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Makerspace brings 3D printing to community
YOUNGSTOWN
Youngstown is the next Ohio community to have its own makerspace with 3-D printing technology.
A makerspace is a community center with new hardware and software tools for making, digital design and fabrication. It also is a place for meetings and lectures.
The Oakhill Makerspace is the latest addition to the Oakhill Collaborative, 507 Oakhill Ave., a small-business incubator that started in October 2012.
As a business incubator, the collaborative helps create and grow young businesses by providing them with financial, legal and technical services and support.
Eventually, those business move on to their own premises leaving the space to the next entrepreneur.
“This is now the neighborhood center,” said Pat Kerrigan, the collaborative’s executive director.
Eight small businesses reside at the collaborative’s facility including the Makerspace.
“It gives that entrepreneurial spirit,” said Michael Perry, the facilitator of the Makerspace.
The biggest attraction of the Makerspace is its 3-D printer. Three-dimensional printing, or additive manufacturing, is a process for making a 3-D object under computer control from an electronic data source.
A hot topic because of its versatility, 3-D printing technology is the “keystone to build around” for the Makerspace to be successful, Perry said. “Instead of buying a part, we can make it with 3-D printing,” he said.
Additionally, Kerrigan said the Makerspace has an opportunity to train many demographics “into the field of additive manufacturing by educating them on 3-D printing.”
The Makerspace includes other opportunities and resources besides 3-D printing technology such as metalworking, sewing and woodworking.
“We’re a blank slate; we can do whatever we want,” Kerrigan said.
Michael became interested in the Makerspace as a way to attract and maintain younger people to Youngstown. Perry said he loves living in Youngstown, but many of his peers have left.
So far, the Makerspace has 15 to 20 members such as Dray Perkins, from the city’s North Side. Perkins said he has a huge interest in soil and water conservation and sees the Makerspace as a valuable resource.
“The Makerspace has resources that people are short on,” he said. “That’s why I’m here.”
Even those from the incubator are participating in the Makerspace, such as Corinne DeCesare, from the city’s West Side, who is working on starting her own clothing line.
“I think it’s awesome; it’s very rewarding,” she said.
The collaborative emerged from outreach programs of St. Patrick Church, 1420 Oak Hill Ave. Through private donations and grants, the collaborative has raised more than $300,000 the past two years. Members meet Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Perry said the Makerspace’s future is limitless.
“It’s as big as the community will allow it,” he said.