A visit from Marc Teusch

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Pete Prodoehl

Marc Teusch

A few weeks ago we got an email from Luxembourg. Well, more specifically, from Marc Teusch, one of the founders of syn2cat. He said he’d be visiting Milwaukee and was wondering if he could stop by Milwaukee Makerspace… the answer was YES!

Visiting other spaces is awesome. It’s great to see the differences (and similarities) between different hackerspaces. I visited Baltimore Hackerspace and highly recommend you try to visit other spaces in your travels.

Anyway, Marc stopped by during our weekly meeting, then afterwards I gave him a tour of our space and we talked about making, hacking, Luxembourg, the US, and all sorts of other things.

If you didn’t get a chance to talk to Marc that night, check out his recent TEDx Talk: Makerspaces – The Future of Education

Panoramic Photos

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Pete Prodoehl

A few years ago I built a panoramic camera head (mostly out of scrap wood) and while I’ve wanted to build a new one, this one (mostly) works, so I just keep using it. It also helps that Hugin keeps getting better and better at stitching panoramas together.

I was lucky enough to be at the space on a Saturday morning before it got too busy and shot a few panos. (You can see larger versions on Flickr by clicking on each photo.) Enjoy!

Here’s the craft area… something we didn’t have at the old Chase location.

Here’s the Meeting Room & Electronics Lab. (Often called “The Office”)

The Wood Shop is constantly improving… this photo is already out of date!

The Metal/Machine Shop has some heavy duty equipment. And lots of room!

Here’s one end of the storage room…

And here’s another end of the storage room.

It’ll be great to look back at these photos and see how things have changed over time. It shouldn’t take long though, as things are in a constant state of development. (Oh, there’s more rooms, but I ran out of time! More to come… Stay Tuned!)

Space Improvement Workshop

Posted on February 22, 2013 by Pete Prodoehl

improve!

You’ve been waiting for this… It’s The Return of the Space Improvement Workshop!

What’s that you say? Space Improvement? How could we possibly improve the space anymore? Sure, it seems impossible, but we think we can do it.

In fact, the wiki has this huge list of things to do, and since we moved from the old location on short notice, there’s still some unpacking to do, as well as cleaning, and just general organization. All of these things will help improve the space and make the processing of actually making things in the space, that much easier.

So please, join us on Sunday, February 24th, 2013 at 1pm as we run this totally awesome Space Improvement Workshop.

(There’s been rumors of pizza and appropriate beverages for those willing to join us.)

Water, Water…

Posted on February 1, 2013 by Pete Prodoehl

Water!

We had to pause a bit last night when we saw some water in the space… Our old location at Chase was well known for the leaky roof and the occasional floods. It turns out the water was just from the electrician’s truck that was pulled into the space. Whew!

The Lenox building has been water-tight so far (knock on MDF!) and we’re feeling secure in the fact that everything that should stay dry will stay dry.

Kevin also demanded I take an “arty” photo of the water. Enjoy!

We’re Back!

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Pete Prodoehl

OPEN!

You’ve been waiting for it, we’ve been waiting for it… Milwaukee Makerspace can now officially re-open, and we’ll be holding our first official meeting of the year at 7pm on Tuesday, January 29th, 2013.

Come on down to 2555 South Lenox Street in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and see the new Milwaukee Makerspace. It’s bigger, better and 178% more makier!

See you Tuesday!

Baltimore Hackerspace Visit

Posted on January 16, 2013 by Pete Prodoehl

During a recent trip to Baltimore I got to visit Baltimore Hackerspace, take a quick tour, and talk to two of their members.

Our story actually starts back in 2011, when I was passing through Baltimore and tried to connect with Baltimore Node (another hackerspace in Baltimore) and when I mentioned on their mailing list I’d be passing through town, I got an invite to stop by Baltimore Hackerspace, which at the time was called “Harford Hackerspace” and was located in one of the member’s garage. Well, I never made it to either space last year, so I thought I’d try again this year… sadly, Baltimore Node does not currently have a space due to some issues with Load of Fun, the building they are located in. (Side note: I snapped a photo of Load of Fun back in 2009, before I was even a Milwaukee Makerspace member.)

Confused yet? Good! Anyway, Mike from Baltimore Hackerspace was kind enough to meet me there on a Wednesday afternoon for a tour. We talked about Power Wheels, Make Magazine, The Red Bull Challenge, how Baltimore Hackerspace operates, how Milwaukee Makerspace operates, and general making and hacking activities.

I snapped a few photos as well… enjoy!

Baltimore Hackerspace was not easy to find! It’s in an industrial unit (which looks a little like a storage unit) with no sign on the door. I think some signage is in their future, as it’ll really help new visitors find the place.

