She decided to pay a visit to Silicon Valley-based TechShop, one of the earlier “maker spaces,” as these tool-filled workspaces are called. TechShop, which has since expanded to several cities in California, New York, D.C., and elsewhere, offers a wide range of professional equipment which members can train on and use for just about any kind of project. It was where Square co-founder Jim McKelvey once built the first three protoypes for the Square card reader, and where a datacenter technology startup called Clustered Systems designed a prototype of a fanless liquid-cooling system which outperformed IBM in a “chill-off” contest.

You may not have heard about TechShop -- the playground of powerful tools and ideas where the "makers" hang out the other 363 days of the year. "I love being here in San Francisco on a Friday or Saturday night, because this is literally the most creative place in the city on those evenings," said TechShop CEO Mark Hatch, as he looked around at the bustling second floor workspace in San Francisco's South of Market neighborhood. TechShop also has [California] locations in Menlo Park and San Jose.

TechShop's mini-empire of social hackerspaces stands as a testament to the right idea at the right moment. It's the result of a whole lot of distinct elements congealing into a successful business model, including a membership fee that gains you access to the tools and classes to help you do just about anything yourself.

Billed as a Kinko’s for geeks or a 24-hour fitness center for makers, TechShop has brought its makers paradise to Pittsburgh ... Mark Hatch, TechShop’s CEO, is joined by Rich Lunak, president and CEO of Innovation Works and Jeff Thompson, president of the Product Management and Development Association, to discuss TechShop’s offerings and the impact this new location will have on Pittsburgh’s entrepreneurial community.

Even MakerBot has expanded its inventory and is preparing to release its 3D scanner into the consumer marketplace, while companies such as TechShop offer customers an opportunity to build their dreams.

One of the outlets with the biggest array of tools and classes is TechShop, and with a location right around the corner from Wired’s offices, we’re able to observe everything from woodworking to metal fabrication to musical-instrument making and more. At a recent TechShop course, staffers taught attendees how to make traditional acoustic guitars using carbon fiber, a surprising and particularly modern material, for the instrument’s backing shell, neck, and headstock.

If you walk into any of the TechShop locations, you will see a group of inventors building great things ... Building gadgets and products can be challenging, but scarcity of resources are no longer an issue. As the TechShop blackboard says: What would you make if you could make ANYTHING?

More and more people are looking at workshops skills to help them make a living. Many are going to a workshop community center called "TechShop" for help. TechShop in Allen Park was designed to provide access to resources to people who otherwise may not be able to afford to buy certain working equipment.

TechShop, which just opened in Round Rock, is similar in ways to the ATX Hackerspace but on an even bigger scale. Read our review of the TechShop here or, again, just head down to Create to talk to these friendly folks who have an amazing project space with serious tools.

Not only are hardware entrepreneurs leading the growing maker movement, but they are also getting noticed thanks to makerspaces like TechShop, a chain of workshops that provides members with affordable access to prototyping tools, classes and design software. Those same hardware inventions built at TechShop locations are also getting off the ground with outstanding funding support from crowd-funding sites like Kickstarter, showing that people crave hardware innovation to the point that they are paying for it en masse.

Frost & Sullivan's Manufacturing Leadership Council today honored 100 world-class manufacturing companies and individual leaders as winners of the 2013 Manufacturing Leadership 100 Awards (ML100 Awards). In a world of intensifying global competition and accelerating change, recipients of the ML100 Awards have distinguished themselves by embracing breakthrough innovation and enabling their companies to anticipate and respond to customers with unmatched agility ... Project Category: Manufacturing Entrepreneur - Jim Newton, TechShop ... Manufacturing Leadership 100 Award winners will be honored on May 15 at a gala celebration that follows the ninth annual Manufacturing Leadership Summit in Palm Beach, FL, a gathering of manufacturing leaders from around the world.

It’s not a nonprofit organization, or even an international entity yet, but I think it has an incredible niche in the future of global innovation and empowerment of the masses that I thought it would be something fascinating to mention to you all. What it is? It’s called TechShop ... TechShop is now a hub of innovation across the United States where a number of interesting inventions have been given birth.

