Current Offerings: Member Use, Community Events (Members Only, Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Our Bike Shop is headquarters to SCUL, your local, friendly bicycle chopper gang. All tools are owned by SCUL and bike-specific tools are available for A² members to use. We have a full complement of facilities available for any kind of bicycle-related construction, maintenance, and repair. This includes:

—Six floor stands

—Two duplicate tool boards with all the common tools you'll need to fix your bike, including cone wrenches, spanners, cable cutters, chain tools, lubricants, pedal wrenches, rags, tire levers, floor pumps, and more

—Tools that professional bike shops typically only have, including a truing stand, spoke wrenches, frame alignment gauge, bottom bracket facing and reaming tools, headset press, cassette and freewheel removal tools, dropout alignment tool, fork threader, and more

—A large workbench outfitted with bench vises and a pipe vise

The bike shop is open to A² members 24/7 except on Saturday nights from April through the first weekend in November from approximately 8 pm until 11 pm, when SCUL runs its weekly missions. Please reach out directly to Hackworth to schedule an introduction to the bike shop if you haven't visited us before!

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Community Events (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Our metal shop hosts tools and classes for cutting, grinding, bending, and joining metals. Our main processes include MIG welding, TIG welding, torch brazing, and plasma cutting. Projects here are generally larger and less precise than in the machine shop–members have built projects as large as a small building. Common projects include furniture, brackets, housewares, and bike frames. We mainly work with steel, sometimes aluminum or stainless steel. More rarely bronze/brass, copper, titanium. We host a monthly Shop Nite where volunteers are welcome to come help build, maintain, organize, and improve the shop. We also host a monthly Social Night and Skill Swap where members and nonmembers can swap skills, show off favorite projects, and find inspiration.

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Our Jewelry Shop is stocked with the tools and resources needed for traditional and modern metalsmithing. It’s a popular shop for metalworkers of all skill levels, from beginners and hobbyists to professional jewelers. Members use the space for a range of creative work, from fabricating jewelry with gemstones, to creating copper wire trees, to crafting enameled wall art, to welding kinetic sculptures.

The studio is equipped with seven well-provisioned jewelers benches with flex shafts, a wide variety of hand tools, well-ventilated torches and enameling kilns, a hydraulic press, rolling mills, a polishing machine, a pulse arc welder, and a library of metalsmithing- and jewelry-related books.

Staffed by Laurie Lynn Berezin, a professional jeweler, educator, and North Bennet Street School alumna, the Jewelry Shop is a place to learn and share the joy of making jewelry and art using metals such as copper, brass, silver, and gold. The classes in our Jewelry Shop are among Artisans’ most popular, and introduce new students and those who have dabbled in jewelry-making in the past to the core and advanced metalsmithing techniques needed to make the jewelry of their dreams.

Current Offerings: Member Use (Limited 3D Printer Use), Classes (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Our laser shop, consisting of four 90W CO2 laser cutters from Black Cat Labs, is a critical resource for members who rely on digital fabrication to bring their project visions to life. The shop supports everything from prototyping to full scale manufacturing of retail products. With the ability to cut most ¼” wood panels and acrylic, creativity is boundless. With an active distribution list and periodic networking events, members often share best practice techniques and sources for materials. In our new and expanded space, the laser shop and 3D lab will be co-located to bring a full range of digital fabrication tools together. The room will feature expanded work areas to allow for assembly of larger scale projects.

The 3D printing area, also within the shop, has a range of FDM printers and a resin print processing area. We have a variety of materials available to members and we have the capability to make big 3D printed items.

Major Companies:

—Epilog

—Bodor

—Glowforge

—Trotec

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Community Events (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Our Fiber Arts shop is a growing space for folks who want access to a variety of sewing machines (domestic, industrial, sergers) as well as the space to comfortably cut, assemble and draft their creations. The shop is stocked with some basic sewing supplies and notions, as well as materials for other crafts, such as yarns, batting, knitting needles, crochet hooks, among others.

The space will also be hosting a variety of social events centered around community-building and responsible crafting and reusing.

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Community Events (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

If you want to add lights, movement, and audio to your project, this is the shop to learn how. Check out adafruit.com for some ideas of the kinds of projects we can help you design, and bring to reality. Our Electronics and Robotics shop is stocked with the tools and resources needed to design, prototype, assemble and repair electronic circuits, from building robots to crafting Arduino projects to repairing broken appliances. It's equipped with soldering stations, oscilloscopes, a bench-mounted circular magnifier and stereo microscope, several hand tools, and various DVMs. Staffed by engineers Andrew Anselmo and Mike Beach, it is a hub for learning the basics of electricity, electronic power, circuit board design, hardware assembly, electrical and electronic sensing, and project testing. The E&R shop is also a nexus for self-organized events such as our popular "Circuit Hacking Night," project demos, and fixit nights.

In our new and expanded shop we will make room for larger project and work areas, circuit board production, upgraded testing benches, and improved workshop and class presentation space. This shop is one of the few that has materials such as small runs of multi conductor wire, resistors, capacitors, transistors, and other small elements that can be had for free.

Current Offerings: Member Use, Tool Testing (Click Here)

Our finishing shop is the ideal place to apply any kind of coating to your nearly completed creations. The shop space is enclosed to minimize dust infiltration, and the industrial paint booth with variable strength fan can rapidly clear any fumes as your finish is applied. Ample drying tables ensure that your project remains in a ventilated, dust-controlled environment, and a sound-baffled air compressor is also available for air spraying.

