Blog

This weekend we had a special treat – a visit from the St. Pius Robotics Team!  They spent some time touring the shop, then set to work building every imaginable variety of “wigglebot” and powered upcycled vehicles and, well, “things”.

Quote of the day:  “I want to come back.  And learn to use…  EVERYthing!”

Check out our photo gallery, and thanks to our members Noel, Charlie, Hugh and Teresa (you’ll notice member Hugh Pyle in some of the photos, helping out a budding young maker) for their help and support!

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Here’s a little video action:

If you missed our second Repair Cafe, here’s your chance to see a little bit of what went on – we worked on everything from a Macbook Pro’s SD drive to a clogged vacuum cleaner, with a couple of 3D printed brackets and replaced switches thrown in to boot!  Check out the gallery:

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Got broken stuff?  Bring it down to the new Brickyard Repair Café and learn how to fix it, help fix it, fix it yourself or just watch it being fixed!

Too much stuff goes into the dumpster, and a whole lot of it could be repaired.  We have a crack team of volunteers who can fix just about anything, and not only that, they can teach you some of the skills, too.

What can we fix?  We can repair, mend, patch, rebuild, remake and restore almost anything.  We are a makerspace, after all!  How does it work?  Go over to this page, The Brickyard Repair Cafe, read the Fine Print and submit the form telling us all about your repair.  We’ll get back to you and confirm your appointment.  When do we run the Repair Café?  One Saturday afternoon a month.  Check the schedule here for the next one.  What does it cost?  It’s free, though if we need parts you’re going to have to pay for them, and a modest donation is encouraged to keep our happy Repair elves, well, happy.

Gather up your broken stuff and come on down!  We’ll get the next Café scheduled within the next day or so…

 

A little pitch for some help…

We opened our doors in February, and rented all our floor space memberships by March.  We’ve got over $100,000 in equipment, and we’re signing new members at a rate of about 4 per month.  We have 35 members now, and are growing fast to our break-even goal of 50 full members.  We’re growing remarkably fast.

…but we still need a little bit longer runway.

Money’s tight, and it limits how quickly we can grow our offerings and our facility.

We’re looking for just a few key backers.  We need, at least, some cash to cover a few months of expenses.  At best, we could use enough to give us that boost we need to get fully off the ground.  Whether it’s a donation or a loan, it can make the difference between taxiing along on the runway, or taking off.

Can you help?  Do you know someone who might love what we’re doing and lend us a hand?  Share this post, along with this document: Invest in.

Contact us here to learn more.  We’d be happy to discuss the details – business plan, financial records, projections…  we’re well above our target goals.

Of course, we always welcome any donations you can make, large or small!  Use this PayPal link – any major credit card accepted, no PayPal account needed: