December 17th we’ll be handing out keys to all of our members. We’ll also have general information about the space to hand out along with your set of keys. If you’re not yet a member, click on the Membership link above to get started. We have a lot of work to do in the space. The house is pretty clean, however the yard and the shop are a wreck. We have a list of things to do we’ll share with everyone on Friday. There are TONS of raw materials for us to use for whatever we want. We’re all really excited to move into our space and we’ll see everyone Friday @ Republic Coffee.

We’ve leased a space at 2203 Freemont Rd! We’ll be handing out keys to all paid members at the 12/17 Friday meeting at Republic Coffee. Google Maps: 2203 Freemont Rd. Memphis, TN 38114. If you are not yet a full member you can become one by paying dues for December. We’ll be discussing our initial move in plans at the meeting on Friday, we look forward to seeing you there.

The LAN party last Saturday was a great success, thanks to everyone that was involved in setup / clean up and a special thanks to our host, Jeff Leath and our very own Kevin Dunn for some really tasty chilli. Thanks to everyone that showed up even if you didn’t play, was great to see everyone.

Chain Mail Class – Come Learn how to make chain mail with us.
Our NEXT meet will be December 3rd at Republic Coffee. We will be having an abbreviated meeting with a class on how to create chain mail led by John Wood. If you would like to participate in the chain mail class the cost will be $10. You’ll be able to keep what you create as well as the handy pair of pliers you’ll be using in the class. Feel free to prepay by using the paypal link on the front page of http://www.midsouthmakers.org

The class will consist of the start to finish exercise of creating a section of chain mail material out of readily available aluminum electric fence wire. The process will involve taking a coil of electric fence wire, explaining how to make a coil out of the wire using a portable drill and a metal rod. Then taking the coil and creating individual links. Lastly how to construct a section of chain mail material out of the links using hand tools.

LAN Party Part DEUX
The LAN Party will be held at same location as last time: 2203 Freemont Rd. Kevin will be making Cincinnati style Chili and grilling hot dogs. Joe will be bringing Rotel cheese dip and we’ll have plenty of drinks + chips. The exact cost for food is still being determined (should be on par to last time ~$10). If you’d like to bring something to share (1UP Cakes, Strawberry cakes of awesome)  please feel free.

If you have any suggestions for games please let us know, I’m going to throw out Left 4 Dead 2 + I’d like to get Walter to carry me through the rest of the hard mode alien swarm! Also a few us of WoW addic…..players will have a fresh expansion to play through so I’m sure WoW will be represented as well. Feel free to suggest anything else. Last time SC2 and UT2k4 was a big hit.

Happy October!

Can you believe it’s October, already? Time to start getting into the Halloween spirit. And what better way to do that than with lots of spooky treats? That’s right, the Midsouth Makers are gonna have a Halloween themed bake sale! We’re gonna have lots of sweets – cookies, brownies, homemade marshmallows, a few whole cakes; there’s even a couple of sugar free goodies. But, wait! That’s not all! We’ll also have a few non-food items, such as hand sewn pumpkins and decorated paper bats.

Sounds like it’s gonna be loads of fun, doesn’t it? Well, the more people we have helping and coming to the bake sale, the more fun it will be. So, we will need all types of help – people passing out flyers, donations of many types (food, non-food, monetary), volunteers for the bake sale, someone taking pictures, people showing off projects to potential victims… I mean, potential customers. Costumes, especially homemade, are GREATLY encouraged.

Here’s the specifics – The bake sale will be held on Saturday, October 30. Set-up time will start at 9 am. The bake sale will go from 10 am to 1 pm. The location is Kevin and Brandi’s front yard, at 850 Avon in Memphis. Here is a file containing the sign up sheet, a set of guidelines for food donations/ingredients list and the flyer. If you have any questions or want to virtually ‘sign’ the sign up sheet, send it to board@midsouthmakers.org and it will be forwarded to Brandi.

Let’s make this an AWESOME bake sale! Be there or beware!

Following our normally scheduled meeting on August 27th, the Makers group was offered the chance by Greg, one of the members of the local 2600 group, to visit his home made aluminum forge.

After the initial awe of seeing an actual Delorean parked in his garage, we were treated to Greg setting up and demoing his forge. We were asked to bring small objects that could be pressed into sand molds to make reliefs to pour molten aluminum into to duplicate.

The forge was made using a metal 5 gallon paint/chemical bucket with a special mixture of concrete on the inside for insulation and heat retention. The top was made out of the bottom of another metal bucket with the same concrete mixture, with an ingenious use of rebar as a pivot point to turn the top out of the way to access the crucible.

Soon after inserting his Harbor Freight propane burner into a hole in the side of the bucket, the fire was ignited and things really began to heat up. Greg’s main source of aluminum is, you guessed it, aluminum drink cans. While the crucible was turning red-hot, Greg would add cans in two at a time. The paint on the outside of the cans would flash fire and be burnt off as slag, while the rest of the aluminum would melt in to a puddle of silver liquid reminiscent of mercury in colour and fluidity.

Once the aluminum was fully melted and the scum was pulled from the top, the crucible was carefully extracted and poured into some of the waiting sand molds. While still incredibly hot, the aluminum almost immediately solidified into the desired form. After a few minutes of cooling it was carefully extracted using tongs and left to air cool for several hours.

While the whole process is actually incredibly simple, it is still exciting to watch and even more exciting to think of the endless possibilities of having such a forge at your disposal!

The Makers would like to extend thanks to Greg for allowing us to invade his garage to see this amazing forge in action!