October 2024 Newsletter

Monthly Membership Committee Meeting

    MS-L October 17 6:30pm to 7:30pm

Leesburg Workday October 12 9am - 2pm

Check the white board in the main room for additional tasks

Purcellville Workday October 5 9am - 12pm

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

New Member Orientation

MS-L  10/7/2024 & 10/21/2024 6:30-8:00 pm

register online

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Announcements

Makersmiths Board of Directors Update

Bo Wernick, BoD Secretary

Room.

Anyone interested in providing input is welcome to attend.

Makersmiths is Ten Years Old

Mike Fistler and Diane Painter

is “To make opportunities for other people to learn, make, and inspire.” Who
joins our organization? Our members are those who are into prototyping,
becoming entrepreneurs, and students of all ages who want to learn new
skills. We also strive to be an organization that serves the community such
as hosting scouting derby car builds, Habitat for Humanity flower box
builds, and sponsoring KidWind teams that teach youth about the
importance of renewable energies.

Makersmiths started as an online community, driven by the enthusiasm of
our chief evangelist Pat Scannell. to help our community harness the
benefits of the emerging maker movement. Our goal was to provide a public
workspace for the community we serve. Makersmiths’ logo reflects this
vision, as it incorporates both analog “old world” skills, and digital “high-
tech” skills into our anvil.  We have both high-tech communities in the east
and agricultural to the west. This is represented by the smooth linear
analog design on the left and 8-bit digital design on the right.

 During our first year, our founders incorporated and gathered equipment,
as we searched for our first home. KM Digital was kind enough to let us
meet in their space and we ultimately settled into our Lawson Road location
at the end of the year.


In September 2014, Makersmiths was incorporated as a nonstock, nonprofit
in Virginia with an all-volunteer staff. The organization secured 501©(3)
operating status and held its first maker fair, launched its website, and
successfully funded a Kickstarter campaign.


In November 2014, members began to join the organization, coming to
Makersmiths located at 71 Larson Road in Leesburg.   A ribbon-cutting
ceremony was held on Aug. 1, 2015.

In 2017, Makersmiths moved from its starter location on Lawson Road into
a larger space at 106 Royal St SW Leesburg, VA 20175. It became known
as Makersmiths-Leesburg since later that year, the Town of Purcellville
invited the organization to establish a second 7,500 sf location with little
over 13 acres at 875 S. 20th Street, Purcellville VA 20132. That second
location is now known as Makersmiths-Purcellville.


By 2021, Makersmiths had just over 100 members, and now in September
2024, there are 333 members on its membership list. On September 29, 2024, Makersmiths decided to hold a ten-year anniversary party at Makersmiths Leesburg. Founding members gave speeches about how we were organized and what it was like in the early days when members held Meet-ups, and often talked about our future while meeting in coffee houses.

Our party featured local bands and party-goers ate a lot of food, especially
grilled items made by Makersmiths’ past organization president, Squirrl
(also known fondly as Chef Squirrl). We even raffled off class and machine
operating certificates to those attending the party.

One of the best parts of the party is the excitement new members conveyed
about the organization. Robin Hudspeth Schenck posted in Slack, “Great
party!!! Thank you to the planning committee and chefs! It was so fun to
meet new makers, enjoy music, and be in the presence of creativity! I love
this space and its people!”

More Usable Space Added to Purcellville’s Upper Building

Dave and Diane Painter

weeks to change that space to a working area.

Tami Scannell made connections with a friend, Ryan, who works for a concrete company, Southland Concrete. The company donated a crew and nine cubic yards of concrete for the purpose of turning the dirt floor into a pristine, smooth-as-glass, concrete floor. But before that could happen, the dirt floor needed to be readied for tons of gravel, donated by another company, Luck Stone. To help with that job, Michael Davis used his truck and trailer to transport Mike Keane’s skid steer to and from the PVL facility.  Mike Keene then used his skid steer to move the 10 tons of stone into the last bay and smoothed it out. He used the other 10 tons of stone to patch the gravel driveway areas of our site.

Dave Painter and Jim Waldron completed leveling the stone “floor” with rakes and shovels in preparation for the concrete company to pour the cement. With leftover cement, the company ‘s crew poured leftover concrete to create front and rear porches for both doors in the Green Room. Amazingly, and with great appreciation to all involved in this project, our total cost was three large pizzas, a dozen donuts, and a big container of coffee!

Makersmiths Members Artwork on Display

A few months ago, the Town of Purcellville contacted Makersmiths member,
Sally Soles, to invite members of Makersmiths to submit their artwork for
the upcoming art show that will be displayed in the Purcellville Town Hall
from October 1 through December 31. Sally Soles and Diane Painter
collected artwork from the members who had registered what they wanted
to submit for showing and took the collection to the Town Hall on Oct. 1.

Please mark your calendars for the artists’ reception on Monday, October 7
from 5:30 to 7 p.m. This reception is free and open to the public. The
location is 221 S. Nursery Ave., Purcellville, VA 20132.

