March 16, 2026 • 13 mins
A city feels different when there’s a place you can walk into with a half-formed idea and walk out with something real in your hands. We sit down with Josh and Chris from Grand River Makerspace to unpack how a shared workshop in Walker, Michigan, is giving people the tools, confidence, and community to make things that matter—from five-foot 3D-printed dragons to a toddler mobility trainer built from open-source plans.
We talk through what a makerspace is in plain terms: imagine a gym membership, but for tools and training. The space blends a full woodshop with a 3D print farm, laser cutters, and CNC machines, creating a creative hub where beginners learn the ropes and experienced builders prototype, iterate, and launch small product lines. Josh and Chris share smart, low-pressure onramps—open houses, intro classes, and punch cards—plus clear membership options for individuals and families. Along the way, they show how access lowers barriers for side hustles, Etsy sellers, architects-turned-artists, and anyone who wants to test an idea without buying expensive gear.
The human stories shine. From Scouts shaping Pinewood Derby cars and racing them on-site, to Sunday Craft Noons with tea, cookies, and painters sharing tables with sewists, the makerspace revives the “third place” many of us have missed. The highlight is a powerful account of volunteers who sourced materials, printed parts, and invited a family to assemble a custom mobility trainer for their daughter—proof that when machines meet neighbors, impact scales fast. If you’re curious about 3D printing, laser engraving, CNC carving, or simply finding a welcoming place to learn, this episode offers practical steps to get started and a dose of inspiration to keep going.
Subscribe for more stories from the people shaping Walker. If this conversation sparked an idea, share it with a friend, leave a review, and tell us what you’d build first.
If you have comments about this podcast, or ideas for future episodes, please email us at PODCAST@WALKER.CITY
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SPEAKER_00 (00:07):
Welcome to Maiden Walker, a podcast that connects
you to the people, the stories,and the ideas shaping our
community.
From local innovators toeveryday change makers, we're
diving deep into what makesWalker a great place to live,
work, and grow.
Here's your host, NicoleDiDonato.
SPEAKER_01 (00:26):
Do you have an idea that you want to bring to life,
but you don't have the rightkind of tools to make it happen?
Well, the Grand River Makerspaceis a place to learn, connect,
and, of course, use tools,create some pretty unique items
as well.
And we have Josh and Chris fromGrand River Makerspace to join
us.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
SPEAKER_03 (00:45):
Hey, thanks to calling it.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (00:47):
And we have a lot of um uh a lot of your products
here, things that you can makeas well.
But first, let's just tackle thebig question is to what exactly
is a makerspace.
SPEAKER_02 (00:57):
Well, kind of the lame of this term for for people
in my experience.
So I I ran one at MeskegonCommunity College for a little
while and always had to sell itto people, right?
Trying to explain this weirdthing to people.
But essentially think of likeshop class back in the day, um,
which depends on the generationnowadays.
Some people don't have shopclass.
So what?
Like um and combine it with likea gym membership model, um,
where you get access to liketools.
(01:18):
You know, the shop class is alittle different, right?
We got 3D printers and lasercutters and C and C's, but we do
have a traditional wood shop, uhstuff like that, more of the
traditional kind of making inyour garage.
SPEAKER_01 (01:29):
Yes, yes, and this is actually located in Walker.
I forgot to mention that, whichis why we have you guys on.
But of course, it's it's anawesome space to bring people
together and just connect and tojust let your creativity flow.
And uh you're talking about thisplace that is uh uh like a gym
membership for tools.
Why did you want to bring thisto the area?
SPEAKER_03 (01:48):
You know, I I think uh one of our big goals is to
really kind of create a newthird place for people to come
to in Walker, Grand Rapids,Comstock Park area.
Um, and so you know, we'rereally here to kind of be a
place to come, hang out, maybelearn how to use a new tool or
build something, maybe teachsomething to somebody that, you
know, or we also have peoplethat just kind of come in in the
(02:10):
evenings and just visit and hangout and see what people are
doing.
And so that's kind of our biggoal is be a third space that's
also useful to the community.
Um so yeah, it's kind of reallylove the items that you've
brought.
SPEAKER_01 (02:22):
I mean, there's a an array of tools that you have.
What all exactly can folks takeadvantage of and play around
with?
SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
So one of the cool things that is right up front
here, and you can kind of seethe stormtrooper guy.
So, like this is a local artist.
So this is a 3D printed picture.
