June 2024 Newsletter

Monthly Membership Meeting

    First Wednesday

7:30pm to 8:30pm

7pm for social and goofing off

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Leesburg Workday July 13 9am - 2pm

check the white board in the main room for additional tasks

Purcellville Workday July 6  9am - 2pm

There's something for everyone - get those volunteer hours in!

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New Member Orientation

July 29 MS-L  6:30-8:00 pm
 July 15 MS-P  6:30-8:00 pm

register online

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Makersmiths Education Initiatives

Now this summer, Makersmiths will offer courses that will turn the summer slide into fun hands-on learning! Diane Painter and Robin Schenck will offer a four-day afternoon workshop July 29-August 1 entitled, Exploring Tinkercad. Participants ages 10 through adult in this 4-session workshop will explore TinkerCad, a user-friendly, free web app used by teachers, kids, hobbyists, and designers to create models that are compatible with 3D printing and laser cutting. The workshops will be held in the Green Room from 1-3 PM at Makersmiths-Purcellville. To register, go to https://makersmiths.org/event-5729667.

Chris Cook, will offer a family-friendly course for youth ages 13+ and adults Aug 5-9 entitled, Create Your Own Distortion Guitar Pedal with Custom Enclosure. This will be held at Makersmiths Purcellville in the lower building classroom. In this course, participants will create a custom distortion pedal with their own unique sound and personalized enclosure. They will learn to breadboard and tinker with a prototype, read a schematic, and then transfer and solder the prototype onto a perfboard. To finish up, they will design a custom enclosure that they will engrave using the laser cutter. To register, go to https://makersmiths.org/event-5775846

did you know...

you can find the newsletters from the last several years archived on our website?

Makersmiths is 100% volunteer-run? 

we have a garden plot at Ida Lee where you can work on those green thumb skills?

I heard...

there are blooms in the gardens at Makersmiths locations!

Makersmiths in the Purcellville 4th of July Parade

Diane Painter

The Makersmiths 4th of July parade float was a success! Thank you Mark Millsap for lending us the Gator to pull four handcart floats. Tom Hill drove it through the town of Purceville and Isaac Bowser, Lane Waldron, KidWind members Ella Pangle and her dad and Audrey Magill and her parents walked along side of it in the parade. The banner the KidWind girls carried show all three of the solar and wind teams and their award winning projects. People asked about our Minecraft floats and the KidWind float depicting both solar and wind renewable energies. Four KidWind members wrote a story to go with their float. Diane Painter posted the kids’ story on the Makersmiths blog page. It is called The Ungnome Planet! The float attracted the attention of Planning Commission member, Ron Rise, who said he’ll stop by on a Tuesday for a tour of our Purcellville maker space.

Notify Me About a Class

How does it all work

Tim Cotter

(@seaotter on slack)

Requesting a class is easy …

from the Makersmiths website select Events & Classes > Request Class and complete a short Google form for each class you wish to request.

Behind the scenes it’s a bit more involved to coordinate volunteers and track class requests …

Next month we will explain how the different reports work

Dear Makersmiths Community,

We hope this message finds you well. We would like to remind you that around the 15th of each month, we compile class request data and cross-reference it against our registration data. This process helps us identify the remaining backlog of classes and adjust our offerings accordingly.

As you know, the number of classes we can offer each month is limited by the availability of our dedicated volunteer instructors. Their time and expertise are what make our Makerspace thrive.

We are always looking to expand our instructor base to reduce the backlog and provide more learning opportunities for our members. If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering as an instructor, please reach out to us.

Below is the current list of classes along with the number of sessions needed to meet the demand:

Increasing our instructor pool not only helps reduce the backlog but also enriches the learning experience for everyone involved. Let’s work together to make Makersmiths an even more vibrant and educational community.

Thank you for your continued support!

Warm regards, The Scheduling Committee Team

LCPS-Makersmiths Training Day

On Wednesday July 24, five Makersmiths instructors will offer workshops to twelve Loudoun County Public Schools computer science educators at the Makersmiths Purcellville location. The purpose of the workshops is to help these educators understand how maker spaces can be used to teach valuable maker skills in project-based learning initiatives to K12 students. The workshops will involve laser cutters, 3D printers, desktop CNC machines and creating stain glass sun catchers in four make and take workshops. The woodshop, Green Room, lower building’s classroom and crafts rooms will be in use from 8:30 AM to 3:30 PM that day. Please contact Diane.Painter@makersmiths.org if you have any questions.

Catan New Energies

Do you know how to play Catan? There is a new edition of this game called Catan New Energies. Diane Painter bought the game but would like to learn to play it. It may be a great way for KidWind members to learn more about renewable energies.

Please let Diane Painter know if you are a Catan player and would like to learn this new edition and be willing to teach it to Diane and interested KidWind members.

From #Whatcha_make_today

Seán Crane made a beautiful fresh ganache and framboise tarte

Dawn felted up a fuzzy little bee!

Lyle Reger and Mike Payne, showing off their bowls with Bryan Boston after taking his popular bowl turning class

Chris Dinger making some beautful artwork on the Cricut. You can do so much on this little machine and Makersmiths has one at each location!

Did you know...

Makersmiths has a blog on their home page? 

Makersmiths is on Instagram?

Makersmiths has a YouTube page?

This is my last newsletter as editor. Please reach out to the Board of Directors to let them know if you are interested in this at-home volunteer task.

Red Tool Classes are an important step in your Maker journey!

MS-L

Chess Night - 7/8, 7/15, 7/22, 7/29

Sublimation Printing - 7/10, 7/22

Electronics Night - 7/11, 7/25

Wood Bowl turning - 7/13

Intro to Axidraw Pen Plotter - 7/14

Red Tool Training for Woodturning Using a Lathe - 7/16

Miniatures and Props Painting Meetup - 7/17

Woodturning Open Shop - 7/23

MS-P

Red Tool Woodworking Basics - 7/11

Laser Cutter Intro - 7/13

Red Tool Woodworking - Adv - 7/14

Red Tool Metalworking Basics - 7/17

LCPS Educator Maker Space Training Event - 7/24

Exploring TinkerCad: A Family-friendly Workshop - 7/29

Makersmiths runs on volunteers!

Consider teaching a class or holding a workshop

check out the #class_planning_and_requests channel on Slack and join a meeting to get some help with your idea!

check back on the website - new classes are added all the time

TOOL AUTHORIZATION GROUPS

Dean Williamson

Makersmiths has lots of cool and useful tools, machines, and equipment.  Many of them require training or authorization before you can use the equipment.  The training can be as simple as an orientation, to a more formal “red tool” class, to demonstrating proficiency to the tool steward.  Such mandatory training helps ensure that all users understand how to use the equipment properly and safely, thus helping to keep the equipment running smoothly and minimize maintenance downtime as well as ensuring the safety of our members.

Below is a list of the tool groups which require training and for which we are tracking authorizations, or tool “sign-offs”. The tool steward(s) are listed next to each tool group, along with the method by which to get authorized to use the tools independently. Please contact the steward for more information about each tool. This list is not exhaustive of the tools available at Makersmiths and is updated regularly as we get new equipment or as needed.

The most current version of this list is posted on the Makersmiths wiki under “Tools, Materials & Training”.  Please check out the list.  You might discover a new tool that you didn’t realize Makersmiths had.

Makersmiths Leesburg: 106 Royal St SW, Leesburg, VA 20175

Makersmiths Purcellville: 785 S. 20th St, Purcellville, VA 20132