tandem for a total vehicle width of just 39 inches — spiffy and aerodynamic.  You can see from the people standing around them that the scale is pretty small, but they’re real vehicles.  At first when you walk up to check ’em out they do look like Scions that have been cut in half, though.

This sweet, lovingly-restored Nash ambassador is actually set up right next to us here at the Maker Faire.  Nash isn’t around anymore, which makes flawless restorations like this one a rare and an awesome sight to behold – even if it does look like Muppets should hop out of it at any moment.

I saw this from across the hall, and  I couldn’t resist making a beeline for it.  It’s a very accurate scale model of the Tumbler from “Batman Begins.”  In his Maker Faire booth, Bill Mar — its creator — develops Windows embedded machines, but my big interest was the Tumbler.

Sadly it isn’t jet powered and doesn’t jump bridges on a regular basis, but it does have a built-in computer — running Windows, of course.

Here we are set up in front of some ass-kickin’ Tesla coils, which they promise us we’ll get to see in action a bit later.  We intermittently smell ozone, so we’re getting excited.

I watched Tom roll up on his unorthodox wooden transportation, come to a stop, and hand it to the first person he came across – which just happened to be me!  With an easy smile, he explained that it’s just like a bike only simpler.  Deciding that I needed to be reassured about its operation before jumping on, however, I took a second look.  Tom pointed to the rear where you’d normally find a metal frame and normal bicycle parts and said, “It’s the bike that doesn’t have anything there.”  Then he flipped the rig over to illustrate that its “inner” workings consist only of plywood, a scooter steering handle, a few wooden brackets, and scattered bits of hardware connected to the outer plywood hull.

Semi-convinced of its function, I hopped on and took it for a spin.  Guess what?  It works!  It’s a little wobbly — OK, it’s a lot wobbly — but when I handed it off to the next person, I realized that this little bike’s unstable ride isn’t the point at all.  It’s a fun creation that Tom built to spark the curiosity and the kid inside all who see it.

“Besides,” Tom said, flipping the bike onto its flat back and setting it down, “it doesn’t go anywhere when you park it!”

We saw this future looking, supa-rad golf cart parked just outside the Robot pavilion at the Maker Faire today.  Surprisingly enough the thing we noticed first was that it was pumping out Star Wars music.  What we should have noticed is that the keg-looking tanks on either side hold propane which shoots out in (somewhat) controlled, fireball-like bursts from the cannon located on top.  

It’s sweet to look at now and we understand it’s even better at night.  We’ll try to get a few pics of it then as well.  One suggestion, though: the rig would be way cooler if the owner was in a wookie suit.  Really.

Our first thought when we saw this was that anyone who carries an adjustable wrench in a belt case has to be a cool guy.  Our second thought: this isn’t a bad idea.  The adjustable wrench is the original multi-tool and would be incredibly useful — like having a whole wrench set on your belt.

The case in the picture was custom made by a leather shop here in the Bay Area.  He uses it mainly to fix bikes, though he said it also comes in handy while rigging, as he never has to climb back down for a wrench.

If you can’t make it out to Maker Faire today, just check in from time to time here at Toolmonger for live action from the show.  Our friends at Make kindly put us in front of two nine-foot-tall Tesla coils — and just twenty feet or so away from the guys at Survival Research Laboratory who brought (among other things) a hovercraft powered by four louder-than-the-second-coming pulsejets.  Rock!

See you here shortly!  Activity’s starting to pick up already and the doors aren’t even open yet.

Come shoot the bull and drink some beer with us tonight at The Page in San Francisco.  We’ll be there at 8 p.m. with some free Maker Faire passes for the first 10 people who show — or maybe a few more, too. 

And even if you can’t make the meetup, stop by Maker Faire and look for us inside the Pavilion where we’ll have a variety of drill drivers from various manufacturers for you to help us test.

The Page [AOL CityGuide]

Our friends over at Make are working hard today to get Maker Faire set up and running, and it looks like it’s going to be an incredible event.  If you’re in the Bay Area and you miss this, you’re going to kick yourself.

This year’s Faire is at the San Mateo Fairgrounds, and gates open this Saturday at 10 a.m.  You’ll find us in the pavillion conducting a drill/driver test — which you can help with! — so be sure to stop by and say hello.  And, if you have time, we’ll be at The Page in San Francisco Friday night at 8 p.m. for a meetup to shoot the bull about tools, drink some cheap beer, and distribute a few free Maker Faire tickets.

The picture above, by the way, is of Make’s own fire truck which is already parked at the Faire.  After seeing it, Sean and I have concluded that we must own a fire truck at some point.  We’re already on the WiFi looking for one.  If you have any leads, drop us a line via the contact page.  (It doesn’t even have to run.  In fact, our favorite deal would be the “haul it off special.”)

Maker Faire: Getting Ready [Make]
Toolmonger Meetup [TM]

We’re happy to announce that we’ll be sponsoring and attending Make’s awesome Maker Faire 2007 at the San Mateo Fairgrounds in California on May 19th and 20th.  We’re working out the details, but it looks like this is going to coincide perfectly with our upcoming “cordless drill shootout.”  Our plan is to bring all the drills out to the event so you can help us evaluate ‘em in person.

It’ll also be a great opportunity for us to meet any of you close enough to the Bay Area to make the trip out.  Hell, we’ll excited just to meet all the cool Makers that’ll be there.  We drooled over last year’s event since we couldn’t make it out.

Obviously we’ll bring you a lot of coverage of the even as well with cool tools, projects, and the people who make them.