Current Projects

I’m working on laser cut marquetry boxes as gifts. I’ll be also making a desk next for my daughter’s upcoming wedding gift.

Experience / What was most surprising about PCMS

People are willing to help out and answer questions.

Profile

Ann, the arbor and her two yellow labs

Ann Stokes doesn’t start small. 

She’s been a member of the Maker Space a little over two years and has already created an arbor for one of the City’s most revered historical organizations, Strawbery Banke Museum. 

And how did Ann hear about the Maker Space? “We had a former neighbor who walked his dog by my house and he told me about it.” 

And how did she hear about the project at Strawbery Banke?

“Oh, so I walk my dog there.” 

Ann has her two yellow labs to thank for a lot. 

“We got to know the groundskeepers and so I looked on their website and saw they were looking for volunteers to do outdoor woodworking.” 

And that’s kind of huge– her arbor is over 10 feet wide! She didn’t just make a box and call it a day. 

“When I first came here, I was making the benches for that arbor.” 

And she relied on fellow makers for help. 

“There was a guy named Tall Paul. I came in with these gigantic boards that were like an inch and a half thick and like six feet long. I could barely lift them up. I think that’s like the first time I came in. He helped me to put them through the planer and the jointer. So that was very nice.” 

From Tall Paul, Ann also got help from General Manager Alex Nunn and Director Peter Boyd, among others.

“I’m less comfortable using tools I’m not familiar with and so a lot of people offer advice on how to use various tools.” 

And having gotten help from several makers, she hopes to give back some day. “I hope to become that kind of a resource in the future to other people. Hopefully in the future I’ll be more useful as I gain more skills.”

 Ann has definitely come to rely on the Maker Space. “So my house is too small to have a table saw. I do have space for a small shop with hand tools in my basement. I don’t think I could really do anything without a planer, a jointer, and a table saw.”

Current Projects

My “Seanatron” helmet. It’s a real wearable helmet that reacts to whatever face I’m making underneath and projects a cartoony emoji-like face on the front that matches. When it’;s done, it should at least work although it definitely won’t be perfect.

Experience / What was most surprising about PCMS

How close it was to my house

Profile

Introducing the Seanatron—an emoji helmet—and its maker

At four months into his Maker Space membership, Sean Reilly considers himself a newbie – or “n00b.” 

He’s eager to show off his “Seanatron” helmet, a helmet that reacts to whatever face he makes while wearing it. It projects a cartoony emoji-like face on the front to match. 

He’s sorry he doesn’t have more to show us, but it’s still a work in progress. “When it’s done, it should at least work, although it definitely won’t be perfect,” says the New Castle resident. 

“There’s this dream of mine that one day I’ll be a (electronic) musician and I’ll do this on stage. That is, I know it’s childish…but I’ll be the only one who’s ever done this, so that’s going to make my ego better.”

The Seanatron has a computer, part of a ripped up bicycle helmet and other things only Sean can explain. He used the laser printer, the laser cutter and the 3D printer. 

Sean heard about PCMS through his mom. While he’s looking into furthering his education after high school, for now Sean says he’s an engineer. 

What kind of engineering? “Dilly-dallying. I’m good at dilly-dallying. This is known as software integration. It’s taking two things that usually don’t work together and matching them together.”