Uh, use use a program calledHueForge, and it takes a picture
and turns it into something thata 3D printer can use.
And you can actually essentiallydigitally paint the models so we
can really bring the localartist like work to life, right?
(02:52):
Like this is it's plastic, it'sgonna it's durable, right?
And it just it brings it to lifein a way that's textured and
just different from uh you knowjust a normal print.
SPEAKER_03 (03:02):
Yep.
Yeah, so we have a 3D print farmat the makerspace, uh machines
with different capabilities,different sizes.
Uh you can see here we can doreally big items.
This dragon is a contestgiveaway we printed uh beginning
of this year, and so uh checkout our Facebook site for
information on this one.
But um uh we have thosecapabilities.
(03:23):
We also have lasers uh there.
So we have different uhdifferent lasers uh where we can
uh etch and cut different typesof materials.
Uh rock, for example, wood ispretty common.
SPEAKER_02 (03:34):
Whoops, yep.
SPEAKER_03 (03:35):
We could do wood, leather, um, some metal.
SPEAKER_02 (03:39):
So one thing that is common in my experience from
like having help start makerspace in Muskegon is like
entrepreneurship, right?
Like I didn't have access to alaser.
I didn't, you know, people don'talways have access to 3D
printers or different types ofprinters.
Like you might have a 10-inch 3Dprinter at home, but guess what?
You can't make a five-footdragon on that.
(03:59):
Um, so like, you know, I Istarted laser cutting things to
sell on Etsy and craft shows andstuff like that.
Um I've seen you know, I've seenkids from 12, you know, starting
laser engraving businesses outof a makerspace to, you know,
people that have full-time jobs.
You're like, there were twogirls that used to work out of
the lab that I ran, and theywere architects, right?
(04:22):
They had day jobs, but they hadthis like passion for this art,
um uh concrete pottery that theywere putting together or
whatever.
And so like they use themakerspace to make the molds and
all that stuff, and it's justyeah, it can be used for
entrepreneurship kind of smallbusiness support.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (04:38):
Yeah, yeah.
And in addition to the hightechnology tools like 3D
printers and lasers, we alsohave a full wood shop.
And so we can do uh anythingthat you want to do with putting
wood together or taking woodapart, uh, we can handle it
there.
Uh, we also have uh a couple ofdifferent C and C machines, and
so we can do custom woodcarving, uh, and that can also
(05:00):
be a you know a route forentrepreneurship as well.
So awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (05:04):
And talk about like this membership kind of tiers,
how you operate that and howfolks can take advantage at
certain levels of them.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (05:11):
The best way to dip your toes in, I tell people this
all the time, is basically youknow, attend some of the events,
like come to the open house.
Like we have one the firstFridays of every month from four
to seven.
Um, eventually here when I guessnice, we'll be doing some
cookouts during those.
Um, but then you know, hang out,get to know the feel, and then
maybe take a class, right?
Sign up for an intro 3D printingclass.
Uh, we have one this weekend,it'll be after this airs, but
(05:33):
we're gonna do more in thefuture.
So take a class to come learnhow to laser engrave a tumbler,
right?
Maybe you'll be addicted to itand you'll be like, oh man, I
gotta come learn this to doother stuff.
Um you know, that's kind of likehow to how to try it out.
And if you want to become amember, you could sign up for a
membership, like a monthly,which is$65 a month, um, or like
six, like$700 for the year.
(05:54):
Basically, you get a free monthif you pay for a year.
And or you can sign up for afamily membership at$99 a month,
or gosh, I forget what it was.
It's like$1,100, something likethat.
You basically get a free monthoff of it if you buy a year.
But then we also have a punchcard system.
So some people are like, like aguy this weekend came in and he
had a cutting board he wasgiving away uh that he had made.
Oh my gosh, it was so beautiful.
I wanted to steal it.
(06:15):
Um, but he wanted to engravesomething on it to give it away
at this silent auction for uh ahunting kind of wetlands
ecosystem or wetlandspreservation organization he's a
part of.
And so he just gave a punch cardand he came in, used it, kind of
learned the laser a little bit,and you know he might be back
again to do other projects.
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
So love it.
You welcome anyone and everyonewho wants to learn.
It's I actually uh took a tourof the place a few uh weeks ago,
such an inspiration.
I'm not really like thattechnical kind of mechanically
minded person or that creative,but it's someplace that you can
learn as well.
