We had Milwaukee Tool join us on January 15th, 2019 for a brief demo about how they use an iterative process to design new products. They showed a series of prototypes and talked about how they work to identify new markets and potential products. They also brought a few goodies for the space. :)

Over the years they’ve also hired a few of our members, and they came looking for more, specifically for their concepting team. We’ve also got a few members who happen to be Milwaukee Tool employees before they joined the space, so it’s nice to have a positive relationship with them.

As a designer I really enjoyed their presentation, and I hope we’ll find ways to collaborate in the future. (At least a few members volunteered to stress-test any new tools they come up with!

You can our building and all the events going on this weekend at the Doors Open website:
http://doorsopenmilwaukee.org/

Why yes, we did take part in the South Shore Frolics Parade this year, though we had a small crew, our small crew is quite dedicated… to having fun!

We managed to build a float to promote Maker Faire Milwaukee, and put Karen on a phone book so she could see where she was going, and we also convinced Chris to put the Makerspace flag on his bike and ride really fast so it would wave in the wind.

Shane let them know who we are this year by carrying the Makerspace banner, with what appeared to be great stoicism. And of course, there were some tiny electric vehicles from the Power Racing Series. Audrey on Lotusaurus Wrecks, Tiffany on Iron Rose, and I piloted the oldest still-running car we have, Baby Burrito. (Tom also tagged along and did some driving, some walking, and organized a few drag races!)

Thanks to the GoPro camera mounted on my head, we were able to capture some of the action during the parade. So enjoy the view from the top of my noggin!

Do you know what time it is, kids? It’s time for the South Shore Frolics Parade! That’s right, Bay View, the lovely neighborhood we do our making in, has its own parade, and it’s happening at 11am sharp on Saturday, July 12, 2014. The parade starts at Kinnickinnic and Linus, and travels down Kinnickinnic Avenue towards South Shore Park.

If you’re a maker and want to join us, show up at the space around 10:45am and we’ll head over to the line-up. Feel free to walk or ride a bike or some other contraption you’ve built. We might even have a few modified Power Wheels rolling for the event!

Have you see Velspresso? It’s Milwaukee’s first Espresso Bike, and it was built at Milwaukee Makerspace. Check out this local new story about Rob (one of our members) and the business he’s build around the thing he built at the space.

On Saturday, August 10th, 2013 Milwaukee Makerspace hosted the first “Fix It Milwaukee” event. We invited the people of Milwaukee to bring in their broken things, and we did our best to fix them.

The idea for the event came from Milwaukee County District Supervisor Jason Haas, and we partnered up with the Milwaukee Area Time Exchange to make it happen. We really didn’t know what to expect, but it turned out great, and we’ve already got members interested in doing it again.

So what did we fix? There were lamps, computers, printers, furniture, a bird feeder, musical instruments, gardening tools, zippers, a battery charger, a dog’s chew toy, clothes, and even bikes. (Speaking of bikes, we should also thank Truly Spoken Cycles who sent over Sam, one of their expert bike fixers.)

Did we fix everything? Nope… some things are either too difficult to repair, or made so cheaply that they are not worth repairing, but percentage-wise we did really good, and I’d estimate an 80% success rate for fixing things.

Throughout the event we probably saw about 25 people bring in items, and we had about 20 members helping fix things. At few members mentioned that it was a lot of fun troubleshooting things and working in teams to determine the best method of repair, and at least one member picked up a few new skills along the way, which is what we’re all about!

Keep an eye out for our next Fix It Milwaukee event… The more items we can keep out of the landfill, the better!

Milwaukee Makerspace is proud to team up with the Milwaukee Area Time Exchange and Milwaukee County for “Fix It Milwaukee” with the goal of repairing those broken things you’ve got around the house so they can become useful again and not end up in the landfill.

We’ve got a great team of volunteers who are skilled at troubleshooting and fixing everyday items because, well, we do it ourselves all the time. Many appliances can be fixed with the simple replacement of a switch or wiring repair. If things like computers or bikes or torn clothing seem beyond your skills to get back to 100%, we’re here to help.

Bring your broken things to Milwaukee Makerspace on Saturday, August 10th, 2013 between 12 noon and 4pm and we’ll do our best to get them working again. (If we can’t fix it we’ll give you our best advice on what to do next.)

So what types of things should you bring? Well, if you can fit it in your car and get it to Milwaukee Makerspace, we’ll take a look at it. We’ve got a shop full of almost every tool imaginable including stuff you won’t find in your basement workshop (unless you’ve got laser cutters and 3D printers!)

If you have specific questions or need more info, feel free to email info@milwaukeemakerspace.org

Joshua is a recent addition to Milwaukee Makerspace, and as we mentioned before, he runs a kit company called BrownDogGadgets. Well, the latest on Joshua is a Kickstarter campaign he’s running… and yeah, did we mention it’s over $71,000 now!?

He originally had a goal of $5,000 but the backers showed up in force to support his Folding USB Solar Cell project, and even though it’s been cloudy and raining all week here in Milwaukee, it’s all sunshine and smiles at the success of the campaign so far.

Check it out on Kickstarter if you’re into solar power, got an iPhone you need charged, or just like brown dogs. :)

I used the laser cutter to make a Raspberry Pi case, and rather than leave the front of it all boring, I added an 88nine Radio Milwaukee logo to it. (Since I had a project that involves a Raspberry Pi and 88nine, it seemed appropriate.)

I started with the original 88nine logo, which is brown and orange. I couldn’t find a nice hires version, but a quick web search turned up something that would work…

To start with, I converted the logo to black and white, since color wasn’t going to matter to the laser cutter…

I then separated the top bars (which are orange in the original logo) and dithered them to create a visual separation from the bottom part of the logo that was brown in the original.

Here’s a close-up of the dithering pattern. It’s extremely simple, but it worked. I’ve done a lot of work with halftones and dithering, and you can get extremely complex, but sometimes the simple things just work.

Here’s a close-up of the final piece of Baltic Birch plywood with the logo etched in it. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out.

It’s that time again, folks… Time for another Art Jamboree! Join us on January 25, 2013 from 7pm to 11pm at the Loyalty Building (Hilton Garden Inn) 611 N. Broadway, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

The event is free and open to the public (and all ages are welcome) and there will also be a cash bar, prizes, art raffles, free hi-fives and some of your favorite Milwaukee Makerspace members showing off things they’ve made, many of which could be considered “art”!

We’ll also have some interactive pieces for you to experience, but we can’t give away all the details yet, because we’re all about secrecy and the element of surprise, so you’ll just have to show up and see what we do. (Safety glasses and ear plugs are highly recommended!)

Oh, and our friends at Art Milwaukee (who are putting on this event) have all the info on the Art Jamboree you’ll need. We hope to see you there!