We pulled the zip codes from our visitor logs recently, and over the last 3½ years, we’ve had visitors from 170 different zip codes! From Alaska to Florida, Maine to Oregon, people show up at our front door and ask for the tour. They’re interested in laser cutting and CNC, woodworking and metal fabrication, crafts and electronics, 3D printing, machining… We’ve loved meeting them, and swapping stories on making.  

Zooming in a bit, you can see the regional visitors more clearly. Thanks to everyone that stopped by!   …

It’s been a little quiet over here. I mean, we’re making, and building, and fixing things…but it seems we got a little heads-down and forgot about telling those stories! Luckily for us, there’s Instagram, where a quick photo and a sentence are good enough. So if you’d like to see what our members are working on, add us to your feed!

And we’ll do our best to carve out more time to post here… Thanks for checking in!…

Sean and Roger, our courageous volunteers, are driving 19 hours down to North Carolina today to pick up a donated machine shop there. It’s such an amazing donation, we needed a 26′ truck to haul it back! (Ok, along with some furniture)

Bill is donating his carefully-curated machine shop as he moves up to WI, hoping that a new generation of makers will take up the hobby and profession of machining.  Two large metal lathes, two vertical mills, and boxes of tooling and accessories are the highlights of this donation. And just as valuable, Bill is offering to teach people to use these tools, and guide them on their projects. Many, many heartfelt thanks, Bill!…

So you want a fully-stocked woodshop, CNC and crafts galore, oscilloscopes and welders over the holidays?  Well we’re here to serve!

We’ll be open both Friday nights, Dec 22/29.  We’ll be closed, as you might expect on both Monday nights, Dec 25 and Jan 1st.

Then back to every Monday/Friday, for the rest of the year!  See you there, grumpy cat.…

It’s official…last night at Open Shop we welcomed our 100th member. And then another! Since June 2014, when we opened with just four founding members and a few tools, we’ve grown through two buildings, taught scores of workshops, welcomed over 1000 visitors at 350+ Open Shop nights, and watched as tinkers, hobbyists, artists, and engineers made wonders in our workshop!

Thanks, Madison (and southern WI) for sending all these fantastic makers our way, and helping us grow to dizzying heights!…

Hi my name is Charlie and I built an electric longboard! The idea first came about a year ago when I saw a student on my campus blast past me while I was biking to class. I did a little research and learned that I desperately wanted one. Unfortunately a high quality electric skateboard is going to run around $1,000 to $2,000. I basically gave up hope.

Fast forward to a month ago. I’d just moved to Madison for an internship and was looking for a project. I discovered that building your own electric skateboard isn’t all that difficult. With a bit of research, and a lot of hands on learning, you can quickly and easily build a board that goes 30 mph and 10 or more miles. It all depends on your budget. I chose to go with a 6S1P battery system. Basically this meant that I can go about 7 miles, and up to 26 mph on a single charge. After completing my first board in the Bodgery shop, I’m already planning my next. In fact, as I …

Recently, one of our members was looking over his scrap wood pile, and noticed he had some nice hardwoods in there. So, after spending some time with our jointer and table saw, clamps and glue, this beautiful project emerged.  Note the great “tusked” mortise and tenon joints Jim used to hold it all together.…

By far, the Distance Award for our membership goes to Rachel and her family from the Viroqua area!  She and the kids pack themselves up into an RV and drive the 2 hours down to Madison to hang out at the makerspace, learn new techniques and tools, make things from their fabulous imaginations, share ideas and otherwise connect with other makers, and fulfill some of their ambitious schooling goals. We love having their energy, ideas, and community spirit around the shop.

For Rachel’s take on the Bodgery, visit her blog, and check out her business and other projects too!…