Lathe, Rinse, Repeat

i3 saw its latest addition to the tool shop Tuesday night with the addition of a massive Bridgeport mill as well as a honking 14×40 Acer 1440G lathe.  While both were pre-loved, with the lathe needing a great deal of “rinsing” before use, they are both in excellent condition and will make for a wonderful expansion of our machining capabilities. The lathe also had the added bonus of coming with a good deal of tooling, finally making viable my plan of creating a 4 foot candle holder. While I don’t currently have a problem holding 4 foot candles, or any 4 foot candles at all for that matter, I’ll be the only one prepared the next time a giant birthday cake shows up!

Meanwhile, as the literally tons of tools were being “gently” maneuvered into place, many of our other members were engaged in some decidedly less brute force pursuits, participating in the evening’s papercraft meetup. Rather than one of our usual classes with an instructor leading the group, this was run much more as an open forum, with several people taking the reigns and teaching the rest of the group various crafts from origami to paper star beads. The meetup also served to improve the aesthetic qualities of the space by hanging origami cranes and other creations from the floor of the loft area.

For more pictures of Tuesday’s fun, check out the Flickr stream from the event. Also, keep a lookout for other upcoming events such as our inter-hackerspace viewing party for “GET LAMP” on Sept 11th, as well as this weekend’s opportunity to live out your “White and Nerdy” fantasies by mowing someone else’s front lawn with the mowergang!

Also this weekend:

• The People’s Arts Festival celebrates its 4th year of bringing art to Detroit’s Central city.
• The Motor City Haunt Club is having their 5th annual Haunted Garage Sale this weekend.

Solder of Fortune

Tuesday saw the first step in our plan to revive our class schedule now that our space and sleep schedules have recovered from Maker Faire, and what better way to get started than to have two illustrious makers as our guest lecturers? These two giants were none other than Mitch Altman of Noisebridge and TV-B-Gone fame and Jimmie P. Rodgers of LOLshield fame both of whom are currently on a road trip to promote their clever kits and educate young and old about how easy and fun soldering can be.

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Offical Maker Faire After Party!

Well here we are finally! The weekend we have all been working towards for weeks and months. i3 Detroit is proud to announce that we are holding the official after party for Maker Faire Detroit 2010. We have a lot of friends in town from other hackerspaces across Canada and the US so what better way to celebrate Maker Faire and all of us being in Detroit together than to throw a party. We would like to invite you and all of your friends to come out to i3 Detroit this Saturday July 31st 2010 to i3 Detroit for drinks, snacks, live DJ and great company.

Make sure you come prepared for great conversation and people!

Where: i3 Detroit – 1481 Wordsworth Ferndale, MI 48220

When: Saturday, July 31st 10PM-3AM

Free|21+|Live DJ| Great Company

I3 Detroit Game Day

Tabletop gaming has been a great way for friends to get together face-to-face, socialize and have fun since prehistoric times.  Now, with advances in technology that allow realistic, high-excitement thrills on a TV or computer screen, people are spending much less time in actual contact with other humans.

While advances in gaming technology have created some pretty amazing games for individuals to play on their computers and consoles, our social skills are on the decline.  Spend some time with other people; a good game of Risk is often still the best way to game while enjoying the direct company of others.  Or, if a game of Scrabble is more to your taste, it will broaden your vocabulary and you’ll make friends a lot better than you will with even the best FPS on the Xbox.  So shut off your computer or gaming console, and head out to I3 Detroit on Saturday, July 10th starting at 2pm for some tabletop gaming.  A number of games will be there already, or you can bring your own favorite game that you’d like to play with others.

See you there!

This Saturday is Bed-a-Palooza with i3 Detroit!

On Saturday, June 26th, from 11AM – 4PM, we are at Bed-a-Palooza in Troy at Trainers Academy with Retro Doggy Rescue.  The goal of the event is to build 100 dog beds for Michigan shelters, where shelter dogs currently sleep on the floor.  This week has been a flurry of PVC and we have cut and assembled the 100 bed frames.  The day of the event, we will oversee the attaching of fabric to build each bed into a sturdy hammock.  We are also hosting a BBQ at the event that will start at Noon.

Meet Nemo.  Matt will be bringing the Skee Ball machine to help raise money for this little cutie who has a stage 3 heart murmur and has to go see a cardiologist.

Come one, come all!  The public is welcome to stop by and join the fun!  Trainers Academy is located at 1016 Troy Court, Troy, 48083.  More information can be found at their website: www.woofology.com.

All proceeds will go to Retro Doggy Rescue, a local no-kill rescue.  They will also be accepting physical donations such dog food, treats, toys (new or used), bowls, collars, leashes, crates, blankets, sheets, towels, throw rugs, cat food, cat litter, cat toys/supplies, or anything else pet related.

