A New Makerspace, Community Partnerships, and 200,000 + sold units!

The Hawk Open House

The Hawk is the newest makerspace in Farmington Hills. Their open house is on Sat., August 13th from 12pm - 4pm! Read the concentrate article that covers some our collaboration!

Community Partnerships

Are you trying to make a helpful contribution to our community? Think the resources at Maker Works can help? Check out our new program that reduces the cost of access.

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What are we making?

Embroidery Bobbins! Gail recently surpassed 200,000 units sold for her business (GW Stichin' Depot) that she started last year. She’s purchased an upgraded Epilog Laser that is housed in her private studio at Maker Works.

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Group Activity Make & Takes

Looking for a unique activity for your company, organization, group date night or birthday? Our guided Make & Take workshops range from birdhouses to building your own CNC. Or let us setup our 40 ft Great Maker Race at your location! Take a peak here and contact us for group pricing.

Below are three that anyone can join!

Spend the day with us building your own CNC Router on Saturday, August 20th at 10am. Bring a friend and build one together!

Discover the joy of computer controlled plasma on Saturday, August 27th at 10:30am and build your own Plasma Cut Sign.

Join us on Sunday, August 28th at 2pm for a relaxing afternoon assembling your own beautiful Kumiko Panel. Anyone can join!

Nifty Neighbors - Go deep with your learning

Southeast Michigan is rich with resources when it comes to making. We like to highlight those resources every time we can. Let us know your favorite!

WCC runs both introductory and in-depth welding programs with fantastic instructors that build award winning welders!

The Sam Beauford Woodworking Institute offers courses ranging from weekend excursions to year long deep dives! GI Bill Eligible!

South East Michigan Woodworkers is a wonderful online (and occasionally in person) community of knowledge, tools, and projects.

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How Are We Doing?

Each month we aim to introduce more people to the shop, teach more classes, and support more members. Below are some numbers representing where we're at this month (actual/goal). Follow the links to find how you can help!

MEMBERS: 155/148 !!!

CLASSES TAKEN: 57/97

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Support Your Community of Makers!

CORP. SPONSORS

Be a visible steward of a community of small businesses and makers!

CORP. MEMBERS

Augment your business or students' abilities, or offer an amazing staff perk.

DONATIONS

Your generous offer helps the shop stay accessible and affordable!

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Upcoming Classes

Below is a list of our currently scheduled classes. All of our classes are also available by request. Let us know what works for you!

07/15 10:00 AM CNC Plasma Cutter

07/15 12:30 PM ShopBot CNC Router

07/16 02:00 PM Metal Abrasives

07/19 02:00 PM Epilog Laser

07/19 06:00 PM Epilog Laser

07/20 05:30 PM Drill Press/Bandsaw

07/21 02:00 PM Amaya CNC Embroidery Machine

07/23 10:30 AM CNC Plasma Cutter

07/24 01:00 PM MIG/TIG Welding

07/26 02:00 PM Epilog Laser

08/02 02:00 PM Epilog Laser

Makers in the Shop!

Seeing, learning, and sharing with people is by far one of the most valuable things you’ll experience at a makerspace. We tend to highlight the fancy projects (as you’ll see below), but our classes, instructors, and many of our members are here to help you get started regardless of how much you know.

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Erika Cross Studio produces amazing handmade furniture and objects with attention to the tiniest details. One of their latest pieces is getting a last minute shine before being properly photographed and introduced to the world later this week!

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Woody runs his company Lockewood Goods using a variety of tools throughout the wood and metal shop, though much of the final work that really makes his products shine hidden away in his studio space. His most recent product is a Kneeling Chair (pictured), involving a collaboration with fellow maker Anke of Elophina to get the leatherwork just right.

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You’ll find Little Lake Technology working on their latest products in our electronics studio. They prototyped an initial board using our PCB Engraver before sending it off to a traditional board house. Pictured is one of the first runs of their Tiny Switchy, fresh out of the reflow oven. This device helps adapt electronic toys (and more) to be more accessible. Read more about it at this article in “Closing The Gap”, an organization that promotes Assistive Technology.

