After our successful countertop mission on Friday, we continued on to TechShop to activate our lifetime memberships. But, as usual, I’m getting ahead of myself. TechShop is an organization that operates a number of facilities in the US that cater to the maker movement. If you have no knowledge of/interest in the maker movement, you probably want to take a pass on reading the rest of this post.
My husband researched the company thoroughly and we decided to make an investment in them. The investment included a lifetime membership for both of us. Which, if we live for another 15 years pretty much justifies the cost of the investment, so the stock is just a bonus. We had a tour of their facility in Chandler just after Christmas, but it took a little while to work out the logistics of making the actual investment, so by the time we were cleared to start our membership it was just a few days before we left for Australia.
The process of activating the membership was pretty simple and we left with some pretty craptacular membership IDs. Their badge printer leaves white stripes over the photo, lending a nice prison effect. TechShop has a lot of expensive equipment available, most of which requires that you attend a class before using it. The classes cost $30-$100 each, depending on the subject matter. Lucky for us, the lifetime membership entitles us to unlimited free classes for the first year. My husband signed up for his first one on the spot.
We stayed up way too late last night deciding which other classes to sign up for. All of them, it seems. Our approach is going to be taking as many classes as possible over the next four weeks, all of them together. I may not actually end up using everything, but I want to explore as much as I can while it’s free. Some of the required classes will be way too rudimentary for my husband (Woodshop 101 for the guy who’s been woodworking since high school?) but he can help me out if we take them together. I’m sure I’ll be the oldest woman in every class.
3D printing, woodworking, metalworking, welding, industrial sewing, laser etching – all of these things and more can be done at TechShop. I am positively giddy about the possible projects. I see my photography as a springboard for graphic design of 3D objects. It’s not good for a girl to have only one hobby.