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.
Local Projects
The core board members are still working on procuring a home for Eugene Makerspace. We will be sure to update the site as soon as we have make a decision. We decided that in the mean time we could post information about projects people have been working on in the Eugene area to get people motivated and excited about things to come. I thought I would start by posting about a project I worked on last weekend with my friend Ellery.
We spent a few hours procuring parts an putting together a Ruben's tube. A Ruben's tube is basically just a piece of metal pipe with a line of small holes drilled along one side. You cap off one end of the tube, and on the other you mount a speaker. You then pump flammable gas into the tube and ignite the line of small holes so you end up with what looks like a long line of Bunsen burners. When you play pure tones through the tube, the pressure from the sound waves will cause the flames to vary in height. This allows you to actually see sound waves in real time... in fire. It's awesome. Here is a video clip from one of our first successful runs with the Ruben's tube.
A full write up of how the Ruben's tube was built can be found over at my website. There are also lots of photos of the build process and some other fun videos of the tube in action.
Do you live in the Eugene, Oregon area? Have you been working on fun projects lately that you would like featured on our site? Let us know about it! For now you can email rick (at) eugenemakerspace.com and let me know. I know there are lots of people in the area who do fun stuff. Lets get it out in the open and start building our hackerspace community!
A(nother) Place To Call Home?
Options are good and we aim to deliver so me, Rick & Clif have been scouring Eugene for further locations. We thought we'd share & ask for feedback. This location is 30 minutes bus ride from the University of Oregon campus & is ready 1st May.
The thing is, we have 2 options for this location. Option A is twice the monthly price of Option B (although for the initial 4 months Option A would be 25% more expensive, climbing to 100% at the 6 month mark.).
Let us know what you think!
Video 1: Option A
Video 2: Option B
Protected: What Professor Plum Saw At The University
Waste Not Want Not
The awesome minded Mark from our community here in Eugene pointed out that the wonderful folk at ThinkGeek have, if this is possible to believe had what may be their most wonderful idea. Providing the very raw stuff of a builders imagination with electronic returns:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/blog/2011/03/take-these-broken-things.html
I am listening to Mr. Mister as I fill in the application!
Welcome One Welcome All
Eugene Maker Space communication central has been a little as we focus on getting a fixed space nailed down that Eugene Maker Space can call home. Our move-in date of April 1st has been pushed back to May 1st as the current tenant (John) needs a bit more time to migrate to a smaller space himself.
However, we'd like to start getting a feel for how many community members are interested in becoming members of Eugene Maker Space. So if you've been following this blog, or the twitter feed and have been waiting to jump on board or know someone who is, shout-out.
That is all!
Talk Of The Town
We'd like to thank Matt Clymer for stopping in Eugene to interview us during his gran turismo of West coast hackerspaces / makerspaces / spaces / labs / oh, you get the idea. We're excited to read / listen to the final cut and hope our passionate enthusiasm of all things hacker doesn't make post production too much of a headache.
Bon voyage Matt!
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