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Up your precision in our machine shop. Our manual and CNC milling machines and lathes can make extremely precise metal parts for all kinds of functional projects. Everything from simple brackets to working steam engines can be fabricated in the machine shop.

Our machine shop is used for both training: machine use introductions to project courses using a number of the shop capabilities, and projects: single pieces to complete, precision mechanisms. While most work done in the shop is either steel, aluminum or plastics, (delrin, HDPE, phenolics, etc.), we have worked with varying stainless steels, brass, bronze copper and even have done some work in lead and machinable ceramics.

It has wide-ranging capabilities: manual lathes and mills; a CNC lathe; a CNC mill; surface and pedestal grinders; vertical and horizontal bandsaws; two drill presses; parts washer; parts tumblers and vibrators and a good assortment of tools, accessories and fixturing/clamping components. There are a variety of work surfaces to support parts and tools when machining and some dedicated assembly/testing surfaces as well.

The shop is always a work-in-progress as it evolves to the needs of the users and also with acquisition of new equipment. One of the future capabilities that we are working towards is the set up a metrology bench for precision layout and measurement.

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Community Events (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Our Screenprinting Shop is stocked with everything needed for beginners to start screen printing on 2D materials/textiles or at home printers to expand on their practice. The space is equipped with the necessary tools to complete a project start to finish from an exposure unit, printing stations/carousel, flash curing unit, to a wash out station/drying racks. This shop is a great space to both learn about the process that goes into screen printing as well as develop your craft.

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

The ShopBot is a 3-axis CNC router capable of cutting patterns and shapes into most types of woods,plywoods, some plastics and rigid foam.. Working from line drawings from programs like Illustrator, Inkscape, or VCarve you can make precision cuts in flat material. More advanced users can take 3d models from programs like Fusion 360, SolidWorks or AutoDesk Inventor and mill complex shapes. While the machine is easy to use, training and testing is required before use. We offer classes for this machine.

The ShopBot PRS-Alpha 96 has a cutting area of 105” x 49” x 6” with a 4’ x 8’ spoilboard. It has a 5hp Variable speed spindle. The dust collection system is suitable for wood, plywood, MDF and similar materials. We have collets for bits ranging from ⅛” to ⅝ ”. For securing material we have several options including: peg holes on a grid, a nail gun with plastic nails, or you can bring brass screws to attach to the spoilboard.

The ShopBot can be used to cut furniture parts, solid-body guitars, signs and woodworking templates. It is accurate to a few thousands of an inch, and can be used for cutting inlays and engraving lettering. It has been used for cutting complex textured surfaces and copying bas-relief sculptures.

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Wood Shop hosts users from beginner to professional cabinet makers; the Wood Shop is a great place to learn new skills, sharpen old ones and learn from other woodworkers. Our equipment includes:

—Two 5hp Sawstop Industrial Cabinet saws

—A 15” powermatic Jointer

—A 22” powermatic thickness Planer

—Multiple drill presses

—2 Powermatic Band saws (PM 1500, PWBS 1400)

—Router Table

—Wood Lathes (JWL-1236’s)

—Miter Saw (deWalt dws780)

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

Our Composites shop provides space and equipment to shape, mold, form, and fabricate projects working with a wide range of materials including resins, acrylics, polyurethanes, silicones, plasters, and foams. The shop is equipped with designated areas for mixing and casting a variety of flexible materials, allowing the creation of bubble free castings and molds using pressure pots, vacuum chambers, and heat tools. The Composites Shop not only provides dynamic workspace and handheld tools including Dremels, heat guns, foam and mat cutters, and clamps for detailed projects, but also houses a laser cutter, spray booth, downdraft table, vacuum press, belt and disc sanders, and band saw for larger assembly and fabrication. With ample space for creation, manipulation, and finishing of specific projects, our Composites Shop also encourages learning about combinations of new materials through samples, skill sharing, and collaboration between new and established makers alike.

Current Offerings: There are no public offerings for this shop. This shop supports our other 14 shops.

The Audio / Visual Shop is a virtual shop that supports classes and events in the Asylum with projections and sound reinforcement. We currently support three preinstalled spaces in Holton: the Design Lab, the adjacent Flex Space, and the Social Area. We also have portable systems that can be used in other shops and spaces, including Antwerp. Please reach out to Dr. Claw directly with custom requests. Twenty four hours notice is appreciated, and at least one week’s notice is preferred.

Current Offerings: Member Use, Classes (Click Here), Tool Testing (Click Here)

The Casting Shop is oriented toward the creation of hand-crafted pieces on the scale of jewelry and slightly larger, in metal.

We offer two casting processes:

Sand Casting permits a level of detail suitable for small sculpture, jewelry, and select engineering applications. This method is suitable for beginners as well as experienced shop users who are interested in producing a cast piece within the time period of a few hours.

Investment Casting is a two to three day process that permits the reproduction of complex shapes in a way that preserves a high level of fine detail. This method is suitable for intermediate to advanced shop users interested in achieving exceptionally high quality and precision in their cast objects.

The Casting Shop encourages experimentation and knowledge-sharing for the production of jewelry and artwork achievable using equipment appropriate to our shop. We welcome creativity and innovation, but do not have the resources to support larger foundry work.

The Casting Shop is led by Tess Faraci.

Current Offerings: Computer Lab: NOT OPERATIONAL YET | Photography: Member Use

Our shop is a place of learning and support for those interested in digital design and photography. We cater to a variety of skill levels, with tools and resources for professionals and hobbyists.

Whether you're interested in hosting photo shoots, need assistance with printing or looking to learn tips and tricks in design we have the means to support you.