About the Authors

Brad Collette once designed software for a big company but doesn't like to remember that. These days, he is an entrepreneur, hobbyist, jack-of-all-trades, and a gentleman farmer. He is engaged in a multi-year project to raise two hacker sons. He has contributed to numerous open source projects and is an organizing member of Columbia Gadget Works, central Missouri's finest hackerspace.

Daniel Falck has always been interested in how things work. As a boy, he learned to play the guitar and decided to learn how to build guitars. This later progressed into learning how to make the tools that help build guitars. He still exhibits this sort of behavior today, as he tries to learn how to build open source CADCAM software that helps him build other tools of the trade, as well as guitar parts.

In the past, he has worked for Gibson Guitar Corporation as a tooling designer and prototype machine shop supervisor, where he learned CAD software. He currently does the same thing for Chris King Precision Components, running the prototype machine shop, designing tooling, gaging, fixtures, machine parts, and software.

Over the years, he has gained an appreciation for open source software and has been involved with several open source CADCAM projects. Linuxcnc was the inspiration that got him interested in Linux and open source. He has also participated in APTOS, the HeeksCNC project, and now FreeCAD.