Downtown Makerspace

They’re doing a great job of keeping your location secret! It must be right in my face but I’ll darned if i can find an address…

It took me some digging, but this map is pretty close:

They are located in the corner of the building, virtually hidden from view from the parking lot.

Cool. I eventually found that map as well, though I forget exactly which dark recess of their site I had to infiltrate. I gotta say since they’re doing that trebuchet thing, I might have to jump ship. Just wish they had functional metal shop and maybe a milling machine…
:smile:

They’ve done trebuchets before; I think they had a contest a year or so ago. It’s one of their favorite things to make (that, and beer). Obviously, they do a lot of this work out of member homes.

Well, this year should be the 3rd annual trebuchet “sling fest”.

I think that is where I found the address, too.
Of course, I can’t tell if the slingfest IS on the 15th, or if they’re meeting to talk about it whenever it does occur…

Anyway, for no good reason, trebuchet pique my interest. They’re an amazing invention.

Just figured out the announcement for the actual slingfest:

Apparently the last one was the 2nd annual “toss off”, so… whatever…

and the utlimate (NOT SEEN IN PLANO!, but I was at the castle 2 years or so ago and it, too, is beautiful, but in a different way than the trebuchet).

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Here’s another ‘makerspace’ I just stumbled upon. It doesn’t look like they have a very big selection of tools, but is very close to downtown.

http://www.acmecreationlab.org/

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How new is that? Has anyone been there to check it out? I’m surprised to have never heard of it before

@Robert_Davidson went to the open house back in June and they had no tools and compared it to a rave, but that could have just been their grand opening. Anytime you want to make a trip out there I will go. I didn’t see an open house listing though.

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I’m surprised that no one else tried calling him before I did.

I just got off the phone with Ian Thorburn, co-founder of ACME Creation Lab in South Dallas (the other co-founder is Lobus Coff). He says he was inspired to start their makerspace after visiting the Burning Man event at the old DMS location. They are currently mostly set up for artists. They have a 9k s.f. building, of which 1500 s.f. is air conditioned. They don’t have much equipment beyond stick and MIG welders. They have an event tomorrow from 0900 to 1500, called a Pop-up Shop, hosted by his wife, an interior designer. I invited them to visit with us when they get the chance (they haven’t visited our new building, yet), and they invited us to visit them, too. I told him about our Big Open House tomorrow.

Ian also said that he has a registered space for the Parking Day in Dallas, in which local artists can set up at parking meters. He invited us to join his booth, if we like. The date is 9/18.

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I stopped by the Acme Makerspace on Saturday and they had a pop up show. There seem to be a good group of people that use the space. I didn’t get a good feel for the space or get a good impression of what kind tools they have because of the show, but the ceilings were about 14 feet high and there was easy truck access. I will make an attempt to stop by if they have an open house.

Also after a little bit more digging it looks like the Deep Ellum Makerspace is still a thing. They have a Facebook group and most of a website.

http://deepellummaker.space/

From what I can tell they are in the process of raising some money for an initial space. Does anyone have anymore information on this?

It also looks like DISD is attempting to set up a Makerspace focused on children in the Dallas Public Library and are looking for some volunteers.

https://roundtown.com/event/9801680/DISD-Makers-Club-call-for-volunteers-meeting-Dallas-TX

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Does the deep ellum makerspace actually exist? It looks like just a shell of a web site(who.is says created July 2015 by Darran Wilson) with the only content being what they copy pasted from our rules, mission statement, bylaws, etc, and didn’t even bother to change the actual links, all of which still point at dallasmakerspace.org

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It definitely looks like a work in progress, but I sent an email to Lindsey looking for some more information.

My favorite part is how footnotes on rules etc. come back to our wiki. A few of us have looked at it, and Allen is a big fan of their storage rules. :smile:

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This is a bit off topic, but I was talking with a guy today and he said that the a lot of legal and liability related things are run through a larger makerspace network. It is either that or he was saying that the bylaws and structure for Makerspaces are pretty standardized these days. Is this true? I should do some more research on the topic.

I have no idea what he (or you) might be talking about.

Makerspaces are general ideas. Ours happens to be non-profit and registered as a 501(c)3, but some are for-profit. Some have employees; others don’t. Before DMS became a non-profit, its members debated organizing as a co-op. With all these options, I don’t see how the bylaws and structure could be considered standardized.

Perhaps DMS should consider partnering with some of the up and coming spaces…

There was a rumor of a Red Oak Makers. Google it.

If members has access to more than one space, than they maybe be willing to pay extra for the privilege …(hint hint) :wink:

I do attend a majority of the open houses and do look for partnerships.

But Joint access is extremely complicated and policies become difficult. DMS has generally been ran on a simple model and a majority of the BOD and other are more than willing to help new makerspaces get started.

The current one that I think will be most successful is the Lab in Plano.

But like most things there is more than one path to a Makerspace.

For Photographers there is WELD and other photography space.
there is Fort Work they are a coworking space. They were looking into adding tooling.

There has been a couple of apartments that showed interest over the years but nothing worked out.

But specifically in the downtown area the only one I know about is Cedar Union, Acme Labs, SPARK Dallas (Kids only Makerspace)

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