Upcoming Events
Monthly Member Meeting: June 22, 7:30 pm
This month’s member meeting will occur at 7:30pm sharp! The meetings are a great way to keep up with shop business, discuss upcoming events, and have your voice heard. Typical run time is 30-45min.
Pig Roast: June 24
Pig Roast is coming up fast, and prep work is starting to move into it’s final stages. You may have heard our radio ad, recorded by Jeff Cotten a few weeks ago, or seen one of our flyers around town! This is looking to be our largest pig roast yet, so come hungry! If you’d like to bring a side or dessert, check out the wiki page and sign up!
Shop Talk
Giant Laser Cutter
We are in full swing fundraising for a new giant laser cutter! At the time of writing, we are 3 weeks in and 25% of the way to our goal of $10,000! A huge thanks from us to everybody who has contributed!!! This laser cutter has a working area of 48″ x 36, which can be used for both large-scale projects and increased output of smaller projects! Check out the Generosity link for more information.
Textiles Expansion
From Jeff: One of the latest improvements to the Makers Local 256 facility is the addition of a new enclosed and air conditioned space! One of the challenges facing the upstairs Textiles area was malfunctioning equipment due to maker dust and temperature issues. This new enclosed space will better protect the sewing machines, sergers, embroidery machines, and vinyl cutting resources that are available at Makers Local. It’s thanks to our community of members and friends that this room is coming together – donations of insulation and, discounted doors and drywall, and wiring expertise of our members have kept costs down and the work looking professional. The project should be completed in the next few weeks, we hope you come out and enjoy the fruits of this labor 🙂
Tool Area Improvements
Projects in Progress
Tyler Crumpton loves arcade cabinets! He designed his first table-top cabinet last year after retrofitting the full-size cabinet in the shop with a new monitor and accessories. He cut and assembled revision #1 of his bar-top arcade cabinet at Makers Local 256 this month! It was CNC-cut from 3/4″ MDF, built with a 15″ Dell flat-panel 4:3 monitor, and uses Happ buttons and joystick. Final steps for this project will be sanding, painting, and T-molding!
Did You Know?
Here are some cool facts about ML256!
- The shop’s roots started over a decade ago! In October 2006, the first meeting was held, and in 2008, this group of makers moved into the first physical space (shop 1.0)! Currently, we are in our third home, shop 3.0.
- We have over 80 members! At the moment, we gain approximately one new member per month! Our members are diverse – from teenagers to golden-agers, biologists to engineers, women to men (and sometimes dogs and cats!) – we have a wide range of ages, genders, and interests represented in our membership!
- Our space has some secret upgrades – the USB door lock and RFID change machine (CasCADE) are occasionally overlooked by first-time visitors, but are well-loved by frequent flyers!