SUPPORT US

We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and much of our expansion is financed via donations. If you are interested in supporting our mission, there are quite a few ways you can help:

• Donate money directly: This money will be used for paying rent, buying new tools, and various other expenses at our discretion! If you would like to donate money for a specific purpose, please email us. Donate here.

• Donate a tool off of our tool wish list: If you would like to purchase and donate a tool from our wish list below, please email us so we can work out the logistics!

• Other: If you have another way you would like to support us, reach out! We would love to chat!

Tool Wishlist (roughly in order of importance):

• SawStop Table Saw, $1,500-$3,000: The table saw is the most dangerous tool in the shop. SawStop table saws use patented technology to detect when a finger or other part of the body touches the blade and stops the rotation and drops the blade down- all in under 5 milliseconds. This reduces the risk of serious injury by the table saw to almost zero.

• Lathe (+tooling), $3,000-$5,000: We are currently borrowing a lathe from our friends at UIUC, but we have to return it at the end of the summer. 

• Tig Welder, $1,000-$1,500:We have only a Mig welder at the moment and want to expand our capabilities.

• More Electronics Equipment, $500-$2,000: We have a small electronics lab right now, but we would like to upgrade its capabilities! We would like an oscilloscope, a waveform generator, a good soldering station with proper ventilation, a function generator, and more.

• SLA 3D printing setup, $1,500-$3,000: While we currently have a couple of FDM 3D printers, we do not have an SLA setup. SLA printers use UV-cured resin instead of thermo-plastics to build up a 3D part, and they have the capability for much higher accuracy and precision. They require a washing and curing setup, however, as the resin is hazardous and messy.

• Bambu Lab X1 Carbon 3D printer, $1,500: The Bambu Lab X1 Carbon is a high-end consumer 3D printer. It is both fast and incredibly accurate, and it can use 4 different colors of plastic in a single print. It is the Lamborghini of desktop 3D printers, and the prints that come off of it are gorgeous.