So rather recently, I had the chance to tour the Boulder Public Library Makerspace! They had so much cool stuff there, I didn’t know what to look at first! They had MULTIPLE 3D Printers (YES!!) A CNC Machine, A Sewing Machine, A Pancake Bot, A Laser Cutter, A Pottery Kiln (Coming Soon) A Vinyl Cutter, and much more! Obviously I was the most interested in the 3D Printers, but they had TONS of great machines there. The Makerspace is called BLDG 61, and it was made possible by the Boulder Public Library foundation.
I was most interested in the 3D Printers, so I checked those out first. The Makerspace had 3 Printers; the Lulzbot TAZ 5, and 2 Lulzbot Mini’s. When I was there, only the TAZ 5 was running, and it was printing an Octopus. The interesting thing about the Lulzbot Mini’s was the way they were hooked up. The two Mini’s appeared to be hooked up to an Raspberry Pi (or something like it) and the Raspberry Pi was hooked up to a wireless connection! Based on this setup, I would say that the Makerspace was planning on running Octoprint, (or something similar) to run the 3D Printers. This seemed like a great idea, and I thought that was a very cool innovation at the Makerspace.
However, the Makerspace featured all kinds of amazing technology. I was super impressed with this Makerspace, and I will definitely be coming back for more! So if you are in Boulder, I strongly recommend coming over to check out the Library. The Library itself was cool enough, but now it features a makerspace! Having 3D Printers at the local library is definitely a great idea, because now everyone in Boulder has access to some epic 3d stuff!
Epic 3D Stuff 