Hey, it’s Brad—the man and mind behind Project Build Stuff. I was born and raised in Sacramento, CA. Growing up, I was the master tinkerer always tearing apart and rebuilding everything and anything I could get my hands on. When I wasn’t building K’nex Taj Mahals, I was normally the right-hand man to my jack of all trades father in his DIY and house projects. The maker blood has been in my veins long before I even knew what a maker was.
In 2011 at the ripe old age of 20, I married my high school sweetheart Courtney and began a crazy journey that led me to today. Over the last eight years, I’ve lived in six apartments in three different cities (Sacramento, San Diego, and Indianapolis), made two major moves, and obtained three college degrees (AA, BA, MA). My desire to make never subsided through all of this, but my lack of space and tools made for a very tricky hurdle. I got in small projects that I could complete on balconies and in courtyards to keep the maker fire burning.
In 2017, I dragged my wife across the country from sunny California to snowy Indiana to pursue an awesome teaching fellowship. This move opened the door for me to finally spread my maker wings and fly. Not only did we buy a house shortly after moving which gave me my first shop space (i.e. garage), but I got the amazing opportunity to teach engineering at the high school level which gave me the ability to expand my digital fabrication skills ten-fold. Now, I spend my days shaping the future engineers of the world, and I spend my nights and weekends cranking out woodworking, CNC, and 3D printed content in the shop.