In just a few minutes the scan was complete. Burrus emailed the file, and the next day — almost 6,000 miles away — I walked into a tech shop in Menlo Park, Calif., borrowed its 3-D printer, and NPR's very first action figure was produced ... Clay Lambert, who runs the Menlo Park tech shop, says making perfect copies of physical items has never been easier. "We are at the point now with physical objects that we were at with MP3s a decade ago..."

Next month – the newest location of TechShop will open right here in Pittsburgh. This is a big deal… 1. because TechShop is pretty cool place – I’ll get to that in a minute. 2. The fact that TechShop chose Pittsburgh for their next location speaks to the kinds of things that are happening with innovation, entrepreneurship, design and development in Pittsburgh.

Last week, we stopped by the TechShop to check out Lumio, a lamp that's masquerading as a book. While you could probably make one of your own with a few trips to IKEA, we're rather taken with the idea of toting one of these around in our bags.

With the future of reading heading squarely in the direction of electronic devices, what to do with the old timey book form? Build a lamp, of course. During a recent visit to the City by the Bay, we popped into the TechShop hackerspace and were introduced to Max Gunawan, the designer behind Lumio ... The product, developed in that very space, offers up a cool take on the desktop lamp, fitting it into a wooden, old timey-looking book form. Open it up and the pages fan out into what looks like a paper lantern.

[A replay of the CNN video on TechShop, featuring Founder Jim Newton.]

Another ‘maker’ open community, TechShop has pushed obstacles of entrepreneurship and technical innovation ... Experts volunteer mentoring and inventors or designers experiment with projects free from the restrictions traditional education and corporate R&D politics. The boyhood dreams while building Lego transpire into engineering realities ... If educators and schools could embrace more similar opportunities we could be preparing our students for the future much better than we do ... The open supportive creative diversity may also be part of the TechShop magic. Designing facility, capacity and support around access and flexible teaching and support by collaborative teams ... Maybe, somehow, we need more constructivist forms like TechShop?

I started folding paper models, and soon switched to full-scale plastic prototypes that I tested in the Bay and elsewhere ... first in a friend’s garage, then at Tech Shop in San Francisco. Tech Shop was a revelation: Its tools allowed me to build far better and faster, and the community got me thinking about the future of the Oru Kayak ... My advice: Nurture your passions and let them turn into obsessions. Find a way to work on them that’s tangible and gives you joy, even if you don’t know where it’s all headed. And don’t be shy about sharing your story as you go along. You’ll find help and encouragement all over the place, and you may even find a new community, as I did with Tech Shop.

"We are indeed seeing an explosion of growth and expanded interests around DIY as a result of the maker movement," says Clay Lambert, manager of the TechShop open-access workshop that opened in 2006 in Menlo Park. TechShop quickly expanded to San Jose, San Francisco and several sites across the country, with classes in everything from welding and woodworking to sewing and leather crafts. "DIY used to mean simply fixing or updating a small project on your own," he says. "Now, with greater access to tools, technology and training, it's about creating and innovating."

Created by San Franciscans David Covell, 37, and Aaron Jones, 32, the Hearth Lounge is the first in a line of heated outdoor furniture and an answer to insufficient heat lamps and fire pits ... Jones tinkered and tested at TechShop, the do-it-yourself fabrication workshop in SoMa, molding and shaving off concrete to ensure the lounge would be comfortable for all shapes and sizes.

Learn about TechShop coming to Pittsburgh from Chief Experience Officer Dan Woods. TechShop is a membership-based, do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio and will open its doors in March. Look for the full story in TEQ March 7! Enjoy the sneak peek!

Learn about TechShop coming to Pittsburgh from Chief Experience Officer Dan Woods.

I have a buddy living here in Austin, Jon Wolfe, who makes these beautiful little boxes from large acorns ... When TechShop recently opened its Austin-Round Rock location, Jon bought a membership, and made a deal with his wife that he would pay for it by selling stuff he made there.