Please invite your friends and family to meet Makersmiths artists and see what they created! The organizer for the event is Amie Ware, the Parks and Recreation Division Manager for Purcellville. She will issue a press release and create a Facebook event post for this event.

Makersmiths members with art on display are: Christine Dinger, Ken
Fuentecilla, Dawn Martin, Makayla (Kayl) Martin, Ralph Pugh, Em Wang,
Christa Stern and Diane Painter.

The Twelve Days of Holiday Making

The idea came from ladies meeting at a Sewing Circle gathering this fall.
Why don’t we, Makersmiths members, host twelve days of classes geared
toward making winter holiday gifts? The classes would be for members and
community members. The classes should be family-friendly and
inexpensive, held at both Makersmiths locations.

We picked twelve dates beginning November 1 and ending December 8, all held on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Diane Painter sent out an announcement via Slack asking if anyone wanted to offer a gift-making class. Instructors are now coming forward to submit their ideas for classes

If you missed that call for instructors and are interested in submitting a proposal for a class, please contact:

Scheduling Committee member, Diane.Painter@makersmiths.org,

or Scheduling Committee Chair, Jennifer.Chu@makersmiths.org.

Meanwhile, stay tuned for class announcements as they are built for November and December.

Latest Equipment Donations

Mr. William Chatfield is one of our newest donors. He donated a 6 by 108
oscillating horizontal belt sander. This sander can be used to sand long
pieces of wood.

Makersmiths Board of Director member, Brad Hess, was contacted by Mr.
Alan Givens from Maryland who wanted to donate shop items to
Makersmiths. Approved as donations were a sheet metal jump shear, an all-
terrain pallet jactk, a Lock Former sheet metal edger, a shop-built welding
table, a 96 drawer metal storage cabinet, and a Burr King 1 ½ by 60 inch
belt sander.

In August, NOVA Labs donated a CNC Plasma cutting table. It is roughly the
same size as the EBF located in the woodshop at Makersmiths-Purcellville.
Once the end bay at MSP has proper electricity, this table may be moved to
that location.

Donations are welcomed at Makersmiths, but before that happens,
donations must be approved by the site managers. For Leesburg, that is
Jessee.Maloney@makersmiths.org. For Purcellville, that is Dave Painter at
dave.painter@makersmiths.org. Once a donation is accepted, Makersmiths
will generate a donation letter for your use when filing your taxes.

Stone Engraving at Makersmiths

Ralph Pugh

Sue Ann, a friend at the community Pickleball group, knowing I liked doing various projects, asked if I would be interested in making a stone remembrance plaque. Not knowing anything about stone engraving, in true Makersmiths fashion, I said yes!

The above photo shows the existing plaque, The shoe represents Sue Ann’s
improvised tape measure. Kristine Hall was an ESOL teacher at Mountain View school in Centerville. She tragically died at the early age of 50 from cancer. The teachers and students made a remembrance plaque molded from Plaster of Paris and displayed it in the school grounds. Over time it had slowly disintegrated. Sue Ann was a teacher at that school at the same time as Kristine, they became close friends. The schoolteachers and Kristine’s family wanted a new remembrance plaque, and so my project began.

Several different materials for the plaque were considered, it was thought that slate would not look good, a large 8” x 10” spheroid shaped pebble would be best, but none were available at either Merrifield Garden Center or Lowes. A cast resin laser engravable faux stone was considered, but it was thought it would not last. Settled on a 11.5” x 11.5”   1” thick flag stone.

While at Makersmiths to attend a class, I talked to Diane Bollinger and John Carter about this project, they mentioned that Dana Eddy had just started a stone engraving project, using the Media Blast Cabinet at Makersmiths in Leesburg. We started a conversation, she explained that she bought her initial stencils from Rayzist but was looking for a way to make her own. She recommended watching a Rayzist YouTube video.

The Rayzist recommended air pressure and grit size were discussed. I watched and learnt from Dana as she worked through her initial project. Sue Ann still had the original records of the memorial inscription. The text and embellishment were prepared using CorelDraw, then exported to a jpg file.The teachers reviewed and approved the layout.

A test was made to use the Makersmiths CO2 laser cutter to engrave on stone. Even on 100% power and a very slow speed, it took several passes to engrave. Deemed not a viable option. I contacted Evin Grano and explained what I was trying to do, he very kindly offered to come in and give me a one-on-one Red Tool signoff instruction on using the Media Blask Cabinet.

Having gone through the steps and successfully engraved the flat flagstone, it did not have quite the right look relative to its intended purpose.

While talking to Dave Painter at Makersmiths about stone engraving, I mentioned about the problems finding river rock, he suggested that the Shenandoah River might be a good place to look. That weekend I took a long walk along the river embankment looking for stone outcrops in the river, but the stones located there were all too small. Finally, almost serendipitously two stones were found, with the perfect shape and size. The stones were cleaned up in the Media Blast Cabinet, both stones showed a uniform color and smooth surface. Perfect for engraving.

