[dms-discuss] Inventopia Meeting

[Bill King]

I attended the meeting yesterday with Tim Keller at Inventopia. Here's
my report.

There were 9? attendees. Everyone was a maker of some sort
professionally and otherwise. I think everyone was either an engineer
and/or a tinkerer who had a lathe and milling machine in their garage.
Also a number of bicycle mechanics came from Maria's Bike Garage. A
lot of retired guys and one engineer who works for a popular
engineering-oriented YouTube channel. "glitter bomb" is my only hint.

He gave us a tour to show us a space spread out over multiple units
that has different functions: lab, electronics, 3D printing,
machining, welding, and woodworking (sort of). In the current
configuration he's got not enough lab space and too much "other"
(electronic, machining, etc.). The lab side is subsidizing the shop
side. Despite being open 24/7, pretty much everything sits idle most
of the time

He's got a lot of stuff, tools, equipment donated by other shops that
have gone out of business. (Way too many soldering stations) One thing
he won't have is a table saw. If you know table saws you know why.
(Mostly the missing fingers and flying wood issues, dust can be mostly
contained) He's tried to keep tools as safe and idiot proof as
possible. He thinks the CNC mill and lathe are inherently mostly safe
from major self-inflicted damage.

Inventopia as a whole is intended to give small startups or
individuals workspace that's accessible 24/7 but with very little
oversight, handholding, or training.

Tim seems like he has a problem but no clear idea how to address it.
He really wants to grow the space. He thinks Davis could support a
much, much larger facility. UCD ag and bio needs this sort of
facility. Not just the space but also the access to tools and
training. The shops are very much underutilized and he'd like to bring
in more users. He threw out some ideas such as:

- Doing training classes for various tools and processes: welding,
laser cutting, machining, etc. to get people up to speed. He feels
that the hands-on training is something that's lacking for a lot of
students. They don't have the skills to do the  work needed to execute
their projects.

- Grant funding from a large corporation; e.g. develop a real welding
training course and get Miller to donate a good welding setup.

- Build a product such as an articulated suspension E-cargo bike. He
gave us this example Open Source project:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3uwHLwN7YKotYisabK_kKaFsAhv1bE8z

(yeah, I want to build one!)

He likes the idea of volunteer labor since he doesn't currently have
the budget for hiring staff, hence the training classes that pay for
themselves, grants and other funding ideas, and volunteers.

If you read the Vanguard article you'd get the impression that you
just need to go down there and volunteer and get onboard and get to
work. I think the article was a bit over optimistic. Things are very
much in flux and undecided.

I think what he needs is a paid shop manager or a core group of people
to run it, he just doesn't have the budget for it at the moment.

He's asked for the group input. He's invited us to meet again in a few
weeks, maybe a casual Sudwerk thing? If you're interested you can drop
him an email. tkeller at inventopia.org

I don't know what to say regarding the whole "where does the library
MakerSpace as partner/collaborator/competitor fit into this?" The
librarian part of me loves that the library does the maker space
thing, but I think any of the big maker spaces are way beyond what the
library can manage.

Bill

PS - Despite the number of bike geeks in attendance, (I counted 4 or
5), bike repair was not on the agenda other than fabrication and
development. That's what the Bike Collective's for. They and Maria's
Bike Garage would take your volunteer time if that's your interest.