Well, there's a place in Detroit called TechShop, and it functions a lot like a gym for carpenters, welders, designers, engineers and the like. TechShop is a new facility that recently opened up in Allen Park near Detroit ... "I want to see Detroiters change the world," [TechShop CEO Mark] Hatch said. "And I think they can.

“Enhancements to programs like the Employee Patent Incentive Awards encourage our team members to think outside the box for new solutions,” says Bill Coughlin, CEO, Ford Global Technologies. Invention submissions are up 60% since the launch of the enhanced invention incentives that included memberships to TechShop as an early award.

TechShop‘s newest store is now under construction in Pittsburgh’s Bakery Square. With our public opening planned for February, we want to hear from Pittsburgh area makers who’d love to help other makers and aspiring makers build their dreams. If you, or someone you know, would like to join our community as TechShop staff, see the contact information below

San Francisco has great groups like TechShop and Woodshop that let you get your craftsman on, but for the most part it's tough to find the space or time to build, say, new end tables.

Construction is underway for a brand new TechShop to open in Bakery Square in February 2013. The membership-based, do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio will give inventors access to over $1 million dollars worth of advanced machines and tools. Makers will gather to learn, build, weld, screenprint, and pursue any number of design hobbies together under one roof. Excitement for the workspace is growing ... [see video clip on future development of Bakery Square at end of article]

TechShop in north Raleigh is a real shop ... designed for teens and adults. Kids 12 and up can take many of the shop's classes and work on much of the equipment, though mostly under their parent or guardian's watchful eye ... TechShop also is perfect for creative, handy families with teens who have ideas and the interest in creating products and pieces, but need the tools to execute them. "If you have kids who want to get beyond that computer screen and into a hands-on situation, this may be just the thing," said Marie Taylor, a Raleigh mom.

When Anton Willis moved into an apartment in San Francisco and had to put his fiberglass kayak in storage, the architect began experimenting with a kayak that could fold up. He turned that idea into reality this year at TechShop, a three-story workshop in the city outfitted with 3-D printers, laser cutters and other sophisticated tools to develop products and prototypes ... Mr. Willis is just one of the entrepreneurs in the Bay Area's "maker" movement who are building physical products, a trend that has fueled the growth of TechShop and related endeavors.

TechShop Inc., a private company that provides space and high-tech machines to inventors and craftsmen, will open its Pittsburgh location in February. The Menlo Park, Calif. company said on Monday that it has started interior construction for the space in the Bakery Square development in Larimer.

Accidental entrepreneurship ... is a not uncommon outcome for folks who walk through [TechShop's] doors seeking to simply finish a one-off project ... The Bosavi headlamp came from a guy who walked into TechShop in September 2011 with no maker experience whatsoever. Now, he’s an inventor, entrepreneur, and TechShop instructor ... Around 60 percent of TechShop members end up looking at starting their own businesses ... in no small part due to the fact that all kinds of makers, from sewers and designers and papercrafters to welders and carpenters and painters, under a single roof. The cross-pollination effects are huge.

Mark Hatch feels a grand sense of mission about his job running TechShop, the growing national chain of workshops where members get access not only to costly industrial tools, but also to instructors and a community of people interested in building things.

TechShop employees seemed remarkable happy, stoked to be doing their jobs. Our tour guide's official job title is, "Dream Consultant" ... How close are these folks to the nexus where the boundaries of free play and work mesh into the beauty of invention? ... For those of you who have [mastered tools more complicated than the screwdriver and the hammer], TechShop will blow your mind. It is an unbelievable community resource.

[This Chronicle piece covering the Red Bull Flugtag includes a picture of Laura Stevenson from one of the two TechShop-related teams that were in the contest over the weekend.]

“I feel like I'm at the center of a revolution,” says Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, which has helped startups ... The iconic iPhone credit card swiper that launched payments startup Square Inc. to greatness was built not in a secret lab, but in a sort of clubhouse for aspiring inventors and entrepreneurs. The device was born in TechShop, the first of what has become a national chain of gymnasiums for product makers.

