ASK Salt Spring: Answered - Ep 25 Julia Wagner - The Fab Lab

Episode Date: March 2, 2024

Ask Salt Spring Answered talks to Julia Wagner of the Salt Spring Public library about The Fab Lab, where you can make anything using 3-D printers and much more.

You're listening to episode 25 of Ask Salt Spring Answered, in which we talk to Julia Wagner, who is a librarian at the Salt Spring Island Public Library, and she's going to tell us all about the Fab Lab. Okay, I'm here with Julia Wagner, who is a librarian at the Salt Spring Island Public Library, and we've just been talking about the Fab Lab, which I hadn't actually heard of at Ask Salt Spring. So Julia, just tell me a little bit about it. It's a fabrication laboratory, and you can make almost anything. That's basically the premise of it.

We launched our Fab Lab the summer before last, right at the end of summer, and our initial uptake was slow, but since that time, it's just compounded. It is very popular with every demographic and the number of things people are making and the kind of things people are making, it's just astounding. Yeah, and you've done things like, which I thought was fascinating,

a pop-up clinic for zucchini races. That's correct. for the fall fair. That's right. We basically made a little bit of a zucchini shop and the kids could bring their own zucchinis. Lots of people in the community donated zucchinis for kids to use. And then we did everything from little spoilers and racing fins to piloting different wheel types like CDs. Some people use CDs and then 3D printed wheels of various kinds as well, including those with treads and those without. Right. Now, the Fab Lab, it's supported by various grants from the Saltsboro Island Foundation, a federal government New Horizons for Seniors program, and the Wilding Foundation. So it's not funded by the library at all. That is correct.

Right. So we don't have to complain about our tax dollars going anywhere. Absolutely not. No, it's almost entirely funded these days in its current operation and including all of the programming by the Wilding Foundation. Right. And you've been able to purchase 3D printers, laser cutters, 3D scanners, software and vinyl cutters and all kinds of things, right? That's right. And that actually came from an initial grant from the Salt Spring Foundation. And we've expanded on our equipment since then just because there's so much use out of them. Now, for somebody who's got a broken part on their dishwasher or something, could they bring that in and possibly have it replaced? Well, say if it was like a little hinge bit or a closing bit or something like that, then definitely. We replace little plastic bits in all manner of things. We had someone recently whose faucet

had been broken by guests and it was just a small plastic bit where the handle met the fitting and we were able to replicate it. And sure enough, their faucet works now and they didn't have to go and buy a whole new one, which was wonderful. And I think you said that you'd also made a wheel for somebody's sliding patio door. That's correct. We saved them from having to replace their whole door

or something by trying again and again to get the wheel just right so that the door would slide and now it does and it slides like new and you can even make parts to repair 3d printers that's correct so our our prusa 3d printers actually have on them bits that were created by other 3d printers if ours were to break down we could do very much the same. And in fact, we have printed some parts for our 3D printer at this point. Right. That sounds fascinating. And yeah, you talked about some of the programs that you've started because of this.

Lego robotics, video game coding and design. This is aimed at the younger people, right? That's right. We have a strong educational contingent of programming that has come out of this Fab Lab. And it's teaching kids the basics of coding, but it's also just really fun. It's a wonderful introduction to technology and the logic of coding, but through

Lego. And who doesn't like Lego? Right, exactly. Now for grown-ups, they can come in and talk to your project manager, I guess, Matt, right? That's right. He's our Fab Lab facilitator. And he's wonderful because he's completely adaptable to whatever level of comfort, expertise, or complete lack of either of these things you may have when it comes to technology. He is there to support and guide. Or if you just are having a problem and you're hoping the fab lab can do something about it you can show you how that can be done um a thing that comes to mind is a recent fix that was done on a um on a blender type product lid and this lid was not something the person was interested in learning how to make.

They were interested in getting it fixed. So we did do a fix for that. And it was working okay. But that's when we realized that to make the lid exceptionally functional for the user, grips would improve it greatly. This person who was having a lot of trouble turning the replacement lid as they needed to, to remove it from the lid of the blender, when we added new sort of serrated grip points on that part, suddenly it was completely customized and useful for them

in a way that it wasn't before. Right. Now you talked about future expansion as a possibility. And one thing that I thought was fascinating was you were talking about costume design and the possibility of people being able to like Comic-Con or some of these very elaborate costuming type events. There would be foam smithing involved, you know, cutting through many layers of foam in order to craft, say, armor of some sort, if you were going to be a Mandalorian or something. Or besides the foam smithing, there's also an industrial sewing machine that would be on site for that and then also just regular domestic sewing machines so individuals can learn and you don't have to know anything you don't need know-how we will have people who have these skills available so that you can gain the skills. And these would be open to anyone from age 15 up. And I think we talked about shoes too, didn't we? There's a possibility that you could actually make shoes. That's right. Now this is still in development, but in the future, it's a really

real possibility that you will be making shoes as a possible project coming out of Fab Lab. Yeah, custom fit shoes would be wonderful. That's right. Yeah. Okay. And if people want to know more about this, how would they find out? They can email our Fab Lab technician, Matt, or they can email myself. So Matt can be reached at mtong at saltspringlibrary.com,

and I can be reached at jwagner at saltspringlibrary.com as well. Okay, well, thanks for coming in today. And this has been Ask Salt Spring Answered on cheer.fm. Thanks very much, Julia. Thank you.