Eugene Maker Space

Friday meeting

We haven't had an update post in a while. Last week we skipped our usual Friday meeting since it was Thanksgiving weekend and everyone was busy. We will be opening tonight at 6:00PM at the shop for another open project night. Please come down and see what we are up too and meet some new people! Hope to see you there.

Thank you!

Thanks to everyone who came out to project night last night. We had a great time. A small group discussed options for an electronic locking system as well as upgrading the security system for EMS. Kevin build a wooden frame for the new pegboard to give it some much needed strength. Another small group installed the stair case to the loft area, although it still needs a bit of work to increase safety. Bob brought pizza for everyone! Overall it was a lot of fun and we got a good amount of stuff done at the shop at the same time. We look forward to seeing everyone next week. In the meantime, here are a few photos taken last night.

Can you tell geeks were eating this pizza?

The donated staircase

The pegboard with the new frame attached

New Time for Project Night

We are still having our weekly project night this Friday but we are moving the time this week from 7:00PM to 6:00PM. Please show up if you are interested in Eugene Maker Space! Last week we had a Makerbot 3D printer and Bob brought his new Arduino hardware as well as an Oscilloscope accessory for his iPad. A few of us were using an Android phone as a signal generator to test out the scope and figure out its basic functions. Clif also powered up a home built HeNe laser.

This week there has been talk of working on building a large storage shelf for member projects and other odds and ends. Another group is talking about working on an electronic access system for the shop so we can easily control access to the shop for members. Earlier this week we mounted some peg board to our large work bench but it could definitely use some improvement with additional framing. There should be plenty of stuff going on here tomorrow night.

If you are at all interested, please drop by some time after 6:00PM and say hello. We are always looking for new people to come hang out and share ideas. Hope to see you there.

Project Night This Friday

We are having another open project night this Friday November 4th starting at 7:00PM. The idea is to get some new people into the shop so we can meet, hang out and work on projects. Last week was a lot of fun. We met a few new people and played with a Van De Graaff generator, a Rubens tube, a microcontroller circuit and a DIY CNC machine that is a work in progress. Here is a short video clip of some fun we had with the Rubens tube:

We hope to see more people this Friday night at 7:00PM!

Soft Open

During our meeting last night, we decided it would be a good idea to have a sort of "soft open" for Eugene Maker Space. We haven't quite finished the paperwork that would allow us to officially accept new members, but we do want to meet up with people in the area and work on fun projects together in the mean time. As such, we have decided to start meeting on Friday nights at the shop as a sort of open project night. If you have a project you want to work on or if you just want to come check out the shop or meet some local makers, please come down to the shop after 7:00PM Friday night (Oct 28th) and hang out! Even if you don't have a project of your own to bring, there are a few improvements to the shop we can all work on together such as hanging some florescent lighting or installing our staircase.

The location of our space is 687 McKinley street, Suite #2 in Eugene. Here is a handy map to help you find the place.

View Larger Map

We look forward to seeing some new people on Friday!

Almost ready!

The founding members have been meeting to finalize the EMS bylaws and a few other paper work related things. We are hoping to be in a condition to officially accept new members within the next two weeks. In the last few weeks we have really filled out the space with work surfaces and tools to get us started. There is lots more work that can be done to make the space something really special though. Stay tuned for more updates. In the meantime, here are a few photos to show what the space is looking like.

Space Updates

We have some more updates for everyone. We have been working to get our space in a condition that will allow us all to get some real work done. Last week a few of us got together and built a nice sturdy workbench for the space. Now we have huge work surface to use for more demanding projects.

Workbench Build

Completed Workbench

We also have a few smaller tables and desks and we are building up our basic tool collection. We should be moving some more donated furniture into the space tonight. We also plan on re-painting the walls a white color so they look less dirty and damaged but we need to fix the paint sprayer first. Things are moving along quite nicely and we hope to open our doors officially to the public soon. If you are interested please leave us a comment or shoot us an email at board(at)eugenemakerspace.com to let us know!

We have a space!

I am incredibly pleased to inform you that Eugene Maker Space finally has a space to call our own. I just received the keys today. Right now it's mostly just an empty warehouse space but we hope to change that soon. We are going to try and get some basic furniture in there and make the place a bit more presentable before planning a sort of open house night. Hopefully we will have a proper workshop up and running soon so we can all build those things we've always wanted to build! Keep checking back for more updates.

We are still here!

I just wanted to post a quick update to let everyone know we are still here. I just looked at a potential space today and I think it looks very promising. It is about 1000 square feet and affordable. I am hoping the rest of the board will agree on the space and we can jump on it. We will definitely post here as soon as we sign any paperwork to let everyone know we are open and kicking. Please keep checking back for updates.