WELDING
At Kyiv Hacklab, residents welded a lot of anti-
vehicle spikes — the metal comes from cutting
up shopping carts — as well as Czech hedgehogs
and other obstacles to stop heavy armored
vehicles.
Makers also started to weld simple, cheap
camp stoves and sent them to soldiers as well as
civilians in unoccupied territories. Odesa artist
Sergiy Vukolov raised some funds for supplies
and then started welding camp stoves without a
day off.
ELECTRONICS
Quest organizer, steampunk fan, and maker from
Dnipro, Ihor Kochet, started to produce power
supplies in ammo boxes using car batteries and
sent them to the front line where they needed
generators. A maker who I can’t name started
small-batch manufacturing of $100 low-power
encrypted communication radio stations.
3D PRINTING
With supply chains broken, there was a need for
ordinary car parts for repairs. Makers are often
able to 3D print replacements.
3D Printing for Ukraine coordinated efforts
outside Ukraine to print parts for tourniquets for
wounded soldiers. Such tourniquets were not
available early in the war. Another example is
Tech Against Tanks in Warsaw, Poland, which has
a database of 3D printing projects that includes
eye shields, knee guards, and window barricades.
3D printers are also used to produce grenade-
release mechanisms for drones and stabilizing
tails for grenades. These tails are printed all over
the country in huge numbers. Early in the war,
the grenade tails made noise when used, which
alerted the Russians, and so the community
prototyped new versions that were quieter. They
also had to correct for the grenades tumbling out
of control.
This March, I organized RepRapUA, a festival
to celebrate and mobilize our community of 3D
printing entrepreneurs, suppliers, manufacturers,
and enthusiasts. It was a huge success, with 901
visitors; about 30% were defense-related. For
security, a secret location was necessary.
Spikes welded at Kyiv Hacklab
Artist Sergiy Vukolov, with a small team,
welded these camp stoves.
A finished camp stove
FEATURES: Makers During Wartime
16 makezine.com
Artem Synytsyn, Sergiy Vukolov, Ihor Kochet, Oleksandr Panforov, Ada Yelagina, Jury, Keep Robotics
M85_014-21_Ukraine_F1.indd 16M85_014-21_Ukraine_F1.indd 16 4/11/23 11:13 AM4/11/23 11:13 AM
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