SPEAKER_03 (06:48):
So yeah, we are uh we're open Tuesdays, Thursdays,
Saturdays, and Sundays.
Um and we also hold opencommunity events too.
So uh we are starting to do uhan event uh that we're calling
Sunday Craft Noons that's opento the community.
You can just come in, hang out,we provide some tea and cookies,
um, and you just bring somecrafts.
And uh last uh two weekends ago,uh we had a bunch of people
(07:11):
doing painting, we had somepeople doing sewing, uh, and
that was a lot of fun.
Uh we're also going to bestarting uh game night uh in uh
Walker.
So figuring out what day of thenight we're gonna have that or
what day of the week, but um,that'll just be like an open
community game night.
Come bring some board games.
A whole bunch of us uh therelove board games, and so we're
definitely excited for that.
SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Some of us 3D print board games, some of us actually
3D print board games.
SPEAKER_03 (07:36):
Uh so yeah, come come play some Scrabble if you
would like.
SPEAKER_01 (07:40):
Have you always been like this?
Is that you know your your dayor full-time jobs?
Was this something that you werealways into and thought we need
to get together and and makethis into something bigger for
the community?
SPEAKER_02 (07:50):
Like my personal journey, I was like working in a
desk job as an engineer, andthen like took this role at the
college, and I've I kind of gotaddicted to it.
I went back, so I went back to anormal job and I was like, man,
looked at my wife and was like,this is not for me.
Like, I gotta, you know, so thenI started launching my small
business stuff, and then I'mlike, you know, I saw the
transformation that happened inMuskegon, and I'm like, the
(08:10):
energy, it's just addicting onceyou're a part of something like
this.
Just it's just addicting.
You just like you just, youknow, you want to learn the next
thing, and then like like peoplecome, like you said, just hang
out, just see what people aredoing because you never know
who's gonna walk in with like acool project.
Like somebody brought in a Idon't play pickleball, but
somebody made an automatedpickleball launcher.
(08:30):
They're a member at themakerspace, they 3D printed all
the parts, they did theelectronics, you know, and they
bring it in to show it off.
SPEAKER_03 (08:37):
Like it's very cool.
Yeah, I am my career has been inIT uh for a long time, and uh
making things has kind of givenme a way to like use some of my
skills for my career, butactually make something tangible
and uh you know make sometimessomething that's not technical
at all, and that's kind of whatI really like about it.
And um, you know, for me it'sit's really about building this
(08:59):
community that I feel like has,you know, we've kind of lost a
little bit since COVID.
Uh and uh you know having havingthird spaces come back, I think
is really important to having aplace to go and hang out.
SPEAKER_01 (09:12):
Yes, and we don't have room to show it right now,
but you made uh an adaptabletype wheelchair.
Tell us about how that all cameabout and what a special story
that is, too.
SPEAKER_03 (09:22):
Yeah, so uh uh Chris actually knew uh a family from
Muskegon that had a need.
Um and a couple of us at theMakerspace uh had recently
learned of this project calledthe Toddler Mobility Trainer by
Make Good Nola.
Uh they're based out of NewOrleans.
And uh it is a free design thatyou can download and print uh
(09:44):
and assemble.
Um, and so we contacted thefamily and just kind of did some
planning and uh through kind ofgenerosity of some of our
volunteers and members, uh gotall of the materials donated
that we needed to make it uh anduh donated their time to
actually produce the parts andthen had the family in and we
gave their daughter a mobilitytrainer.
(10:05):
We technically can't call it awheelchair because it's not it's
not like a medically uh approveddevice, but it is uh it's a full
mobility trainer that is sizedfor her.
Uh she doesn't have use of herarms or legs.
Um and so yeah, it fits uh fitsher great and uh it feels pretty
good to like just be able tolike make something that a
family desperately needs and hashad zero luck getting through
(10:30):
insurance and uh our medicalsystem here, and so you know I
think that's pretty impactful tojust be able to bring them a
wheelchair and say, here you go.
SPEAKER_01 (10:38):
Talk about bringing the community together for
something like that.
That is really special.
Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_03 (10:43):
So it was a pretty pretty special day.
You know, we spent uh two weeksproducing all the parts for the
chair, and then the family camein, they brought about 15 family
members in a big cookout andpotluck, and kind of everybody
celebrated and ate, and then thefamily actually assembled their
daughter's wheelchair, whichwill be a great memory for them
to take home to.
SPEAKER_01 (11:01):
Yeah, and you know, something that you guys can take
along on your journey too.
