The Magic Tool Bus
Maker Faire Bay Area 2018
MAKERS
Sam Smith
Just living in a magic tool bus down by the river, trying to design open source systems to allow people to meet their needs for food, water, shelter, energy, information and care as easily as possible without ecological damage.
Claire Cassidy
Claire wants to learn how to be a better dreamer and to push her nefarious agenda of sustainable abundant vulnerable living through hands on open-source everything and rigorous scheduling. Lasers and LEDs are her strongest love languages.
The Magic Tool Bus is a 24' retired metro shuttle bus being converted into a mobile maker lab and off-grid tiny home with solar electric power, laser cutter, CNC router, and plastic recycling machines. Come take a tour and see what we make and how!
What inspired you to make this project?:
Living in a vehicle presents a unique opportunity to re-imagine how we meet our needs for things like heat, power, lighting, plumbing, fuel, food, furniture, and just about everything else. It's the perfect platform to experiment with alternative systems, and to be mindful of our impact and energy use. Most of our electrical power comes from our solar panels. We still consume hydrocarbon fuel, but the bus runs on biodiesel, and is ready to be converted to vegetable oil. Being able to accurately measure how much fuel we use, how much water we use, and how much waste we produce, allows us the ability to actively problem-solve and systematically work to increase our comfort and reduce our consumption of resources and our production of wastes. It's a very difficult but interesting and fulfilling design challenge!
