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.

Red Green Build Update: Tartan Test

The Red Green build continues to make forward progress.  Tuesday we brainstormed the shirt and decided we need to use a very specific tartan for the flannel shirt.  Bonus points for all who can identify.  To the left is our test pattern.

This is all duct tape and backed by a cool material called Tyvek.  We are actually going to build a giant shirt for our giant to wear out of duct tape.

Keep checking the blog for more progress.  We will be working on the statue on Saturday and Sunday.  Please stop by to help.  Members and non-members alike are welcome.  Some back of the napkin math says we need 128 squares like this to the left.  Hope to see everyone 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:

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!

Hacking Metro Detroit

We would like to send out a Thanks to Michelle Martinez & Metromode for a nice article about hacking and hackerspaces. Michelle explains the social side of hackerspaces as well as the grander movement of spaces being built around the country.

There are some great inserts from many different individuals in the scene including i3 Detroit, Bilal Ghalib from All Hands Active, Eric Michaud from Pumping Station: One, Dale Dougherty from Make, Jeff Sturges and Bethany Shorb from the up and coming hackerspace in Detroit.

You can find a link to the the article here.

Turbo Trojans move on to State Championship!

It’s official! One of our two FIRST Robotics teams (Team 3302 from Clawson High School) is going to the Michigan Championship Competition.

This rookie team earned their place last weekend at the Troy District Competition. Facing some of the toughest and highest-ranked teams in the state, the Turbo Trojans made it to the quarter finals and walked away with two trophies: “Highest Rookie Seed” and “Rookie All-Star”

The championship competition is this weekend, April 1-3, at Eastern Michigan University. Admission and parking are free. More info is here: firstinmichigan.org

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Moving Day Pt I.

Ever move a Piano?  Well today we did, and at the joy of 9am.
Dedicated hackers got a truck and moved 1,500sq’ of hackerspace from Royal Oak, down aprox 2 miles to the new 8,000 sq’ facility in Ferndale.  First item of the day, the wondrous player piano.  Weighing in somewhere around 600lbs, the beast was rolled out on its heavy duty casters, dragged onto the truck lift and rolled on in.

Help i3 expand their dream with a quick donation via their kickstarter link

Moving Day Pt I. from Nathan Warnick on Vimeo.

The space is dead, long live the space!

i3Detroit is in Ferndale now.  Keycards should work like normal at the new building.  Guests are welcome, as always, any time there’s a member around to host.  The twitterbot should be back up soon.

Thank you, everyone who helped out with the move.  Five round-trips in that truck was a phenomenal lot of work! Thank you, whoever invented the liftgate.  I can’t imagine how people moved pianos before its existence.  Thank you, Jim Ashmore truck and trailer rental, for having rates roughly half that of the national outfits.

Thank you, everyone who’s contributed to the Kickstarter so far!  Your enthusiasm can go farther if you encourage your friends to chip in.

Long day, short post. Exhausted. Feels good.

i3Detroit v2.0 Updates

i3 Detroit V2.0

So we are getting closer and closer to moving into our new space in Ferndale and oh boy what a space it is. With 8000 Sq. Ft. of space and lots to look forward to we thought we would share some photos from this past weekend. All photos have been taken by our very own Brad McMahon.