Shop Improvements!

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The last few months we’ve seen a lot of physical changes around the shop. Earlier this year we converted some of the low utilization areas into studio spaces. That’s fully realized and now provides dedicated space to a few of the growing businesses like Gail of GW Stitchin Depot that are here every day.

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A few weeks ago we had a massive clean-up of the front common room , conference room, and woodshop areas. Spring cleaning! Not exciting, but much needed (and still ongoing).

Last week Lindsay, Eric, and Hunter started to clear out, clean up, and put on a fresh coat of paint in our ‘conference room’ (We need a new name). As <fingers crossed> COVID continues to evolve into less and less of an issue, we plan on inviting more groups to run more workshops, demos, and talks. If you have a need for a space to do something that’s associated with making, let us know!

What we’re really excited about with this space is our upcoming Make & Takes. These are providing some great opportunities to dip your fingers into what happens here every day, with no tool experience required. Last weekend we introduced our Kumiko Panel workshop, we had a blast!

Next month we’re offering our new Bird House Make & Take, a second run of our Kumiko Make & Take, and we’ll be introducing a Most-Excellent-And-Up-Until-Now-Secret CNC Make & Take : )!

Makers in the Shop!

Last month Fusion of Iron and Earth put together a giant new piece! This is Kelly O’Neill, who designs, fabricates, and sells wonderful sculptural work primarily made from found / scrap metal. You’ll often catch her in the metal shop operating the CNC Plasma Cutter or chopping up giant sections of steel on the Horizontal Bandsaw. Kelly has a significant shop of her own, watch the video to catch a little of both worlds!

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Einor built some beautiful wood enclosures for his motion sensor project. This involved a nice pairing of the laser cutter to engrave one part, and the ShopBot CNC router to route out the pocket for the electronics. Note the tiny lip on the middle image, precisely routed to allow the laser cut portion to snap right in.

Motor City Comic Con, Art Birmingham, and Ann Arbor Summer Fest are all coming up! You’ll find a number of our members gearing up as exhibitors for these events. Lana (pictured) runs Saving Throw Pillows, prepping our ShopBot for another run of her dice boxes. She can also be found operating the Roland Vinyl Cutter or Epilog Helix Laser Engraver to further customize her products.

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Upgrade for the PCB Engraver!

For members into electronics, being able to fabricate a printed circuit board (PCB) can be very handy. We’ve had the enormous 22” x 22” PCB engraver since we opened; it lives in the plywood enclosure in the Electronics area.

Our IBC 2222 PCB Engraver used a simple method for lowering engraving bits and drill bits into the PCB material. A strong solenoid dramatically “slammed” the bits down. It did work, but it seemed quite brutish, especially with small drill bits that easily break.

We’ve finally taken the plunge and designed a new Z-axis. A small stepper motor now precisely lowers the bits, while a strong spring allows the depth-setting foot to accurately set the engraving depth as before.

Other improvements: The z-axis can be controlled via the gamepad remote. Click on a single icon to convert KiCad PCB files to G-code. There’s a new procedure for fine-tuning the engraving depth. There’s now an SOP for generating PCB files in KiCad. New buttons in the controller drill alignment holes, raise the Z-axis for tool changes, and save/restore the origin. The PCB computer is now on the network and can access the shared temporary storage. A better (wider) alignment plate is installed. Not visible, but we re-wired the insides almost completely.

We’re pleased with the improvements to this tool!

We offer the PCB Engraver checkout class as well as a KiCad schematic capture and PCB layout class.

A shot of the PCB Engraver with the upgraded Z Axis control

Here’s a closeup from a circuit we just engraved

11 Years of Service - Now We Need Your Help

Maker Works opened in 2011, and for about ten years was privately subsidized by just a few people. In 2020 the decision was made to start transitioning to a Non Profit, and in June of 2021 Maker Works Community Workshops received its 501(c)(3) designation.

Over the past 11 years we’ve supported numerous FIRST Robotics Teams, hundreds of businesses, and thousands of people with shared access to tools, training, and space. We’ve also met some wonderful people supporting activities like Fix-It-Friday, Tool Maintenance, Great Maker Race and many community projects.

