Year of STEAM — Adventures in Making! – The Chronicles of Rafferty

UPDATE — TechShop Closed!!! Nov. 2017

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! We are waiting to hear if my class can move somewhere else, but it’s hard to find places that will let kids who are 11 use power tools.

Every Friday I go to Tech Shop, a giant facility with every kind of machine you can imagine. They have laser cutters, metal saws, a woodshop, 3-D printers and more. For eight weeks, we learn how to use most of the tools that they have. Then we have until May to work on a project that we get to decide. I’m thinking about adding to my go-kart to build a storage box in the back. I also want to build something to show at MakerFaire 2018, but I haven’t decided what yet. So far, I have made a metal wrench out of sheet metal, a wood shelf, a laser engraved lightning bolt on wood and a tote bag. I’m really liking the laser cutter, the vinyl cutter and the band saw for cutting wood and metal. When I finish my training and decide what my project will be, I will post more here!