I mean, just the range that youare able to produce just from
the creativity that folks havein there.
SPEAKER_03 (11:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yep, and you know, it just itkeeps it keeps continuing.
Uh last Saturday we had a BoyScout troop in and they used the
space to make their PinewoodDerby cars.
And so they were able to like doall of the woodworking with
adult supervision, of course.
Uh and then we actually have aPinewood Derby track that we're
able to set up so they canactually test their cars while
(11:30):
they're there.
Um coming up uh this comingweekend, we have another big
thing.
SPEAKER_01 (11:38):
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (11:38):
Yeah, we just it's just nonstop.
We just have events happeningevery single weekend there.
Uh and um, yeah, it's it'sreally taken off.
SPEAKER_01 (11:46):
And uh, you know, groups like that, the the Boy
Scouts and such, if they ifpeople are watching this,
listening to it, and thinking,oh, you know, my child's group
or homeschool group, uh what arethe the processes to get
involved?
SPEAKER_02 (11:56):
Yeah, they can kind of reach out.
So you mentioned homeschool, andI didn't realize until I was
working in this lab in Muskegonhow big that was.
We literally had a day and amorning dedicated to homeschool.
So like maybe we can set upsomething like that.
But yeah, if it's a Boy Scoutgroup or homeschool group, you
want to do like maybe a privateworkshop or something like that.
We can actually, funny story,um, somebody at the Cub Scouts,
(12:17):
the dad a dad came over to methe other day and he had um his
uh 10-year-old was therebuilding this car and he had a
six or seven-year-old with him,you know, baby brother, and he
was like, Would you guys everthink about doing a 3D printing
themed birthday party?
Um he's like, My kid, my mysix-year-old really wanted a 3D
printer for Christmas, and I waslike, you know, he told him,
like, you're six, maybe whenyou're like 10.
(12:38):
Yeah.
Um and I was like, we couldprobably do that.
Like, we can make some littlefun toys for him, stuff like
that.
So you got an idea, you're like,man, you think you want to do
this?
You could do this at themakerspace, throw it at us, you
know.
Grandover makerspace.org, reachout on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
Like, I love that.
Yeah, able to accommodateanyone.
So love the creativity, lovethat you brought everything for
us to see and really get an ideaof what you're doing.
And I love your mission.
Thank you guys so much for beingpart of this podcast.
And uh, we hope that if you areinspired by making something as
well, you'll check them out.
That's Chris and Josh over atGrand River Makerspace.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
SPEAKER_00 (13:14):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of
the Maiden Walker Podcast.
If you have comments orquestions about this podcast, or
if you have suggestions forfuture episodes, we'd love to
hear from you.
Please drop us an email atpodcast at walker.city.
Maiden Walker is the officialpodcast of the city of Walker,
Michigan.
(13:34):
You can find Maiden Walkerwherever you get your podcasts.
Welcome to Maiden Walker, a podcast that connects
you to the people, the stories,and the ideas shaping our
community.
From local innovators toeveryday change makers, we're
diving deep into what makesWalker a great place to live,
work, and grow.
Here's your host, NicoleDiDonato.
SPEAKER_01 (00:26):
Do you have an idea that you want to bring to life,
but you don't have the rightkind of tools to make it happen?
Well, the Grand River Makerspaceis a place to learn, connect,
and, of course, use tools,create some pretty unique items
as well.
And we have Josh and Chris fromGrand River Makerspace to join
us.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
SPEAKER_03 (00:45):
Hey, thanks to calling it.
Yes.
SPEAKER_01 (00:47):
And we have a lot of um uh a lot of your products
here, things that you can makeas well.
But first, let's just tackle thebig question is to what exactly
is a makerspace.
SPEAKER_02 (00:57):
Well, kind of the lame of this term for for people
in my experience.
So I I ran one at MeskegonCommunity College for a little
while and always had to sell itto people, right?
Trying to explain this weirdthing to people.
But essentially think of likeshop class back in the day, um,
which depends on the generationnowadays.
Some people don't have shopclass.
So what?
Like um and combine it with likea gym membership model, um,
where you get access to liketools.
(01:18):
You know, the shop class is alittle different, right?
We got 3D printers and lasercutters and C and C's, but we do
have a traditional wood shop, uhstuff like that, more of the
traditional kind of making inyour garage.
SPEAKER_01 (01:29):
Yes, yes, and this is actually located in Walker.
