Have you see Velspresso? It’s Milwaukee’s first Espresso Bike, and it was built at Milwaukee Makerspace. Check out this local new story about Rob (one of our members) and the business he’s build around the thing he built at the space.
Tag Archives: business
Can you guys build me a…
Every so often we get a question from someone along the lines of “Hey, can you guys build me a…” where the thing in question might be easy to build, or hard to build, or cheap, or expensive, or… a dozen other things.
It might be worth explaining how Milwaukee Makerspace works, for those who are not quite sure. Milwaukee Makerspace is a number of things: it’s a physical place (a hackerspace or makerspace) but at its heart, it’s also a group for people who like to make things.
Most people who join Milwaukee Makerspace already have personal projects in mind that they want to work on. Others just want to learn new skills; like forging metal, or wood working, or digital fabrication. At the weekly meeting people talk about what sort of making they are into, and it ranges from electronics to photography to welding to sewing. There’s a lot of skills in the group, and that’s good!
When people contact us asking if they can hire us to build something, the answer is usually not as simple as yes or no. It’s complicated…
No one ‘works’ at Milwaukee Makerspace we’re all just members, and we are not a business. We’ve done group projects for other organizations in Milwaukee, but it’s usually to help people in need, support a community effort, or for fun.
So here’s the deal: if you want someone at Milwaukee Makerspace to make something for you, or help you make something yourself, your best bet is to come down to a Weekly Meeting at 7pm on a Tuesday and introduce yourself, talk about what you want, and see if anyone is interested in helping you out. You never know, you might find someone up for a new challenge, or just as excited about your potential project as you are.
(If you just can’t make it to a meeting, consider posting on our mailing list. But if you can attend a meeting, it’s definitely better to meet up in person than just shoot emails back and forth.)
3D Creations Grand Opening Party
You may have noticed that we’re kind of into 3D printing here at Milwaukee Makerspace. A few months back we had Jesse and Matt show up at the space to talk about 3D printers, and then they got involved in the Milwaukee 3D Printing Meetup, and 3D Printing Camp, and ended up starting a company called 3D Creations which opened a shop in the Grand Avenue Mall!
Yeah… I just said there’s a 3D printing shop in Milwaukee.
So here’s the deal, they’re having a Grand Opening Party on Tuesday, September 4th, 2012 at 6pm, and if you’ve ever been curious about 3D printing, you might want to stop by. If you’ve already got a 3D printer, stop by anyway, and talk to them about ordering parts, filament, etc. They also said that if anyone wants to bring a printer, they’ll provide space to set up and show it off to people, and help promote 3D printing.
You can RSVP on Facebook, or register on Eventbrite. And yeah, it’s free, but they want you to register because they’ll be providing food and drinks. :)
Oh, and one more thing… The weekly Milwaukee Makerspace meeting, which normally happens on Tuesdays at 7pm, will be pushed back to 8pm so members can attend this event.
Common Pitch
Common Pitch Milwaukee is coming up! What is it? Here’s how they describe it:
We’re on the hunt for eight promising startups working hard to redefine business in America. The best candidates will represent products or services that improve on (or completely reinvent) an existing American industry, helping to make it more sustainable, more profitable, more community oriented, more ethical – and maybe even more fun.
Our own Tom G. (one of the founders of Milwaukee Makerspace) has an idea, and he wants in! Here’s the short video he put together for his application.
I think it’s a killer idea, because I’ve seen some of the stuff people at makerspaces come up with. Only a small portion of them get turned into products, probably because it’s not easy to do. Tom wants to make it easy to do. And hey, it may help kickstart American manufacturing and create some jobs in right here in Milwaukee. Win-Win!