Everyone needs a third place outside of work that isn’t a house and far enough out of reach from the nag bag. (Wife) A place where spontaneous conversations with someone you wouldn’t normally talk to. After all, even your best friend was a stranger once.
Anyways a makerspace is a space that you “make” things lol. In my case for the low price of $50 a month I have access to a large range of saws grinders, sanders, woodworking tools, metalworking tools, machine tools, a bio-lab, 3d- printers, laser cutter, water cutter, router cutter, wire cutters and a 5000 sqft place to do it all in. This all works because nobody uses anything 100% of the time. For example I drive my car 3-5% of the day theoretically someone else could use my car the other 95%. Same with the tools in the average suburbanites garage. Most average non professional people only use their tools for .001% of the time so theoretically thousands could share a welder for the occasional project they can squeeze into their busy lives. Which is exactly the concept that a makerspace exploits. Get a thousand people paying $50 a month to share a pile of tools. Bam! Me the average peasant has the access to capital that even the most motivated hobbyist could even dream of.
Then there is one more factor that makes makerspaces so great….People, I find myself showing up not even to do a project just for the company and conversation. While I write up blogs to post. Even better, join a class on how to use many of these tools. It is real easy to be lonely in this world. In a typical day I wake up, hop in a car, alone. Commute alone, and work mostly alone. It’s nice to show up to a place where many individuals share a similar interest in making stuff. What’s even more interesting is I would have conversations with the likes of ivy league students (i am near Yale after all) and common folk carving out a living on with laser cutter.
Finally, I feel we as a society have lost our competitiveness in making things whether that be metalwork or otherwise. I perpetually get addicted to these videos of people in terrible conditions making just stuff from what seems like nothing. What’s funny is there are plenty of opportunities if you know where to look. For example large burst disks (Pic Below) are ridiculously expensive yet companies like mine will pay it. All it appears to be is a sheet of stamped metal that self-destructs at a certain pressure.
By the looks of it isn’t much and it’s poised for disruption. Opportunity is there only know-how is needed. In the world of YouTube the capability and knowhow we have access to is absolutely amazing. With a makerspace and open source electronics like Arduino and 3d printing I just cant wait to show up.
Anyway, I gotta go borrow some tools, make stuff, and meet people.
ChiricoChronicles 