TechShop, a workshop touted as a place where people can build their dreams, celebrated an open house Oct. 19-21 at its first Round Rock location, the only TechShop to have a Lowe's store attached next door ... "World-changing, life-saving things will be done here at TechShop," [Founder Jim] Newton said. "The company is also involved with two programs, DARPA and G.E. Coalition, to help veterans get skills to work. Helping the community helps the entire country."

Today, with not much more than a 3D printer, a credit card, and an Internet connection, an aspiring entrepreneur can build a prototype on the desktop, ship off CAD drawings to get all of the parts built, and launch a business. Low-cost tools like MakerBots and Arduinos, membership-based prototyping facilities like TechShop, novel funding mechanisms like Kickstarter ... all make building, manufacturing, and marketing a new product within the reach of any inventor.

Mais la renaissance de Détroit ne s’arrête pas aux potagers. La culture des “Doer”, celle de l’apprentissage par le “faire”, s’est diversifiée, passant de l’agriculture à… tout le reste. Détroit redémarre et est en train de devenir la DIY City. Détroit et sa région accueille de nombreux lieux dédiés aux “makers” : i3detroit, Mt Elliott, the robotgarage (Lego et robotique), Omnicorp Detroit, TechShop ...
Translation: But the rebirth of Detroit does not stop at gardens. The "Doer Culture," devoted to making, has diversified from agriculture to ... everything else. Detroit is restarting and becoming the DIY City. Detroit and the surrounding region is home to many sites dedicated to "makers": i3detroit , Mt Elliott, the robotgarage (Lego and robotics), Omnicorp Detroit, TechShop ...

To provide veterans with opportunities for hands-on experience with the technology found in advanced manufacturing, GE is developing, with TechShop, training tracks for veterans in Detroit, Michigan; Raleigh, North Carolina; San Jose, California; Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C. and New York. Mark Hatch, CEO, TechShop said, “Many people have an outdated view of the skills required for jobs in today’s advanced manufacturing environment. Once they have a chance to discover modern prototyping and manufacturing processes and participate in a hands-on workshop they see the possibilities for channeling their creativity and interest in making things into a career.”

 Business Wire: Results of the ‘Voice of the Veterans’ survey were unveiled today as GE and the IVMF joined with business, digital, academic and not-for-profit partners to launch the Get Skills to Work coalition, aimed at bolstering the talent pipeline, enhancing American competitiveness and giving our nation’s veterans the skills and tools they need to compete for the jobs of the future. Coalition partners include The Manufacturing Institute, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Alcoa Inc. LinkedIn, Futures Inc., Atlantic Council, the Gary Sinise Foundation and TechShop.

If you've ever wanted to build something or had an idea, there's a new place in to check out. California-based TechShop has opened its first Texas location in Round Rock this month. Techshop is a membership-based workshop with the tools to make anything you can imagine ... "This is an area that is borne on innovation that totally gets the convergence of art and technology," Chief Experience Officer Dan Woods said. "Really, what TechShop is doing is fueling the birth and growth of small businesses and jobs."

A month ago something rare and refreshing happened in Detroit. David Kirkpatrick, author of “The Facebook Effect”, imported a vibrant assortment of tech titans into the Motor City for Techonomy ... In between sessions, I interacted with certified badasses like Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, and Danae Ringelmann, founder of Indiegogo. Both shared their thoughts on the changes surrounding Venture Capital, The JOBS Act, and the advent of crowd-funding.

A new $10 million federal program is bringing “hackerspaces” to high schools, the New York Times reports ... Darpa also awarded a $3.5 million grant to Techonomy favorite TechShop.(See TechShop’s Mark Hatch talk about the DIY economy at Techonomy Detroit .) The partnership will enable TechShop to open two new locations, and it gives Darpa employees access to TechShop equipment after the workshop closes to the public at midnight. As depicted in Erick Schonfeld’s recent article for Techonomy, TechShop is a space where gearheads and techies can build their most whimsical inventions—hardly a breeding ground for the military industrial complex.

