“How to Make (Almost) Anything” started as a graduate course at MIT, taught by Professor Neil Gershensfeld, that introduced students to the full chain of digital fabrication: designing on a computer, then cutting, printing, milling, and programming physical objects. The course became so popular that it spawned a global network of over 2,000 fabrication labs in more than 120 countries, all built around the same core idea. You don’t need a factory to make sophisticated things. You need access to a handful of versatile machines, some free software, and a willingness to learn each process by doing it.
The phrase has since become shorthand for a practical skill set that combines digital design, computer-controlled manufacturing, electronics, and programming. Here’s what that actually involves.
The Core Skill Loop
The original MIT course cycles through a specific sequence: design something digitally, send that design to a machine, fabricate a physical part, then add electronics and code to make it interactive. Each weekly project uses a different machine or process, so students build fluency across the full toolkit rather than specializing in one. The syllabus covers CAD/CAM design, laser cutting, CNC machining, 3D printing, circuit board fabrication, microcontroller programming, sensors, actuators, and wireless communication.
This spiral structure is the key insight. You don’t master 3D printing before touching a laser cutter. You rotate through all the processes quickly, building a mental map of what each tool does well and where its limits are. By the end, you can look at almost any object and reverse-engineer which combination of processes would produce it.
Machines That Cover Most Projects
A well-equipped fabrication lab doesn’t need hundreds of machines. A surprisingly small set covers the vast majority of projects:
- Laser cutter: Cuts and engraves flat sheet materials (acrylic, plywood, cardboard) with extreme precision. This is often the most-used machine in any lab because it’s fast, accurate, and works with cheap materials. Common models run between 40 and 80 watts.
- 3D printer: Builds objects layer by layer from plastic filament (FDM printers) or liquid resin (SLA printers). FDM machines like the Ultimaker or Stratasys lines handle functional prototypes. Resin printers like the Formlabs Form 3 produce finer detail for smaller parts.
- CNC router or mill: A computer-controlled cutting tool that carves material away from a solid block. Routers with a 48″ x 48″ bed can cut full furniture-scale pieces from plywood. Small desktop mills with five-axis movement can shape metal and wax with precision down to fractions of a millimeter.
- Vinyl cutter: A blade on a motorized arm that cuts thin adhesive sheets, useful for stickers, stencils, and flexible circuit traces.
- PCB milling machine or laser: Carves copper traces on a circuit board blank, letting you fabricate custom electronics in-house rather than waiting weeks for a factory order.
The first three machines alone (laser cutter, 3D printer, CNC mill) represent the three fundamental approaches to shaping material: cutting flat sheets and assembling them, adding material layer by layer, and subtracting material from a solid block. Almost every physical object can be made with some combination of those three strategies.
Materials You’ll Work With
Most beginner projects use inexpensive, forgiving materials. For laser cutting, that means acrylic sheet (sometimes called Perspex), plywood, MDF, cardboard, and polypropylene. For 3D printing, PLA filament is the standard starting point because it prints at lower temperatures and doesn’t warp easily. CNC projects often start with machinable wax or soft woods before moving to aluminum or brass.
Material safety matters more than most beginners realize. Some plastics release toxic fumes when laser cut. PVC and vinyl, for example, produce chlorine gas and should never go in a laser cutter. If you’re bringing your own material to a lab, expect to be asked for a safety data sheet. Any surface covered in paint, glue, or unknown coatings is generally rejected because the combustion products are unpredictable. Metals like mild steel, stainless steel, and aluminum are safe for CNC milling but require different cutting speeds and bit types.
Making Custom Electronics
The leap from cutting shapes to making functional devices happens when you add electronics. The process starts with designing a circuit board layout on a computer, exporting it as a set of Gerber files (the standard format machines understand), then using a PCB milling machine to carve copper traces on a blank copper-clad board. Tiny milling bits remove copper between the traces, leaving behind the electrical pathways your components need.
Once the board is milled, you solder on components: a microcontroller (the tiny programmable brain), resistors, capacitors, LEDs, buttons, and whatever sensors or outputs your project needs. The ATtiny44, a small chip in the AVR microcontroller family, is a common choice in fab lab curricula because it’s inexpensive, low-power, and teaches you to work close to the hardware. Many people start with Arduino, which uses a simplified version of C and hides much of the complexity behind beginner-friendly functions. As you progress, you can write directly in C and compile with command-line tools for more control over what the chip actually does.
This is where projects stop being decorative and start being interactive. A laser-cut enclosure with a custom circuit board inside becomes a weather station, a musical instrument, a motion-sensing lamp, or a wireless remote control.
Software for Every Stage
You need software at three stages: designing the object, preparing it for a specific machine, and programming any electronics.
For 3D modeling, FreeCAD is a fully open-source parametric modeler that handles everything from small mechanical parts to architectural-scale designs. “Parametric” means you define relationships between dimensions, so changing one measurement automatically updates everything connected to it. FreeCAD also includes modules for finite element analysis (simulating how a part will handle stress) and CAM workbenches that generate the toolpaths a CNC mill follows.
For 2D design and laser cutting layouts, Inkscape (free, open-source) is widely used. For circuit board design, KiCad is the dominant free option and produces the Gerber files that milling machines and fabrication services both accept. For microcontroller programming, the Arduino IDE is the starting point for most people, with a move to text editors and command-line compilers as you get comfortable.
Every machine also needs its own slicing or CAM software to translate your design into machine-specific instructions. 3D printers use slicers like Cura or PrusaSlicer. CNC mills need CAM software to calculate tool paths, feeds, and speeds. Laser cutters typically accept vector files directly.
Ventilation and Safety Setup
Digital fabrication equipment generates particles and chemical fumes that make ventilation a non-negotiable requirement, not a nice-to-have. Laser cutters need local exhaust ventilation, with published best-practice design velocities of 3,800 feet per minute at the extraction point. 3D printers emit ultrafine particles and volatile compounds from heated filament, requiring their own exhaust ducts at around 3,000 feet per minute.
The smartest layout separates computer workstations from the machines entirely. Ideally, you design in one room and monitor equipment through a window or video feed. This keeps you out of the particle zone during long prints or cuts. Labs should also build in extra ventilation capacity beyond current needs, because new filament materials appear constantly and their emission profiles aren’t always well-characterized.
Eye protection is standard around laser cutters and CNC machines. Hearing protection matters for routers cutting hard materials. And any machine with a spinning bit or moving gantry demands awareness of loose clothing, hair, and hand placement.
Where to Access the Tools
The Fab Foundation, which grew out of the MIT course, now coordinates over 2,300 registered Fab Labs across more than 120 countries. These labs follow a common equipment and access model: they’re open to the public (at least part of the time), they stock the core set of machines described above, and they typically offer introductory training. The annual Fab Lab conference draws around 1,200 attendees from the global network.
Beyond official Fab Labs, public libraries, universities, community colleges, and independent makerspaces in most mid-sized cities offer overlapping equipment. Many charge modest hourly or membership fees. The barrier to entry has dropped dramatically since the original MIT course launched in 2002, when access to a laser cutter or CNC mill meant working in an engineering department or a factory. Today, the machines are smaller, cheaper, and designed for people who aren’t machinists by training.
The real skill isn’t operating any single machine. It’s understanding which process to use for which part of a project, how to move a design from screen to physical object without losing critical dimensions, and how to combine cut, printed, and electronic components into something that works. That combination is what “making almost anything” actually means.