Here’s their Power Wheels car. It looks unlike any other Power Wheels car I’ve seen. Like most Power Wheels cars, it occasionally starts on fire. :)

Here’s the “Telepresence Zen Garden” they built for the 2012 RedBull Creation Competition.

They had a robot game thingy, which was a little like Operation, but you had to guide a wand over the wire and not touch it, or the robot freaked out.

Recycle Robot
OK, this thing was impressive, and confusing. When I first saw this robot I assumed it was some commercially available unit, but it turned it was build using mostly scrap! Mark (the guy working on it) finds interesting pieces from children’s toys, household appliances, etc. and puts it all together. And, that weird thing to the right is indeed a walker, modified to assist the robot in walking, at least until it can walk on its own, without the help of a balancing mechanism. Great project!

Baltimore Hackerspace
There was also art to be found… I don’t know if this was done by a member, but it definitely added color to the space and let you know where you were. ;)

Some Space Invaders were descending down the wall… I hope they fill the whole wall with them, it would definitely look cool.

They had a small office for meetings, with a big table and chairs for hacking and what-not. The office also had this whiteboard, which may contain the secrets of the universe… or something.

What’s a hackerspace without a 3D printer? Here’s their MakerBot Thing-O-Matic ready to melt some plastic.

Keyboard
Looks like they’ve also got some music fans (and maybe video nerds?) as members. I love the color bars!

Well, that concludes our tour of Baltimore Hackerspace… if you’re ever in Charm City, check ‘em out!

Easy Star Trek “Red Shirt” Costume

Posted on November 1, 2012 by BenN

I always have the best of intentions. When getting invited to a costume party, I plan to put lots of time and effort into it to create an EPIC costume. Time after time, I put it off and come up with something at the last minute.

The great thing about a costume is that you DON’T have to spend lots of money on one. In fact, you can create a very good costume, just from clothing and props you already had.

Recently, a friend had been working on a Star Trek prop, which got me thinking about how simple a Star Fleet uniform would be to make. Not a perfect one full of detail, but something fun, simple, and cheap.

To start, I gathered together a red T-shirt, black pants and shoes. I didn’t have a long-sleeved shirt, so I just layered the red short-sleeved over a black long-sleeved T-shirt.

A Federation insignia or communicator badge is an important element to the costume, but is simple to make. I just went to the web and did an image search. When I found one I liked, I downloaded it, scaled to to about 2.5″ tall in my graphics software, and then printed it onto tag-board with my inkjet printer. I cut out the insignia, and put a piece of tape on back. A safety pin glued to the back would work great as well. From just a few feet away, it doesn’t look like paper at all, it just looks like the logo you expect to see on the uniform.

Of course no Star Fleet Officer on an away mission would be without a phaser. I had several to pick from: a TV remote, an infrared thermometer, or my cordless beard trimmer. Basically any dark plastic item that you can point threateningly can be a phaser. I chose a digital tire pressure gauge as my hand-weapon of choice.

Also handy would be a tri-corder. I DID spend a bit of money on this one – $.99 cents. Since I happened to have a smart phone, I downloaded a tri-corder app. It has lots of blinking lights and sound effects that add considerably to the outfit.

I also wanted to point out that I was NOT a main character. Nope, not Kirk or Picard or any of those guys – just a nameless red shirt that’s guaranteed to get killed by the alien/monster of the week. To do so, I created a “Hi, my name is:” badge from a computer-printable address label and a marker. I tried both “Red Shirt” and “Expendable” as name-tags. At the one costume party I went to, people got the joke and had a good chuckle – and then had an urge to kill me…. (Lion-O quickly took me out with the Sword of Omens.)

So, remember, a costume doesn’t have to cost a fortune in time and money – just recycle some clothes and other items into a simple and clever outfit anyone can appreciate.

-Ben

The New Milwaukee Makerspace

Posted on October 21, 2012 by Pete Prodoehl

Lenox

When Milwaukee Makerspace started in August of 2009, Tom and Royce gathered a group of people who had a common interest in starting a hackerspace/makerspace in Milwaukee. A group met at Tom’s house for the first meeting, and then moved to the local Culver’s, meeting each week to discuss current projects, and plans for a space. By November 2010 the group acquired a space in the Chase Commerce Center, and with 13 founding members they launched at our current location, and then added two more members before a soft opening party in January 2011.

We’ve gone from 15 members at the start of 2011 to over 70 members near the end of 2012. We’ve seen our capabilities expand, the list of equipment grow, the number of projects explode, and we’ve also gotten involved in the community. It’s been pretty amazing the last 20 months… and we’re ready for the next step.