Editor's note: Jim Newton’s full 30-minute profile airs on CNN’s “The Next List” this Sunday (Oct. 14, 2012) at 2 P.M. ET. He is the founder and chairman of TechShop, a a membership-based workshop for do-it-yourselfers that provides access to tools, equipment and instruction ... Why he matters: Newton is opening up a world of innovation by giving people the tools, the workspace and the confidence to make things they’ve always dreamed of making. He’s creating hubs for invention and creativity where people can come to inspire and be inspired.

In yet another stellar iteration of Story, Rachel Shechtman presents "Making Things," a temporary concept store focused on the act of creation. Part retail experience, part educational series, Story partnered with GE to debut "GE Garages," a community venture that hopes to provide professionals and novices alike with education on and access to advanced technologies. The center is enabled by TechShop—a member-based DIY workspace—and created in partnership with Skillshare, Quirky and MAKE. The collaborative effort sets out to support and nourish the growing community of technologists and entrepreneurs.

TechShop a développé pendant 6 ans une structure qui permet aux consommateurs de réinventer des produits pour leurs besoins et donc de franchir le cap long et onéreux du prototypage, le tout avec des outils rapides à un coût abordable ... La vision de ses fondateurs est que le TechShop est au coeur d’une nouvelle révolution industrielle des USA. Qu’attend l’Europe pour rentrer dans la course à la créativité ?

The Next List profiles Jim Newton, founder of Tech Shop, which is a creative hub that inspires fantastic inventions.

No longer is a ‘factory’ the basis of a company’s scale or speed of growth. Rapid Prototyping technologies like 3D printers, laser cutters, and shared workspaces like TechShop are democratizing innovation in the physical world of atoms.  

The various Inventor Associations in the State of Michigan are collaborating the First Statewide Networking Event to help facilitate idea generation on sharing a platform on how to better communicate and share information between all of the Michigan Inventor Groups. This unique new statewide networking event for Inventors and Entrepreneurs will make its debut in Allen Park, MI @ TechShop Detroit on October 6, 2012.

This year's winners are ... Mark Hatch, TechShop Inc. (Mark is #4 in the slide show. He will receive the award in November and the San Francisco Business Times will also be publishing profiles on all of the winners in that week's edition of the publication.)

David ten Have was invited to join a panel entitled The DIY Economy: The Democratization of Finance, Design, Manufacturing, and Distribution. Fellow panelists included Grady Burnett of Facebook, Mark Hatch of TechShop, and Danae Ringelmann of Indiegogo. The idea was to feature speakers that represent each stage in creating your own business. Funding (Indiegogo), prototyping (TechShop), manufacturing (Ponoko), and marketing (Facebook). You can watch the full 45 minute panel sessions in the video or read the transcript here.

Review of Wired editor-in-chief Chris Anderson's new book (release date Oct. 2, 2012), Makers: The New Industrial Revolution. "Enthusiasts have coalesced around these machines, much as hackers did around the early personal computer ... Broadly, they call themselves makers. They meet in collective workshops called maker spaces, such as Tech Shop, to share tools and expertise. Anderson, the editor-in-chief of Wired, knights these makers as future industrialists who will drive a new age of manufacturing."

After spending time at TechShop, I’ve realized that its amazing business model of fostering a creative community through shared resources has helped it become ground zero for many San Francisco start-ups. Whether the initial idea is to build the next super-computer or to tinker with an art project, TechShop is the place to turn dreams into tangible realities.

The various Inventor Associations in the State of Michigan are collaborating the First Statewide Networking Event to help facilitate idea generation on sharing a platform on how to better communicate and share information between all of the Michigan Inventor Groups. This unique new statewide networking event for Inventors and Entrepreneurs will make its debut in Allen Park, Mich. at TechShop Detroit& Oct. 6, 2012. 

This session from Techonomy Detroit focuses on how entrepreneurs develop the resources to finance, design, build, and distribute products, and how this this can ultimately lead to the creation of viable businesses and jobs. Panelists include Grady Burnett, Vice President of Global Marketing Solutions, Facebook; Mark Hatch, CEO, TechShop; Danae Ringelmann, Co-founder & COO, Indiegogo; and David ten Have, CEO, Ponoko. Techonomy’s Erick Schonfeld moderates.

