Techshop

After my disappointing results from synchronizing PS3 Eyes, I've been discouraged and not working on the vision stuff. However, I have been thinking about the physical robot side of things.

From early experiments with taking aluminum tubes and hacking at them with hand tools, I had come to realize that either my robot was going to be imprecise and ugly, or I was going to need a professional to manufacture the robot's skeleton.

You might have noticed from photos that at some point during my project my wife let me move our outdoor ping pong table indoors, specifically into our unfurnished formal living room. Maybe she would be equally accommodating about a metalworking shop in our house.

No. Something about our baby and metal chips.

I started looking around for machine shops where you could get access to some fancy tools. Those sorts of things must exist, right? If they do, they're not easy to find. I thought about signing up for a college class just to get access to a school's facilities. I looked at expensive hobby CNC milling machines that I could fit in my home office.

Then I found Techshop.

After reading their website, I was sure they would be in San Francisco, where apparently all creative work in the world is done. But the mechanical gods were smiling on me: one of their half-dozen locations is 30 minutes from my house. (They are based in San Francisco, of course.)

I went to visit, did a tour, and signed up on the spot. For $125 a month I get unlimited access to their shop. They even provide classes on how to use the equipment, which is absolutely necessary for me. The "catch", as they put it, is that the classes are mandatory before your unlimited access to each machine is opened, otherwise their insurance won't cover you losing your fingers. The classes also cost money, but what's money when you're building a robot that will revolutionize a game that nobody takes seriously?

So far I've taken six classes. I can use the metal shop, except the metal lathe and the "Ironworker" plate masher thing. I can use the wood lathe, but not the rest of the wood shop. I can use the 3D printer. I also have access to some marvellous design software: Autodesk Inventor. I'm scheduled to learn how to use the Ironworker and a laser cutter later this week, and I plan to learn how to use the Tormach CNC milling machine next week. Perhaps the coolest machine is a Flow water jet cutter that can cut through 8 inches of steel or perforate a kleenex, depending on your needs.

My wife has been very accommodating about Techshop. I've been disappearing a lot to take classes. I have been bringing back my class projects as gifts, so I'm sure that has helped. She now proudly displays my sheet metal box, my bottle opener, and my business card stand. (Actual truth: she said the business card stand is the only one that doesn't look like a 5 year old made it. The bottle opener doesn't even work.)

My hope is that I will take more classes, learn more about what is possible, then design my robot using Inventor and machine it with great skill. I expect to use a lot of CNC, rather than actual skill with my hands. But for now, I haven't actually done anything about the robot.

If you live near a Techshop, and are at all interested in making stuff, I highly recommend you check them out. If you want to join, drop me a comment and we both can benefit from free classes in their refer-a-friend program.