I forgot to mention that, whichis why we have you guys on.
But of course, it's it's anawesome space to bring people
together and just connect and tojust let your creativity flow.
And uh you're talking about thisplace that is uh uh like a gym
membership for tools.
Why did you want to bring thisto the area?
SPEAKER_03 (01:48):
You know, I I think uh one of our big goals is to
really kind of create a newthird place for people to come
to in Walker, Grand Rapids,Comstock Park area.
Um, and so you know, we'rereally here to kind of be a
place to come, hang out, maybelearn how to use a new tool or
build something, maybe teachsomething to somebody that, you
know, or we also have peoplethat just kind of come in in the
(02:10):
evenings and just visit and hangout and see what people are
doing.
And so that's kind of our biggoal is be a third space that's
also useful to the community.
Um so yeah, it's kind of reallylove the items that you've
brought.
SPEAKER_01 (02:22):
I mean, there's a an array of tools that you have.
What all exactly can folks takeadvantage of and play around
with?
SPEAKER_02 (02:30):
So one of the cool things that is right up front
here, and you can kind of seethe stormtrooper guy.
So, like this is a local artist.
So this is a 3D printed picture.
Uh, use use a program calledHueForge, and it takes a picture
and turns it into something thata 3D printer can use.
And you can actually essentiallydigitally paint the models so we
can really bring the localartist like work to life, right?
(02:52):
Like this is it's plastic, it'sgonna it's durable, right?
And it just it brings it to lifein a way that's textured and
just different from uh you knowjust a normal print.
SPEAKER_03 (03:02):
Yep.
Yeah, so we have a 3D print farmat the makerspace, uh machines
with different capabilities,different sizes.
Uh you can see here we can doreally big items.
This dragon is a contestgiveaway we printed uh beginning
of this year, and so uh checkout our Facebook site for
information on this one.
But um uh we have thosecapabilities.
(03:23):
We also have lasers uh there.
So we have different uhdifferent lasers uh where we can
uh etch and cut different typesof materials.
Uh rock, for example, wood ispretty common.
SPEAKER_02 (03:34):
Whoops, yep.
SPEAKER_03 (03:35):
We could do wood, leather, um, some metal.
SPEAKER_02 (03:39):
So one thing that is common in my experience from
like having help start makerspace in Muskegon is like
entrepreneurship, right?
Like I didn't have access to alaser.
I didn't, you know, people don'talways have access to 3D
printers or different types ofprinters.
Like you might have a 10-inch 3Dprinter at home, but guess what?
You can't make a five-footdragon on that.
(03:59):
Um, so like, you know, I Istarted laser cutting things to
sell on Etsy and craft shows andstuff like that.
Um I've seen you know, I've seenkids from 12, you know, starting
laser engraving businesses outof a makerspace to, you know,
people that have full-time jobs.
You're like, there were twogirls that used to work out of
the lab that I ran, and theywere architects, right?
(04:22):
They had day jobs, but they hadthis like passion for this art,
um uh concrete pottery that theywere putting together or
whatever.
And so like they use themakerspace to make the molds and
all that stuff, and it's justyeah, it can be used for
entrepreneurship kind of smallbusiness support.
Absolutely.
SPEAKER_03 (04:38):
Yeah, yeah.
And in addition to the hightechnology tools like 3D
printers and lasers, we alsohave a full wood shop.
And so we can do uh anythingthat you want to do with putting
wood together or taking woodapart, uh, we can handle it
there.
Uh, we also have uh a couple ofdifferent C and C machines, and
so we can do custom woodcarving, uh, and that can also
(05:00):
be a you know a route forentrepreneurship as well.
So awesome.
SPEAKER_01 (05:04):
And talk about like this membership kind of tiers,
how you operate that and howfolks can take advantage at
certain levels of them.
Sure.
SPEAKER_02 (05:11):
The best way to dip your toes in, I tell people this
all the time, is basically youknow, attend some of the events,
like come to the open house.
Like we have one the firstFridays of every month from four
to seven.
Um, eventually here when I guessnice, we'll be doing some
cookouts during those.
Um, but then you know, hang out,get to know the feel, and then
maybe take a class, right?
Sign up for an intro 3D printingclass.
Uh, we have one this weekend,it'll be after this airs, but
(05:33):
we're gonna do more in thefuture.
So take a class to come learnhow to laser engrave a tumbler,
right?
Maybe you'll be addicted to itand you'll be like, oh man, I
gotta come learn this to doother stuff.
