Blog

It’s a little longer coming that we hoped, but finally we have some dates and places for some workshops!  Here you go:

How to Make Soap (Without Melting Your Face): Saturday, May 12 from 10-1pm, LaVida Scholars, 120 Munroe St, Lynn.  Read more and register here.

Bike Repair Clinic: Sunday, May 6th from 1-3pm at the Sloan Machinery Loft Garage, 589 Essex St, Lynn.  Read all about it and register here.

Learn to Knit: Saturday, May 5th from 10-1pm, at the Lynn Public Library.  Read more and register here.

Signing up for the classes is a simple two-step process.

1. First you can click the Register link to send your contact information to us.
2. Next, hit the PayPal button to pay for the class with any major credit or debit card.  You don’t need a PayPal account.

Woodworking and Upcycling:  We’ve put this class on hold for the moment, due to some problems finding a suitable location.  

What with the tools, noise, safety and liability concerns, we’re going to err on the side of caution, and hold off until we get a nice, solid location.  Please stay tuned.  If you’ve paid for this class, and would like a refund, please contact us here, and we’ll be happy to refund your payment.

Some huge news this morning!  We are officially teaming with the Lynn Public Library and their teen makerspace project, dubbed QuaranTEEN.  Right now they have some great tools: Mac workstations, a 3-D printer, Makey Makeys, iPads, and more.  We can offer them even more to work with, including our robotics and electronics gear, our wood and metal shop tools, our plastics and upcycling gear, printmaking, even our photo and darkroom equipment!  We need some spaces to teach our workshops and classes, they need more stuff – it’s a match made in (maker) heaven!

Like most libraries today, Lynn Library is working to keep vital, keep current, and fit into the 21st century.  Makerspaces are very common solutions to keeping the Public Libraries at the center of communities, especially students and young people, and the Lynn QuaranTeen program came out of response and guidance directly from the teen community – and gets tons of use.

For us, it’s a significant alliance with the community.  It’s working with a partner with a proven model, community involvement and the start of a great program.  It’s a place – a physical space – to work with people, teach classes, and help spread the Maker love.

For the Library, it’s access to all of our tools and resources, and more, a possible (probably) avenue for expansion into our final home.  We’re all about STEAM programs, well this is a way to provide in-house STEAM and a bigger, more robust home for the Library’s work in the future.

Read more about the Library here, and be sure to visit the Lynn Library Facebook page and their Lynn Library Teens pages.

Stay tuned, this is just the beginning of great things to come!

 

Keep making stuff. Take care of people, play nice and clean up after yourselves.

We get the question a lot: What do you have?  We’ve been really fortunate to be the recipients of some pretty cool stuff, as word starts getting out!  Here’s a partial list:

Photography/Video/Sound:

• A complete color-capable traditional darkroom (set up currently for B/W), with a second enlarger
• A complete 5-light studio strobe setup with softboxes, grid spots, stands, booms and backgrounds: 2 ProFoto monolights with others.
• A high-resolution digital camera (Nikon D800) with lenses, and various film cameras
• Flat-bed scanner (film and reflective)
• GoPro Hero 2
• micro HD video camera
• High-fidelity condensor microphones
• KAT (Kite Aerial Photography) picavet, JonesFoils KAP Feather, kite

Wood Shop:

• Table Saw
• Drill Press
• Band Saw
• Bench/Belt Sander
• Various hand and power tools

Metal Shop:

• Band/Hack Saw
• 12-ton Press
• Compressor
• Bench Grinder
• 9″ Grinder
• Die Grinder
• Micrometers, calipers
• Taps and dies
• up to 1 1/2″ twist drills and hole cutters
• X-Y Vise
• End mills

Auto/Motorcycle/Bicycle

• Hand, power and air tools
• Impact drive
• Torque wrench
• Gear pullers
• Automotive jacks
• Transmission/Motocycle Jacks
• Stands
• Specialty Bike hand tools

Finishing

• Paint spray gun
• Sandblasting with cabinet

Electronics

• 12V power supplies
• Fluke Multi-meter
• 3 complete soldering stations (including 75W terminal soldering iron)
• Li-Ion battery charging

Robotics/RC

• STEM/STEAM Electronics Snap-Circuits RC Snap Rover kit
• assortment of general purpose 12VDC motors
• 2 Channel High Power 30A DC Motor Remote Controller w/remote

 

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And the list keeps growing!  When we settle on a home, we’ll be ready to jump right in and get some facilities on-line immediately…  in the meantime, if you have, or know about anything you think we can use, drop a note.  Remember, we’re a 501(c)3 non-profit, so everything of value that you donate is tax-deductible!

BrickStarter?  What?

We need to show support for The Brickyard Collaborative, and we thought about all the various crowdfunding sites out there.  They’re great for getting support from all over the globe for projects that couldn’t really be funded any other way.  They also take a fee, and have rules – mostly to serve their own platforms.

This is about Lynn, and we need to show there’s support right here in Lynn and the rest of the North Shore.  So we’re keeping it here, using PayPal.

…and who can resist a pun like “BrickStarter”?

So here’s the deal.  Like Kickstarter, you get rewards for backing us, in the form of memberships.  What exactly are you getting a membership in?  Good question.

Already we’re collecting equipment and supplies.  We’re in negotiations for some spaces, and we’re poised to start moving in.  Right now we have a complete photo lab, wood shop, partially-equipped auto/bike shop, and soap, paper and recycled plastics equipment looking for a home.  We’re aiming at Sept. 1 to actually move in.

Take a look at our list of facilities we’re working on, here.  So, once we open, you get access to all that – from a metal and wood shop to 3D printing, rapid prototyping, upcycling and a whole lot more.  It’s a work in progress, so you can activate your Charter Membership when you’re, and we’re, ready.

To reward your patience, we’re giving you Charter Memberships at 1/2 the full price.  Ready to take a look at the details?  Here’s the BrickStarter page.

Why are we doing this?

…a couple of reasons.  First, we have some bills to pay – work that’s been done with the promise that we’ll pay for it when we start to get funded.  These are Lynn professionals, doing professional quality work on blind faith that we’ll keep our promise.  We love donations, but we believe people should be paid for the work they do.

Second, and most important. We have several grants we’re applying for that will get us off the ground in months, rather than years.  They all want to see that you have a committed base of support, and they like to see revenue coming in, demonstrating a viable concept.  You can help us pay our bills, but your support will leverage us into a better position to get some serious State and Federal funding.

How much do we need, and how much are we asking from you?  Really, whatever you can give.  We’re hoping to raise $5000 to cover our expenses, but even if you can only do $10 or less, still, that’s one more person we can point to, showing real support.

Take a look at the Charter Membership levels, here.  See what you think.  If you just want toss some into the general donation, the button for that is at the bottom.  You’ll get a confirmation, and we’ll be in constant contact to keep you up to date on the developments.

Thanks for all the support, and check back!  We’ll be updating our progress daily!