Our friends at New Blankets has been talking with the FFL about collaborating, and invited me and Jon Santiago from NYC Resistor to visit the library and meet with Lauren Britton Smedley, the librarian behind the project. We built bristlebots, and printed kid’s designs on the Makerbot.

Making bristlebots

The library is located in the hundred-year-old L & J.G. Stickley furniture factory. One wing of the factory has been turned into the library, and the other wing is where the fab lab is going to go. It’s a huge space – several times the footage of CRASHspace, and it’s all open space, so they can build it out however they want. They’ve raised over $250,000 to build the hackerspace. It’s going to be a great space.

Inside the FFL Fab Lab

They already have two MakerBot Thing-O-Matics, and plan on adding a laser cutter, CNC router, and other maker tools.

On Friday the 6th, we had 25 kids from The New School, and showed them how to make bristlebots. Between the kids and the staff, over two days, we used up 50 pager motors (none of the kids knew what a pager was, so we had to call them cell phone motors). The motors didn’t have long leads, so we had to add a wire to one side, but soldering irons aren’t allowed because the factory has burned down twice, and there are still wood chips and sawdust on the floor of the unfinished wing. Lauren knows they need to allow soldering irons if they really want to be a hackerspace.

Joe Deken shows the kids how to make bristlebots

After the bristlebots, we printed up a storm on the MakerBots. We had computers set up so people could use 3Dtin.com and tinkerCAD.com to make their own designs. In no time, this girl designed a horse, which we printed out for her:

A horse, of course

Saturday was an open house, and we had all sorts of folks visit. Everyone seems excited about having a pace where they can learn to make things. It’s great that a space like this will be open to the public for free, and that they’re building a space where people can make things in a former factory where they used to make furniture.

Explore why and how the simple act of saving a seed is a revolutionary act, striking a blow at the heart of Wall Street and Walmart!

Join us for the second installment of the Analog Living speaker series, introducing David King of SLOLA: Seed Library of Los Angeles whose mission is to facilitate the growth of open-pollinated seeds among residents of the Los Angeles Basin. The organization seeks to preserve genetic diversity, increase food security and food justice, safeguard alternatives to GMO’s, and empower gardeners of all experience levels through a deeper connection with nature and the experience of self-reliance.

Join us Thurs Jan 12th at 8pm!

During casting and molding class we learned a lot about the different materials and techniques.  Above you’ll see a casting of someones hand in plaster from an alginate mold. Our victim, Jared, had to leave their hand in the alginate for about 5 minutes. Alginate is particularly suitable for this type of casting because it is very human safe, but requires a container large enough.  It took about an hour to cure the plaster. The broken finger of the plaster cast is likely due to having moved the mold while curing.  The alginate mold is completely destroyed to remove the cast.

The cast jar above was pulled from a very flexible and well preserved silicone mold. several layers of silicone were painted on the original jar while in a vacuum chamber.

This silicone casting was made from a quick setting silicone in an easy caulking gun like dispenser. The mold is a part we machined during a cnc milling class. This technique is of particular interest to me because this design started in CAD and the final cast is incredibly precise. Note the finish from the end-mill transferred to the cast.

Many of the intermediate steps are in our flickr stream and the slide show below.

Crafternoon was a blast. Super fun times and pleasant conversations were had by all. We started off with basic soft circuit kits then expanded our own garments to include many colors of LEDs. Participants learned LED basics and hand-sewing.

Special thanks to @lbruning for providing crash print fabrics and wonderful examples to work from.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crashspacela/sets/72157628380903137

This Saturday, 12-5pm we’ll be taking in any old, broken, or just unwanted electronics and gear. We fix, dissasemble, rehabilitate, and safely recycle all we can, so you don’t have to. Many modern products can’t simply be thrown away, because they contain toxic substances, special glues and resins, or mixed plastics. We have the tools to disassemble them usefully, and dispose of them safely.

It’s good for the environment, gives us parts to use in cool projects, and is easy for you, the home viewer. Just come by, I’ll help you unload whatever you have, and tell you what wondrous things we can do with it.

Ever need to duplicate an object? Tom Dilligan will be doing an introduction to mold making and mold usage on December 17 at 1:00PM at CrashSpace. This will start out with an introductory lecture on the theory and practice of mold making, specifically covering using silicon and algenates for the mold material with plaster and polyurethane resin for the casting material. Interspersed with the lecture will be demonstrations of using algenate to cast hands and silicone to make a candle mold. If there are other specific topics you would like covered (or have a specific project you are interested in) please let me know as soon as possible. There is a requested $30 donation for non-members and a $10 donation for members to cover material costs.

Open to the public, starting at 8pm.

We typically have an informal discussion about ham radio or our Crash Space projects, but the point is to learn good operating procedure (e.g http://www.acs-thousandoaks.com/tech/Smooth_Ham_Operator.pdf ) from each other and get comfortable being on the air. Of course, any would-be Elmers are welcome, too!

Feel free to email me ahead of time if you have questions about what to do or how repeaters work.

-chris KB6OMI

PS, if the frequency is in use at 9pm, we’ll try again at 9:30. If you want to join but can’t reach the repeater, let me know and we can investigate other options.

Expect to come to crashspace on Dec 11th at 2p.

Expect to learn about electric textiles from a master.

Expect to donate between $5 and $15 dollars.

Expect to lightup your own light up fabrics.

We always have a fun workshop environment where notices and experts young and old can learn together.

We have custom limit edition fabric that is block printed for crashspace. Other colors and textures will be provided to supplement your project.

We will provide batteries, LEDs, thread, tape, and all the materials necessary to lightup your life, clothed, and gifts.

Bring good cheer.

Bring a winning attitude.

Bring willingness to create magic.

Bring something to share and the suggested donation.

Bring an existing etextile project or idea.

RSVP HERE:

http://www.facebook.com/events/284211461618363/

PLZ!

CRASHSpace is entirely membership/donation funded and relies on your support to keep the doors open. Donations are welcomed, helpful, and necessary. thx!

Our esteemed host is Lynne Bruning (twitter/facebook):

Textile enchantress, weaver of gossamer threads, Lynne Bruning is the creatrix of exclusive wearable art, eTextiles and decorative fabrics. Fusing together her education in neurophysiology at Smith College, a Masters degree in architecture and a lifetime of sewing Lynne jets thru the universe creatively cross-pollinating the worlds of science, textiles and fashion with her innovative award winning designs. The rest of the time, she can be found lounging on black sand beaches in a tangerine bikini surfing the Internet. Lynne Bruning has driven the collaborative nature of eTextile projects by sharing on Instructables and publishing numerous tutorials on everything from weaving conductive clothing to a wearable ‘cane’ for the blind. In 2010 she produced Wearable Computing Fashion Shows in San Francisco, New York, and Black Rock City.

Our new series ANALOG LIVING kicks off with Rob & Chelsea McFarland, co-founders of HoneyLove.org – a local non-profit conservation organization with a mission to protect the honeybees and inspire and educate new urban beekeepers. Hear the latest buzz on the honeybee situation and how to get involved.

The fun starts on Thursday December 1st at 8:00pm.

Analog Living is a series of lectures and workshops focusing on self-sufficiency and the do-it-yourself spirit. Topics will include off-the-grid living, urban homesteading, sustainability, and cultivating an alternative mindset toward consumerism and our way of life. If you have any suggestions on topics or speakers, please email analogliving@crashspace.com  analogliving@crashspace.org!

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