While we have no debt, in 2021 we lost an average of $12,000 a month. There’s enough cash flow to keep things going for the time being, but we need to change that trajectory. Click here for financial details, join a virtual meeting this Monday, 3/14 at 7pm, and continue below to find a few reasons why you might want to help (and how), thank you!

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Outreach Crew

We need help introducing the shop to more people! Do you know someone that should know about us? Interested in helping share what we do? Or, are you a professional marketer? Click the button, let us know!

Take a Class!

Wood, Metal, Jewelry, Electronics, Textiles, and Software classes provide low cost opportunities to introduce people to relevant skills, build things they need, and launch or grow small businesses. Sign up for a class today! Pictured is Dulce teaching a young woman the tools and knowledge to build and mount a Coat Rack for their home.

Become a Member!

Membership provides access to a shop full of tools, space, and community. We've had over 1,500 people start a membership, some individuals like Ewunet (pictured) come in to expand their craft. Others come in brand new to the world of making. During any given month we have around 130 active members, and we have capacity to support many more! Whether you have decades of experience with tools or none, we provide a welcoming community for all.

Make a Donation

We try to keep membership and class costs low because we want our shop to be accessible, but we can’t do it on our own. Your donation helps provide groups like FIRST High School Robotics Teams a home to work. It helps young social entrepreneurs like JustIzzy's to grow, supports our Maker in Residence Program, and countless member led activities that support organizations like May We Help, Our House, and Tinkered Toy Box. Please, make a donation today!

Memberships for Universities, Schools, and Corporations

Are you looking to increase capability for your organization, extend your student’s options, or offer a truly unique staff enrichment program? We can custom tailor to your needs, just ask!

Corporate Sponsorship

Are you involved in an organization that wants to to be a visible steward of the making community? We've never offered this before, and we can hardly wait to find out who will be the first to join us!

Dedicated Studio Space

We have over a dozen small businesses with dedicated space in our shop. Companies like GW Stitchin Depot (pictured) got started by taking a class and using our tools. In a year their business has grown to a point where they’ve purchased their own laser and now have studio space within our shop. Our community of makers is constantly supporting and growing small businesses. If you need space, let us know!

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Are you familiar with the work we do, and know of specific grants or funds that can help? We'd love to hear about them!

Share This Page

Seriously! Whether it’s with your friend who might be interested in the shop, your boss who you think might be interested in sponsoring, your business partner that needs to build that prototype, or an artist who needs access to a large CNC Router.

Let them know : ) Not a day goes by that we don’t hear “You’ve been here for how long?”

Thanks for listening. Please let us know if we’ve missed something!

Jewelry Resources at Your Local Makerspace

Makerspaces are popping up all over (see partial list of Michigan makerspaces below), and offer members access to tools, space, instruction, and a community of fellow members with amazing skills and creativity. Even if your local makerspace does not have a jewelry studio, drop by and check it out. You may find resources there to take your jewelry to new places. Most makerspaces will offer basic safety and operation classes for all their tools. Here are a few ideas for how you can use your local makerspace in support of your jewelry:

Epilog laser cutter & engraver

Laser cutter. Almost every makerspace has a laser cutter/engraver. Most are in the range of 20-100 watts (ours is 50W), and are great for cutting and engraving organic material like plastics, wood, paper, and fabric. They are usually far too weak to cut or even mark metal, but there are coatings that you can apply to metal and then the laser will mark. Anodized aluminum will turn white and produces very high resolution and high contrast images. Engrave card stock or acrylic (both one-time use) to produce patterns for the rolling mill. Create models in acrylic for sandcasting. Remove resist from metal for etching. Create jigs from wood or plastic.

