It has a trampoline that shoots fire, a life-sized mechanical giraffe, wooden bicycles and LEGO creations that will make any adult awe in amazement. Call it crazy, call it weird, call it a science fair for grown-ups.

It’s the Maker Faire and it’s about to attract approximately 15,000 to the San Mateo Event Center. The event is organized by the publisher’s of Make Magazine, which only started last year and already had a subscription base exceeding 45,000.

It’s part of the growing DIY — do it yourself — movement sweeping the nation.

“It’s things that you want to do in your own time, that are satisfying like a hobby,” said Make Magazine founder Dale Dougherty. “There seems to be a lot of people out there that this has touched, not just hard-core geeks.”

Dougherty, a Sebastopol resident, noticed there were plenty or resources for people seeking to make their own shirts or knit their own socks, but what he didn’t see was a technical do-it-yourself resource. In March 2005, he published the first ever Make Magazine. It’s a quarterly publication that reads more like a pocket book with the feeling of an old Popular Mechanics magazine. It features a Menlo Park man describing how to make a wooden bicycle to directions on how to covert your average Fiat into an electric ride.

The magazine was only expected to get 10,000 subscriptions. It shot to 45,000 and has a readership at about 80,000 people if you include people who do not subscribe, Dougherty said. Before he knew it, Dougherty was receiving articles about warming a pool with a barbecue, taking aerial photographs by attaching a camera to a kite and creating high-powered water rockets.

Some ideas are really silly, some are really cool, Dougherty said.

Riding the success of the magazine publisher, O’Reilly Media, floated the idea of the first “Maker Faire” and the event formed a life of its own.

“Some things you dream about actually happen,” Dougherty said. “I always thought if all these people who are making things actually got together, they’d have a good time.”

They settled on the San Mateo Event Center because it had plenty of indoor and outdoor space and a fairgrounds feel that was reminiscent of a county fair, Dougherty said.

There has to be plenty of space for the kind of things going on this weekend.

There will be a material swap, knitting classes and workshops about adding lights to clothing.

Not into crafts? There’s always a fire-shooting fire truck, fireball-shooting trampoline and classes about homemade robots and implanting microchips in skin.

Mikey Sklar, 29, of New Mexico, will be holding a workshop for people interested in radio frequency identification and how to implant RFID chips under their own skin. The cards are considered the next generation of bar codes. They are similar to the chips placed in pets so they can be identified if lost.

In a human, the cards can hold special codes to unlock important things like computers or front doors. It costs under $150 for the chip, a USB card and all the equipment necessary to conduct the minor surgery yourself. A implant gun only costs $30 online.

Sklar implanted his own RFID device that controls a fireball-shooting trampoline he created six weeks ago. The trampoline will be spewing fire all weekend at the convention, but not unless Slkar and his implanted chip are near enough to unlock it.

The trampoline is rigged to shoot fireballs based on how high you jump. A laser measures how low the trampoline sinks after ever jump and sends a signal to a computer that registers it on a scale. That information is sent to a nearby canister hooked up to a propane tank. The larger the jump, the wider the propane valves opens.

Sklar has a thing for inventing. Eight months ago he was employed on Wall Street as a computer specialist. Then he got frustrated with doing things on computers all day, but never really making anything. So he packed up and moved to Truth or Consequence, N.M. with his girlfriend, Wendy.

He started creating clothing that blinks, than he moved on to bigger and better light shows. Sklar manages to pay the bills by writing for Make Magazine and holding classes here and there. Next year, he hopes to open his own DIY school.

“I’ve been making useless things in my spare time after work for years,” Sklar said. “Next year I’m going to start a school, Escula de Fuega, or School of Fire.”

If personal implants aren’t really your speed, there will be plenty of other exhibits to catch. One group plans to convert a car into electric within a day and there will be Segway polo matches going on all day.

Dana Yates can be reached by e-mail: dana@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.

If you go...

Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

San Mateo Event Center

2495 S. Delaware St., San Mateo. $20 adult, $8 student.

For more information call (707) 827-7272.

Tickets available at www.makezine.com/faire