If you want to donate to the cause and can’t join us Saturday:

Intro to Lock Picking – 6/12 @ 6p

With i3 Detroit moved to our brand new location and some build out completed, it’s time to start offering our world famous classes. 

So we are bringing back our most popular class of all time, Intro to Lock Picking.  Come join globe trotting security specialist Eric Michaud for a night of learning and fun.

The class will start with a hands-on lesson with the master.  Sets of lock picks will be available for purchase but it’s first come first serve.  You can also buy sets online or at a local spy shop (Southfield, MI).  We also ask that everyone bring a standard key opening master lock or similar. 

Following the class, we will have a speed tournament for both our experienced pickers and our newly trained amateurs.  Prizes will be awarded.   

Hope you can make it out.  Please reserve your seat today.   Eventbrite Link

Pricing:
Public – Purchase Lock Picks w/ Class: $20
Public – Just Class: $10
i3 Member – Purchase Lock Picks w/ Class: $10
i3 Member – Just Class: Free!!

The LateHak Show with Hak5

The LateHak Show with Hak5 is finally here, and we just had to take advantage of the opportunity to shoot a mock intro.

Enjoy this special Hak5 with i3Detroit episode 715, followed by the mock intro.

http://revision3.com/hak5/thelatehakshow

Hak5.org

Maker Faire Detroit deadline fast approaching! Also, Open Shop.

First, if you’ve got something to show off at Maker Faire Detroit, SUBMIT YOUR APP already! Time is tight, and we’d love to see you there. Need help finishing your project? See the end of this entry…

Second, the Ann Arbor Mini Maker Faire will happen again this year, on June 5th. Last year’s show was our first big event, before we even got a space. We’ll be there again this year, of course, with more projects to show off!

Third, a few of our members are on their way to the Bay Area Maker Faire, in San Mateo, CA. There’s a good chance of twitter traffic about this. (Heh, heh.)

Fourth, I know this may come as a shock, but i3Detroit will have another Open Shop Friday, tonight! I promise to be on site with the door open by 7pm, but follow the feed to see if someone opens up earlier.  See you then!

Checkout Hak5 Podcast at i3 Detroit Tonight

Fan of the Hak5 podcast?  Wanna meet Darren Kitchen?  Like Monkeys? 

Checkout i3 Detroit tonight (5/17), where Darren Kitchen of Hak5 will be holding court.  Hear stories of his Hack Across America tour, share your projects and meet a very cool guy. 

Starts at 6:30pm and goes until we run out of energy or beer, whichever is first.

Busy weekend: Hamvention, Open Shop, Jam Session, RepRap meeting, etc!

Been watching that Google Calendar sidebar fill up, have you? We’ve got a busy couple days coming up, so if you’ve been looking for an excuse to swing by the space, now is a great time! Bring a friend…

Starting Friday and running all weekend, Hamvention happens in Dayton, Ohio. Okay, technically it’s Trotwood, but every amateur radio operator and electronics hobbyist in the eastern US just knows the annual pilgrimage as “Dayton”. Hundreds of vendor booths, forums on a variety of topics, license exams, and thousands of hams occupy every inch of Hara Arena, but most of us actually go for the thirty-acre fleamarket in the parking lot. A handful of i3Detroit members and mi2600 regulars are headed down, and if you are too, say hi!

Saturday at Noon, Nate_LapT opens the doors for a Maker Faire work party, suspiciously similar to a regular Open Shop day. Members and non-members alike are encouraged to bring projects to work on, or just come hang out.

Saturday at 6pm, the monthly Unusual Musical Instrument Jam Session gets underway. Bring a hand-made instrument, or just bring parts and assemble it on site! Normal instruments are fine, too. As always, visitors are welcome! This event usually runs pretty late…

Sunday at 1pm, the Michigan RepRap group invades the shop with their army of clones. Or not; nobody’s actually printed a complete replica of a human yet, but that doesn’t mean they’re not trying! If you’re interested in the RepRap project, or if you just heard of it now, come in and get involved, regardless of your experience level.

Monday evening at 6:30 is another Maker Faire work party. Is your exhibit coming along? Have you submitted your application yet? Come by the shop for help, or to help others further their own efforts. Note: Even i3Detroit members exhibiting with the group must submit each project separately!

On Tuesday it’s meeting time again! The group assembles to discuss, decide, and work on issues that affect us all. We say 7pm but it’s usually more like 8. Meetings are open, though not guaranteed to be interesting.

(CC-licensed RepRap photo from CabFabLab on Flickr.)