Um you know, that's kind of likehow to how to try it out.
And if you want to become amember, you could sign up for a
membership, like a monthly,which is$65 a month, um, or like
six, like$700 for the year.
(05:54):
Basically, you get a free monthif you pay for a year.
And or you can sign up for afamily membership at$99 a month,
or gosh, I forget what it was.
It's like$1,100, something likethat.
You basically get a free monthoff of it if you buy a year.
But then we also have a punchcard system.
So some people are like, like aguy this weekend came in and he
had a cutting board he wasgiving away uh that he had made.
Oh my gosh, it was so beautiful.
I wanted to steal it.
(06:15):
Um, but he wanted to engravesomething on it to give it away
at this silent auction for uh ahunting kind of wetlands
ecosystem or wetlandspreservation organization he's a
part of.
And so he just gave a punch cardand he came in, used it, kind of
learned the laser a little bit,and you know he might be back
again to do other projects.
SPEAKER_01 (06:32):
So love it.
You welcome anyone and everyonewho wants to learn.
It's I actually uh took a tourof the place a few uh weeks ago,
such an inspiration.
I'm not really like thattechnical kind of mechanically
minded person or that creative,but it's someplace that you can
learn as well.
SPEAKER_03 (06:48):
So yeah, we are uh we're open Tuesdays, Thursdays,
Saturdays, and Sundays.
Um and we also hold opencommunity events too.
So uh we are starting to do uhan event uh that we're calling
Sunday Craft Noons that's opento the community.
You can just come in, hang out,we provide some tea and cookies,
um, and you just bring somecrafts.
And uh last uh two weekends ago,uh we had a bunch of people
(07:11):
doing painting, we had somepeople doing sewing, uh, and
that was a lot of fun.
Uh we're also going to bestarting uh game night uh in uh
Walker.
So figuring out what day of thenight we're gonna have that or
what day of the week, but um,that'll just be like an open
community game night.
Come bring some board games.
A whole bunch of us uh therelove board games, and so we're
definitely excited for that.
SPEAKER_02 (07:32):
Some of us 3D print board games, some of us actually
3D print board games.
SPEAKER_03 (07:36):
Uh so yeah, come come play some Scrabble if you
would like.
SPEAKER_01 (07:40):
Have you always been like this?
Is that you know your your dayor full-time jobs?
Was this something that you werealways into and thought we need
to get together and and makethis into something bigger for
the community?
SPEAKER_02 (07:50):
Like my personal journey, I was like working in a
desk job as an engineer, andthen like took this role at the
college, and I've I kind of gotaddicted to it.
I went back, so I went back to anormal job and I was like, man,
looked at my wife and was like,this is not for me.
Like, I gotta, you know, so thenI started launching my small
business stuff, and then I'mlike, you know, I saw the
transformation that happened inMuskegon, and I'm like, the
(08:10):
energy, it's just addicting onceyou're a part of something like
this.
Just it's just addicting.
You just like you just, youknow, you want to learn the next
thing, and then like like peoplecome, like you said, just hang
out, just see what people aredoing because you never know
who's gonna walk in with like acool project.
Like somebody brought in a Idon't play pickleball, but
somebody made an automatedpickleball launcher.
(08:30):
They're a member at themakerspace, they 3D printed all
the parts, they did theelectronics, you know, and they
bring it in to show it off.
SPEAKER_03 (08:37):
Like it's very cool.
Yeah, I am my career has been inIT uh for a long time, and uh
making things has kind of givenme a way to like use some of my
skills for my career, butactually make something tangible
and uh you know make sometimessomething that's not technical
at all, and that's kind of whatI really like about it.
And um, you know, for me it'sit's really about building this
(08:59):
community that I feel like has,you know, we've kind of lost a
little bit since COVID.
Uh and uh you know having havingthird spaces come back, I think
is really important to having aplace to go and hang out.
SPEAKER_01 (09:12):
Yes, and we don't have room to show it right now,
but you made uh an adaptabletype wheelchair.
Tell us about how that all cameabout and what a special story
that is, too.
SPEAKER_03 (09:22):
Yeah, so uh uh Chris actually knew uh a family from
Muskegon that had a need.
Um and a couple of us at theMakerspace uh had recently
learned of this project calledthe Toddler Mobility Trainer by
Make Good Nola.
Uh they're based out of NewOrleans.
And uh it is a free design thatyou can download and print uh
(09:44):
and assemble.