... this is the most effective job creation program I have ever heard of. Every new business that has started as a new idea at TechShop has generated great income for the inventor and employment for dozens of people who are needed to staff the new business ... TechShop will change the course of the American economy by providing the tooling for inventors to get their ideas to market quicker and more cost effectively than ever before.

Detroit has become notorious as a symbol of the decline of American manufacturing, but in recent years its tech start-up scene has been quietly attracting attention and generating renewed optimism. Entrepreneurship accelerator Bizdom offers seed funding to local tech startups. The Silicon Valley innovation incubator TechShop set up a Detroit outpost to give locals access to industrial tools and equipment to build their own products. And investors such as Detroit Venture Partners are financing tech-focused efforts.

Detroit has also become home to an outpost of TechShop, the Silicon Valley innovation incubator where people of all skill levels can use industrial tools and equipment to build their own products.

Detroit is now home to an outpost of TechShop, the Silicon Valley innovation incubator where people of all skill levels can use industrial tools and equipment to build their own products. Meanwhile, entrepreneurship accelerator Bizdom offers seed funding to help grow innovate, tech-based local startups.

Detroit is now home to an outpost of TechShop, the Silicon Valley innovation incubator where people of all skill levels can use industrial tools and equipment to build their own products. Meanwhile, entrepreneurship accelerator Bizdom offers seed funding to help grow innovate, tech-based local startups.

I have spent some time at the TechShop in Dearborn, MI. Words can't even begin to describe how awesome the place is.

Which is why perhaps the most intriguing bet on the of mainstreaming maker-ness is a small chain called TechShop, which aspires to become a “Kinko’s for geeks” ... Square, the now-well-known maker of a smartphone-compatible credit-card reader, made its final prototype in the Menlo Park TechShop. The creator of a time-lapse camera add-on called eMotimo makes his product in another TechShop. The founders of Blocklets, which sells snap-together wood-and-acrylic pieces for making Lego-like sculptures and forms, worked out their prototypes on the Raleigh outlet’s laser cutter. Recently, a column on Forbes.com argued that Radio Shack should save itself by in effect emulating TechShop.

TechShop gives users access to high-end manufacturing equipment and software ... Areas such as machining, laser, electronics, and industrial-painting sit off a large central workspace ... The studio has spring boarded several small businesses.

TechShop, founded by Jim Newton, gives designers and inventors access to high-end machine tools. Among the companies born there: Karatstix, a maker of bamboo knitting supplies, and Solum, which makes a soil-testing device ... If you join TechShop, you don’t just get to glean from experience and expertise; together with mentoring and advice from engineers that like to help out, you get access to any of the machines you might need to create your bright idea.

TechShop CEO - and former Green Beret - Mark Hatch deconstructs the Maker movement. TechShop in San Jose, Menlo Park and San Francisco, is a "gym" for tool lovers to work out their inventive muscles.

TechShop will open a workshop in April 2013. With over $1 million in tools, machinery, software, Internet access and work spaces, this nationwide chain opens its member-based workshop in the ASU Chandler Innovation Center.

The world’s fastest electric motorcycle — top speed 218 mph — was built at TechShop. So was President Obama’s iPad case, the prototypes for Square, the smartphone dongle that businesses can use to swipe credit cards and a host of other Kickstarter projects. TechShop is a national chain of membership-based do-it-yourself fabrication workshops that provide access to professional equipment and expert advice for a monthly fee.

A do-it-yourself subculture focused on technology, dubbed the Maker Movement, is making its way to downtown Chandler. In April, the California-based nationwide chain TechShop plans to open one of its member-based workshops and fabrication studios in the ASU Chandler Innovation Center at 249 E. Chicago St.

Apparently ASU is opening a DIY TechShop in Chandler. Basically it sounds as if they will have welders and other things to use, for a fee of course. Hopefully it will have some goodies to make stuff. It's definately good if they have something you need rarely or occasionally, or if you dont have any room or money to buy things like a welder like me.

