Allan Appel Photo
Bunting, in red MakeHaven shirt, shows Arensberg his computer model.
Colin Bunting was getting ready to use a 3‑D printer to make a wax prototype of a wind noise reduction device to attach to bicycle helmets.
He wasn’t doing this at Sikorsky Aircraft, site of his day job as an aviation designer, but at MakeHaven, the workshop for high or low-tech tinkerers on State Street.
Artist Tom Arenberg, on an Arts & Ideas tour of the workshop, took off his hearing aid and showed it to Bunting. It had the same problem: Wind also reduces a hearing aid’s effectiveness.
“Cool addition,” Bunting said, and began now to discuss with Arenberg how to make his prototype adaptable for hearing aids.
First, however, he told Arenberg he has to better understand and solve the problems of “micro vortices,” the little tornadoes of wind that swirl around the ear of a rider in motion.
“If you like working with stuff, this place is heaven,” said Bunting.
Bunting shows one of three 3-D printers at MakeHaven
The pitch wasn’t really necessary. Arenberg said he can’t wait to join.
The interchange and effortless recruitment occurred during a tour of the cozy, laid back, but scientifically sophisticated workshop of MakeHaven, headquarters for maker culture in our town.
With micro-controllers, purchasable online for 15 bucks, Max Garcia and another MakeHavener are building drones from scratch.
For $50 a month, tinkerers, hobbyists, and, well, people who like to make stuff socialize, learn new technologies, and learn to operate and even build their own machinery. These include CNC (Computer Numeric Control) machines, 3‑D printers, laser cutters, milling machines, Arduino boards and software, and all kinds of electronic and mechanical gadgets, ranging from those used in drone design and construction to beer-making.
Software designer Jacob Lewallen (far left) shows off the downstairs woodshop.
Arenberg, who has a background in engineering and light design, explained to Bunting in detail how he had adapted the Sidewinder bike he rode up in. He was one of 20 people participating in the first round of a “tour-a-thon” — three back-to-back tours that JR Logan, the chief maker at MakeHaven, and the red-T-shirted members were giving as part of the first Saturday morning’s A&I programs.
The tours appeared to be thronged, as the four-year-old MakeHaven is getting more well-known as an inventors’ version of the Grove, the city’s pioneering co-working space, of which it is a kind of a spin off.
The nonprofit has about 100 members who pay $50 bucks for 24/7 access to the space and the machinery, much of which is either built or adapted by members themselves from stuff they purchase cheaply online, donate, or raise through crowdsource campaigns, said Logan.
Tour members checked out Jeremy Meadow, a woodworker by profession, busy on the first floor upgrading the electronics of a CNC machine, which uses computer programing sending signals to a mechanical router that cuts wood or plastic.
Asked by Logan to explain to visitors what he was up to, Meadow said, “We have a CNC router run by an Arduino. I’m upgrading the machine so it knows it has limits and doesn’t destroy itself.”
Members of MakeHaven had built the CNC from a kit and parts purchased online, but somehow the way it had been built, the machine didn’t know to stop cutting when, for example, the end of a board had been reached. Meadow was fixing that.
“We have oscilloscopes,” Logan said, continuing the tour. He pointed to two of those machines sitting near Meadow and the electronics workstation. Their purpose is to check electronic wave lengths. “And here are soldering irons too. But the most important thing is people you can talk to when stuff doesn’t work.”
Logan at the CNC machine.
With the tools in the workshop, Logan said, “you can build the next set of tools.” He added, “we encourage people to do open source and to share ideas.”
Nearby, Elisa Araldi was working at one of the laser cutters, programming it to print out thank-you notes. A native of Milan, Araldi’s day job is as a cardiovascular researcher at the Yale University Medical School. She said she heard about MakeHaven from a friend when she happened to be cutting thank you and birthday notes out of plastic sheets by hand. Like Araldi, many of those who join MakeHaven have expertise in one area but are eager to branch out or learn something entirely new, said Max Garcia, an architect by training, who is working with another member on building drones.
The laser cutter was burning through the sheets “like a knife in butter,” she said.
Logan said that the end of the day, the 5 – 7 p.m. time slot is the busiest at MakeHaven.
Araldi said her projects are pure pleasure and have absolutely nothing to do with work. “It’s a mental vacation to do this, making art at the end of the day.”
MakeHaven is all about the joy of making stuff, collaborating, and sharing. On the other hand, who knows what Bunting, Arenberg, or Araldi may end up inventing as they advance New Haven’s great 19th-century tradition of tinkering and inventing into the digital age?