The photomask (stencil, mask) was ordered online from Rayzist. It was applied to the stone surface. The mask protected the stone from the cutting impact of the abrasive grit. The open areas of the mask, allowed the aluminum oxide 100 grit propelled at 80 psi, to slowly carve away at the stone surface. The mask came with an adhesive backing, The top protective clear cover was peeled away once the mask was in place. The photoresist film was then firmly pushed in by hand into the fine surface details of the stone to ensure the mask would not lift during the carving process.

After engraving, with the mask still on, the letters were painted, first with a
MinWax water based, Polycrylic clear matte finish, then with two coats of Akemi black paint designed for stone. The clear coat was to prevent the black paint from seeping sideways into the porous stone and ruining the letters. Once dry, the mask was removed, and the stone washed to remove any glue remnants.

Every person has a family member or friend who has been touched by cancer. This project was dear to me, as earlier in the year I was diagnosed with cancer. During the months of July and August, I was treated by the wonderful people at the Inova Schar Cancer Institute in Fairfax.This project was an opportunity in a small way, to give back. Although I never knew Kristine, I thought about her throughout the course of this project. At the school, on a rainy day, the old plaque was replaced with the new one, I had the opportunity to meet some of the teachers and staff at the school. They were thankful for this project.

Dear Kristine,
We love you,
and today, your star is shining bright.

A big shout out to all the amazing and talented members at Makersmiths who
helped and guided me through this project. Thanks to Sue Ann for her valuable
inspiration and idea.

Going to a Conference, Convention or Special Event?

Maggie Gilligan, co-steward of CosPlay, just returned from Dragoncon.
Dragon Con is the largest multi-media, popular culture convention focusing
on science fiction & fantasy, gaming, comics, literature, art, music, and film
in the universe. Maggie made cursed worm stickers on the BN2-20 and
cloth cursed worms on a string to give out to attendees. It looks like she had
a “fiery” good time at this event!

Diane Bollinger made this leather armor for her husband to wear at
Maryland’s Renn Fest on September 8. The complete leather armor display
now greets visitors in our CosPlay room at Makersmiths-Leesburg.

If you are going to a conference, convention or an event where you have an
opportunity to promote what we do at Makersmiths, please consider taking
brochures and other marketing items with you. Take pictures and let the
newsletter committee know what happened when you promoted
Makersmiths! For example, Makersmiths members Amy Copely and Heather
Lataille and their children will represent Makersmiths at Catoctin ES’s
Harvest Fest from 1-4PM. Please consider stopping by the festival at the
school with your family and have a fun, filled afternoon! The school is
located at 311 Catoctin Cir SW, Leesburg, VA 20175.

Makersmiths is still looking for a Marketing Chairperson, so if this is of
interest to you, please contact a member of the Board or
Jonathan.White@makersmiths.org, the BoD Chairman, so he can nominate
you for this position.

Dumpster Now at Makersmiths-Purcellville

Jon White, Makersmiths Chair of the Board of Directors, states that we now
have a dumpster at the Purcellville location. The dumpster is for the use of
Makersmiths only and only for trash created at Makersmiths. Please do not
put anything from your home or work into the dumpster. The trash
collection will be every other week.

What can be added to the container? We can put wood, metal, paper, and food waste in the dumpster, but we need to be mindful to not fill it full of large chunks of metal and wood since it would become too heavy for the trash company to haul. The dumpster is near the end bay of the open shed area.

Makersmiths Education Initiatives

Haunted House Build, a Howling Event

miniature houses using various types of cardstock.

houses made by children, teens, and adults.

So far, here are images of houses completed for this year’s Makersmiths
Miniature Haunted House contest that ends October 23 with winners
announced on Oct. 27.

Soon she will post a make a cardstock Gingerbread House workshop.
Students will be invited to bring small candy items to add to the project.

What would you like to learn using a Cricut? Let Diane Painter know by
emailing her at diane.painter@makersmiths.org

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

MS-L

MS-L Red Tool Intro to CO2 Lasercutter

10/5/2024 10:00am - 1:00pm

MS-L Red Tool Intro to CO2 Lasercutter

10/11/2024 6:30pm - 9:30pm

MS-L Red Tool Training for Woodworking using a Lathe

10/15/2024 6:00pm - 9:00pm

MS-P

MS-P Red Tool Fiber Laser

10/3/2024 1:00pm - 3:00pm

MS-P Red Tool Fiber Laser

10/8/2024 1:00pm - 3:00pm

MS-P Red Tool Fiber Laser

10/9/2024 9:00pm - 10:00pm

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!

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 link to the list of tools which require training and authorization from a Steward. 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:

By clicking above, you can view the most current list posted on the Makersmiths wiki. Consider checking it out, you might discover a new tool that you didn’t realize Makersmiths had.

Makersmith Board Officers

Did You Know...

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

Makersmiths also has a Blog, Instagram, and YouTube!

The Newsletter could always use some new blood - share your projects, pitch some article ideas, tell us about something cool you've seen in your Maker travels!

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

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