Um, and so we contacted thefamily and just kind of did some
planning and uh through kind ofgenerosity of some of our
volunteers and members, uh gotall of the materials donated
that we needed to make it uh anduh donated their time to
actually produce the parts andthen had the family in and we
gave their daughter a mobilitytrainer.
(10:05):
We technically can't call it awheelchair because it's not it's
not like a medically uh approveddevice, but it is uh it's a full
mobility trainer that is sizedfor her.
Uh she doesn't have use of herarms or legs.
Um and so yeah, it fits uh fitsher great and uh it feels pretty
good to like just be able tolike make something that a
family desperately needs and hashad zero luck getting through
(10:30):
insurance and uh our medicalsystem here, and so you know I
think that's pretty impactful tojust be able to bring them a
wheelchair and say, here you go.
SPEAKER_01 (10:38):
Talk about bringing the community together for
something like that.
That is really special.
Yeah, it is.
SPEAKER_03 (10:43):
So it was a pretty pretty special day.
You know, we spent uh two weeksproducing all the parts for the
chair, and then the family camein, they brought about 15 family
members in a big cookout andpotluck, and kind of everybody
celebrated and ate, and then thefamily actually assembled their
daughter's wheelchair, whichwill be a great memory for them
to take home to.
SPEAKER_01 (11:01):
Yeah, and you know, something that you guys can take
along on your journey too.
I mean, just the range that youare able to produce just from
the creativity that folks havein there.
SPEAKER_03 (11:10):
Yeah, absolutely.
Yep, and you know, it just itkeeps it keeps continuing.
Uh last Saturday we had a BoyScout troop in and they used the
space to make their PinewoodDerby cars.
And so they were able to like doall of the woodworking with
adult supervision, of course.
Uh and then we actually have aPinewood Derby track that we're
able to set up so they canactually test their cars while
(11:30):
they're there.
Um coming up uh this comingweekend, we have another big
thing.
SPEAKER_01 (11:38):
Yes.
SPEAKER_03 (11:38):
Yeah, we just it's just nonstop.
We just have events happeningevery single weekend there.
Uh and um, yeah, it's it'sreally taken off.
SPEAKER_01 (11:46):
And uh, you know, groups like that, the the Boy
Scouts and such, if they ifpeople are watching this,
listening to it, and thinking,oh, you know, my child's group
or homeschool group, uh what arethe the processes to get
involved?
SPEAKER_02 (11:56):
Yeah, they can kind of reach out.
So you mentioned homeschool, andI didn't realize until I was
working in this lab in Muskegonhow big that was.
We literally had a day and amorning dedicated to homeschool.
So like maybe we can set upsomething like that.
But yeah, if it's a Boy Scoutgroup or homeschool group, you
want to do like maybe a privateworkshop or something like that.
We can actually, funny story,um, somebody at the Cub Scouts,
(12:17):
the dad a dad came over to methe other day and he had um his
uh 10-year-old was therebuilding this car and he had a
six or seven-year-old with him,you know, baby brother, and he
was like, Would you guys everthink about doing a 3D printing
themed birthday party?
Um he's like, My kid, my mysix-year-old really wanted a 3D
printer for Christmas, and I waslike, you know, he told him,
like, you're six, maybe whenyou're like 10.
(12:38):
Yeah.
Um and I was like, we couldprobably do that.
Like, we can make some littlefun toys for him, stuff like
that.
So you got an idea, you're like,man, you think you want to do
this?
You could do this at themakerspace, throw it at us, you
know.
Grandover makerspace.org, reachout on Facebook.
SPEAKER_01 (12:52):
Like, I love that.
Yeah, able to accommodateanyone.
So love the creativity, lovethat you brought everything for
us to see and really get an ideaof what you're doing.
And I love your mission.
Thank you guys so much for beingpart of this podcast.
And uh, we hope that if you areinspired by making something as
well, you'll check them out.
That's Chris and Josh over atGrand River Makerspace.
Thank you so much for joiningus.
SPEAKER_00 (13:14):
Thank you for joining us for this episode of
the Maiden Walker Podcast.
If you have comments orquestions about this podcast, or
if you have suggestions forfuture episodes, we'd love to
hear from you.
Please drop us an email atpodcast at walker.city.
Maiden Walker is the officialpodcast of the city of Walker,
Michigan.
(13:34):
You can find Maiden Walkerwherever you get your podcasts.
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