Kitty corner from the local bakery and just up the street from Bishop’s Beach, there’s a new addition to the Old Town neighborhood: A 3-D printing workshop.
High schooler Landon Bunting is at the Maker Space in Homer helping other kids with their projects.
“The month of November was focusing on building boats and we had a race. And this month is focusing on rockets,” said Bunting.
10-year-old Luke Nollar and 11-year-old Eli Zatz have been hard at work on their project.
“At the Maker Space kids get to design rockets and at end of the month we’re gonna test them out and see if they fly,” said Eli Zatz.
Luke and Eli are using a computer program to design the rocket. Eli explains.
“Then we’re gonna pull it up and make the nose cone. It’s pretty simple from there. You just add the fins using the square tool and then you cut them in half. And then you can print it and it will be ready to fly,” said Eli Zatz.
Eli’s dad, Daniel Zatz helped create the maker space.
“In the maker space kids and adults can design and create through 3-D printing anything, really that they dream of. The goal is to introduce kids and adults to the tools that are used in 3-D design,” said Zatz.
The Homer Maker Space is a 501-C-3 non-profit and it’s free for kids and adults to use. Zatz says the cost of 3-D printers hs dropped from tens of thousands of dollars or more to just a few hundred dollars and soon they’ll be in homes, so people need to know how to use them.
“If we don’t create opportunities for kids to touch these new bits of technology that are coming out, they just won’t have a chance to compete in the technology world. So, for an incredibly small investment we’ve been able to *[get]* three 3-D printers and a host of computers that are running completely state of the art design software. And now kids in Homer, if they choose to, they can come in, the maker space is free, they can come in and learn design,” said Zatz.
Within the first one or two hours, Zatz says kids are making simple objects like balls, blocks or bracelets.
“What I think this is going to do is let them start looking at the world and seeing challenges that they can say, ‘oh, well I know how to make something that will solve that.’ Or they’ll walk into a business and they’ll see that the business needs something – and they’ll say, ‘hey, I can make one of those for you,” said Zatz.
He wants to see students looking around their own community to find things people need that they can make. Zatz says students are already doing that.
“For example, we recently learned that some of the senior citizens in town have a challenge with their walkers because the walkers are sold with wheels that are small. So now there’s somebody at the maker space who has designed bigger wheels to go on walkers so we can have, essentially 4-wheel drive walkers for our seniors,” said Zatz.
Landon Bunting says he likes that kids can use their imaginations to design and print all kinds of things.
“Anyone is allowed to create anything that’s on their mind. Cups, bowls, baskets, names – anything.” said Bunting.
Organizers say they’re looking forward to seeing what the kids come up with as they become more familiar with the technology. The Homer Maker Space is open Mondays, Tuesday and Wednesdays after school. And they just added Saturday hours for kids and adults.
Maker Space hours are 3:30-5:30 Monday through Wednesday and noon to 3 on Saturday.
KBBI Reporter Quinton Chandler contributed to this story.
