Posted in General on May 24th, 2013
Glad to report we have a few areas of progress since the last post. Our goal has been to prep the space for membership by June 1, 2013. Some accomplishments include: The most important: An energetic attendance of a variety of folks from the community! The space is secured with locks at each entrance/exit. We are [...]
Posted in General on May 15th, 2013
From having several mentors at different stages in my life, I have noted two parameters that trend with age. This observation may be neither unique nor profound, but as a scientist, observe I must. The first is that as we get older, our bodies fail us. The second is that, as we age, our minds [...]
Posted in General on May 15th, 2013
Big thanks to everyone who came out for our weekly meeting last night. Jesse Guardiani from CreateThis.com gave an introduction to some basic hand tools with demos. I especially appreciate the sharpening demo as it made installing the electronic latch for the front door much easier to finish! Duane Rousseau from the Creative Discovery Museum [...]
Posted in General on Apr 27th, 2013
Thanks to everyone who came out for our first of a series of launch meetings. We had about a dozen total and we talked through a number of topics (see slides here). The new space was toured by a number of attendees who gave it a nod of approval. Currently we are negotiating the rent [...]
Posted in General on Apr 10th, 2013
It is time. We are hosting a planning meeting for the launch of our makerspace. The goal will be to gather any and all who are interested in joining together to pick up the conversation that began almost a year ago. Who: Chatt*lab Makerspace What: Call for Makers planning meeting (click to RSVP) When: Saturday [...]
Posted in 3d printing, General on Apr 10th, 2013
The not so recent Maker Day at the 4th Floor was a huge success. If you attended you were among over 1100 who attended that day all to celebrate, discuss, and learn about 3D printing and scanning technologies. Jason Brown and myself put in a dizzying day of conversations and questions from the folks. The [...]
Posted in General on Mar 9th, 2013
When Nate Hill from the Chattanooga Public Library’s 4th Floor asked if we could cut a giant ’4′ out on the CNC router vs doing it by hand, it was a no brainer. Jason and I recognized this as another opportunity to take the CNC router to the next level of build and understanding. We’ve [...]
Posted in General on Feb 23rd, 2013
Recently I read an article titled A Lack of R&D May Kill the 3d Printing Gold Rush by Ashlee Vance on BloombergBusinessWeek (who names these things nowadays?). The article points out that ’3D printing has no Moore’s law’ and that this will result in less progress, or more shallow, less of a quick buck for [...]
Posted in General on Feb 22nd, 2013
This morning Chris Anderson painted the ‘maker vision’ for the revolution in manufacturing that is being fostered by 3d printing technologies. The digital manufacturing revolution was put firmly in context with the industrial and digital revolutions of the past century. ‘We are all designers now, we might as well get good at it.’ is a [...]
Posted in General on Feb 18th, 2013
3DP (three dimensional printing) has been a catalyst for makers in many parts of the world. It is a popular vehicle to introduce people to the concept of making and Chattanooga is another place this is ringing true. Whether you remain starry eyed about 3dp or if you are just sick of seeing yet another [...]