up front encore
They Made It!
After a long gestation, Kalamazoo makerspace is a reality by
Kara Norman
A
loud rumble fills a frigid warehouse at 1102 E. Michigan Ave. as master woodcraftsman Don Batts leans over a wood jointer, making a twisted board flat with every pass across the circular blades. Helping him on his woodworking project is Rick Briscoe. “What they’re doing …” Dan Wilkins says, then pauses as Batts starts up the jointer. “What they’re doing is making a lot of noise,” Wilkins quips when it’s quiet again. ”We’re good at that!” replies Briscoe, who is helping Batts craft a workbench for Kzoo Makers, a community-based workspace, or “makerspace,” where members share equipment and knowledge. The workspace opened its doors in September after prolonged effort by its nonprofit parent organization, the Kalamazoo Innovation Initiative, to create a makerspace in the area. Wilkins is the current project manager for Kzoo Makers, Batts is the group’s woodworking “zone leader,” and Briscoe is a member of the makerspace. The woodshop takes up only a section of a warehouse that, if things go according to plan, will also house diesel mechanic training, metal-working, tooling, and screenprinting programs. The woodshop alone has everything one would need to turn roughcut lumber into finished furniture. On the other side of a breezeway, there’s a 3-D printing area with seven large printers; an 80-watt laser cutter that makes everything from beer caddies to etchings and engravings; a conference table; and an open classroom with a projector, white board and individual workstations. A virtual reality system sits against the opposite wall of the huge room, and down a hallway are smaller areas that house a video production room, electronics room and craft room where a recent polymer clay event was attended by individuals ages 8 to 60. 12 | Encore JUNE 2017
Clockwise from above: Dan Wilkins is the project manager for Kzoo Makers, a makerspace near downtown Kalamazoo; Kzoo Makers member Don Batts crafts a decorative wood piece on a CNC machine; Cathy Pruess, at right, teaches her daughter Diedra Pruess to set up a sewing machine; and member Joel Smith makes an electric shaker converter.
There’s also a room where regular classes are held on how to program the Raspberry Pi, a tiny, affordable computer that can, for example, be put inside a robot.
Supported by members Currently, Kazoo Makers’ operating costs run about $3,000 per month, a sum nearly covered by the organization’s 52 members, who pay for memberships ranging from lifetime ($4,200) to all-hours ($200 per month) to regular ($50 per month). Junior