Three w00ts for C3KC!

C3KC in Kansas City has a 3D Printer and electronics gear.  That’s about it for tooling, but they also do Ham Radio and Programming.  Definitely more in the development/design side.  So, no full “survey” per se for C3KC.

Since when is a reputable HackSpace run out of a DeVry? But believe it, it’s true.  A little bit of promo here and there, and super cheap rent can be had.  I caught up with one member outside of the school, during a promised Friday Meetup.  The building was locked and dim, but I hazard to wait around for the 7pm moment.  It would have ended there, but there were some big plans afoot to do a community event at a local high school, and C3KC’s leader was elsewhere, so it came down to just one person to extricate bins of soldering kits and jugs of Orange Juice from the shuttered building.

We wait for the security guard, a very talkative, friendly guy, for whom it’s a bit past his bedtime.  I snag as many photos as I can of the space for the blog, and help cart out some of the goods.  I happen to mention I’ll be in Shawnee for the British Faire.  Suddenly I’m also invited to the event, which is also out there in Johnson County, early the following morning.  Naturally, I get lost, but manage to saunter over at 10am, with the trays still full of breakfast confections and the jugs full of Orange Juice.  I take a danish-ish morsel and a few chunks of pineapple before the mass devouring ensues, some photos of cool things hanging from the ceiling.

About a dozen kids packed into the school’s robotics lab – ah, these kids these days with their iPads and their in-school robot labs – and the same trooper of a maker was there, showing the kids how to solder. First, a Colin Cunningham video about soldering, then a hands-on, step-by-step demonstration of the blinkenlichten kit, shaped like the Make Magazine robot, and a few too many soldering stations and a few too few wire clippers to go around.  One by one, they finish, no burns to worry about today, phew! – each proudly sporting red robot lapel pin with crazy blinking LED eyes.  The new generation of makers is soon ready to get going on the advanced soldering kits at full speed – launched by a modern school shop program and Cowtown Computer Congress Kansas City.  They’re such good sports, they even toss me a kit to throw together.

C3KC might not have the same size of membership, or the same level of financing or organization as the big space across town, but they’ve got enough to get by, and they’re using their powers for good.