Laser cut acrylic for hydraulic forming

Laser engraved pattern for rolling mill

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Form 2 SLA 3D printers

3D printer: Even the smallest of makerspaces will often have at least one 3D printer. (Your local library may have a makerspace with a 3D printer.) There are several types of 3D printers—we often say a “fused filament” printer is a computerized hot-glue gun for plastic, while “SLA” printers use a light-senstive “goo” that a laser selectively hardens. I’ve had nice success using both fused filament (with “PLA” plastic) and SLA (using a “castable” resin) to create models that burn away for lost-wax investment casting. SLA can give outstanding results without a lot of fuss, while fused filament may require more work to get nice smooth surfaces. You can also 3D print models to use for creating silicone molds for wax-injecting or, with high temperature silicone, molds for directly casting pewter.

Pewter investment casting of 3D printed object

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Emco CNC milling machine

CNC milling machine: These can range in size from desktop to the size of an SUV, and are computer-driven tools that can machine away materials ranging from styrofoam to hard steel. “Machinable wax” is a great material to use for jewelry models, but you can directly machine many types of metal easily, and on a small scale. Most CNC milling machines can easily handle tiny cutters well under 1.5mm (1/16”), and v-shaped cutters can add nice detailing. The downside to these computer-driven machines is that they do require learning software to create the model (though you can use 3D scanners to scan a real object, as long as it is big enough). “V-carving” on a CNC milling machine can create engraving with more flexibility than traditional pantograph engraving machines.

Wax model machined on a CNC mill, sitting on the anvil it is a copy of.

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Grizzly Media Blaster

Media blaster: Often using a hard abrasive, media blasting can use anything from baking soda (about finger-nail hardness) to silicon carbide (one step below diamond). Depending on the media used, you can strip off coatings, produce bead blasted or matte finishes, and, with the use of stencils or masking, etch patterns.

Powder coating: A plastic-like powder is electrostatically deposited on a metal object, then baked for 10-20 minutes at 400 degrees or so, producing a robust coating. The range of colors, textures, and effects available is impressive. Combine with the laser engraver for different effects—engrave after powder coating to reveal the metal underneath, or use the laser to selectively bond the powder, then blow off the rest before baking for selective coating.

Metal shop tools: The typical makerspace metal shop has tools for welding, grinding, sanding, sawing, shearing, bending, drilling, and so on. In some cases the scale will be off for jewelry, but in other cases the tools will have a precision that applies nicely. For example, a corner notcher for sheet metal will, if in good shape, make precision 90-degree cuts in any sheet metal, including thin jewelry metals. A finger brake can produce repeatable, accurate bends. A vertical bandsaw can be handy for cutting thick sprues that would take a long time using a fine-toothed jeweler’s saw. Some makerspaces may have a water jet, capable of cutting extremely hard materials often with great precision.

Hydraulic press: Aside from cost, the hydraulic press in the jewelry studio used for different types of forming is identical in function to the press in the metal shop. A fast way of creating hydraulic die forms is to laser cut them from acrylic. There’s a machine shop with welding and fabricating tools to make rings and other accessories as you need them.

And don’t overlook the woodshop and other areas at a makerspace. You can make your own display racks, signs, and work benches, for example. Keep your eyes open for the wood scraps—some exotic wood is extraordinarily beautiful even at a jewelry scale. The electronics area will often have stereo microscopes, precision soldering irons, and precision engravers for creating circuit boards—but that can be used for engraving sheet metal. One of the most useful aspects of a makerspace is the cross-fertilization that happens between the different areas.

Each makerspace will have its own feel, set of tools, policies, and community. Most will operate on a membership basis, which means your access to tools is independent of being in a class. Many spaces offer extended hours (even 24-hour access). Pick a makerspace that makes you happy, that you look forward to going to. Most are very happy to give you a tour and explain how they operate.


Some stand-alone Michigan makerspaces:
Ann Arbor: AHA/All Hands Active, Maker Works
Canton/Westland: The Work Shop (The Tool Shop)
Detroit: OmniCorp Detroit
Ferndale: i3 Detroit
Flint: Factory Two
Grand Haven: Studio JSD (jewelry focus)
Grand Rapids: Treetops Collective
Jackson: Jackson Makerspace
Kalamazoo: KZoo Makers
Lansing: Lansing Makers Network

Check with your college, university, or local library—they may have a makerspace or are planning one.

Pewter investment casting of 3D-printed object