We’re about to start the process of moving from our present 6,000 square foot space to a new 16,000 square foot building. Don’t worry, we’ll still be in Milwaukee (and still in Bay View) and in fact, we’ll be moving more into the heart of Bay View, into an entire building at 2555 South Lenox Street on the corner of Lenox and Otjen, one block off Kinnickinnic, next to the McDonald’s. If you’ve been to the Bay View Library, The Hi-Fi Cafe, or Rushmor Records, then you know the area.

So what does this all mean? It means that instead of exclusively working on our own projects for the next month, many of us will also be working on building out the new space: having a Sawzall party on the roof, knocking down a wall or two, building up several new ones, etc!

We hope to offer a lot of new capabilities at the new space, things we’ve wanted to do but may not have been able to due to limitations of our first space. We’ll also be looking at hosting classes and other events at the new space.

If you’ve been interested in joining Milwaukee Makerspace, you’ve got two options… join now, and help with the move (and have a hand in what the new space will be) or wait until we’re all moved in. That second options sounds sort of boring though, and I’m sure you’re more interested in helping us create an amazing new space here in Milwaukee, because you’re a bold maker with great ideas.

Lenox

Space Apps Challenge

Posted on April 18, 2012 by Pete Prodoehl

International Space Apps Challenge

If you don’t have enough to do this weekend (or you really love space and consider yourself a citizen scientist) you might want to join the International Space Apps Challenge.

On Saturday, April 21st, and Sunday, April 22nd, 2012 hacker and makers around the world will be joining together to work on software, hardware, data visualizations, and other projects to solve current challenges relevant to both space exploration and social need. Even the folks on the International Space Station will be taking part!

Learn more about it here, browse the list of challenges, and if you want to get involved, register!

Signs of the Makerspace

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Pete Prodoehl

If you’ve only been a part of Milwaukee Makerspace through the web site, wiki, mailing list, or some other online thingamabob we have, and you’ve never actually been to the space, you’re missing out on something—the signs!

Besides all the purely informational signs, we’ve got some humorous signs, and a few signs that probably fit in both categories.

So here my friends, is a brief look at some of the signs of the Makerspace.

Wipe your feet!
We have this special stuff at the space we call “Makerspace Filth” that, if unchecked, tries to infect everything. This is how we fight this menace.

We have numerous classifications for our projects… From “Somewhat Safe” to… well, maybe I shouldn’t talk about the other end of the scale!

It if looks unsafe... it probably is.
Speaing of safe, here’s a good reminder. I actually nicked this one from the guys at Robots and Dinosaurs.

This makes sense right? Things you should not use the Test Equipment for include: hammer, boat anchor, blunt object, doorstop, spider flattener.

Stay Out!
Occasionally one of your projects needs some privacy. (Especially if it has an escape hatch built into it.)

Yes, the Milwaukee Robotics Club meets here. Or at least we used to. (It’s been a while since we’ve had a meeting actually…)

Eye protection must be warn
Protect things like your eyes. And your signs. You might notice that even this sign about protecting your eyes is protected by a piece of plastic. Similar to how you might protect your eyes. #meta

Yes, we do have bathrooms! (Note: some of that “Makerspace Filth” we talked about may be located in the bathrooms.)

Use the wedge!
By the way… if you use the bathrooms, you might also want to use the wedge, so you don’t get locked out.

CCTV in operation
We also have some cameras around the place keeping an eye on everything. (Note: there are not cameras in the bathrooms.)

Caution - Always Add Acid to Water
A gentle reminder to always add acid to water. I’m going to assume the other way around is probably a bad idea.

Laser Radiation
This one is on the laser cutter. Yes, we have a laser cutter. And yes, you can etch a mirror in the laser cutter without destroying yourself or the laser cutter.

Potential for Toxic Fumes - Keep Clear!
Speaking of the laser cutter, we do vent the fumes, but we figured it was still a good idea to put this one along the path of the vent pipe.

Look directly at implosion
I’m not sure we’ve ever had an implosion at the space, but if we do, we know the proper procedure for such an event.

Load: 3 lbs per sq foot
Hmmm, looks like the maximum load had dropped a bit since the initial construction of the building. Those old floors ain’t what they used to be!

The Hack Rack sign has been upgraded since last year, and now includes the bit about taking something if you leave something—which is good—otherwise the Hack Rack would take over the entire space at some point.

For Makerspace from Ava
I’m not even sure this one is a sign… I think it’s actually artwork contributed by a member’s daughter. Either way, it’s a great interpreation of our logo.

I hope you enjoyed the look at some of our signs! Let us know if you have any suggestions for future signs at the space!

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