OpenROV, a mini submarine developed in a Silicon Valley garage, has been hailed by the world’s media as the key to unlocking the earth’s last frontier ... “At the outset, we thought this might be a great project to discover underwater caves that are too small for divers,” said Lang ... at open-access workshop TechShop in San Francisco, where he and Stackpole make their parts ... The TechShop chain is a recent addition to the Bay Area, and is a paradise for hardware geeks. For $100 per month, anyone can access high-tech equipment such as 3-D printers. Classes taught at one of the TechShop hacker spaces include Welding 101 .... At TechShop, Lang learned how to build robots and work with machines in less than six months.

Arizona State University has entered into an agreement that will bring TechShop, a do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio, to downtown Chandler ... The TechShop workshop at the Chandler Innovation Center will bring more than $1 million worth of equipment to the downtown area, furthering the entrepreneurial and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) projects in the area, including Gangplank.

The American-based TechShop stores allow curious entrepreneurs, artists, students, thinkers and craftsmen to explore a plethora of tech tools. Band saws and drill presses are only some of the machinery made available to the public here, allowing talent to flourish and develop in unprecedented ways ... Hatch’s dedicated following will only to continue to bring about even greater engineering breakthroughs.

TechShop, the membership-based DIY workshop with five locations around the country, has announced an academic partnership with Arizona State University and will open a new TechShop in Chandler, AZ later this year ... Students taking classes at the Center will be offered free memberships at the new TechShop and discounted memberships will be offered to other students and faculty.

TechShop, the membership-based DIY workshop with five locations around the country, has announced an academic partnership with Arizona State University and will open a new TechShop in Chandler, AZ later this year. Chandler is about 20 miles southeast of Phoenix and its Chandler Innovation Center includes a city-funded technology incubator and Arizona State’s College of Technology and Innovation ... Classrooms not in use by the college will be available for TechShop programs.

TechShop, a membership-based, do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio with locations nationwide, has reached agreement on terms that will bring TechShop to the ASU Chandler Innovation Center, giving Arizona State University students and Chandler-area makers, entrepreneurs and innovators access to a wide range of machinery, tools and software to turn their ideas into reality.

TechShop, a membership-based, do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio with locations nationwide, has reached agreement on terms that will bring TechShop to the ASU Chandler Innovation Center, giving Arizona State University students and Chandler-area makers, entrepreneurs and innovators access to a wide range of machinery, tools and software ...

TechShop, a membership-based, do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio with locations nationwide, has reached agreement on terms that will bring TechShop to the ASU Chandler Innovation Center, giving Arizona State University students and Chandler-area makers, entrepreneurs and innovators access to a wide range of machinery, tools and software ...

In the latest episode of Always On, I ventured into the world of 3D printing to attempt to print my own, custom iPhone ... I went to the TechShop in San Francisco and tackled my first-ever 3D printing project ... At places like TechShop in San Francisco, people can use communal 3D printers with the help of an expert.

Recently there has been a trend where collective spaces for makers have been opening up. They're sort of like gym clubs for folks who like to build. Tell us a little about makerspaces in the Detroit area? -- TechShop just opened last December. 

In Dearborn, Michigan, part of metro Detroit, The Henry Ford, which presents the stories of American innovation, ingenuity, and resourcefulness—past, present, and future—will be hosting an event this weekend that epitomizes what not being bored and making something means—Maker Faire Detroit. This unique form of a science fair—a two-day celebration of curiosity, wonderment, inventiveness, and hands-on making—will include 450 makers from Michigan and around the United States.

In the back of San Francisco’s TechShop on Friday afternoon sat a heap of old parts: partially assembled bikes, pipes, gears, chains, grinders, sheet metal, helmets, plywood, rods, cables, and even empty fire extinguishers ... At the time, the 8-or-so members of team TechShop were just 20 hours into the second annual Red Bull Creation, a 72-hour maker competition with a $10,000 prize.

Think of it as the world’s coolest science fair - Red Bull Creation asked makers, inventors, and hackers to participate in a 72-hour frenzy of innovation, madness and ingenuity ... One of those teams, TechShop, from San Francisco, a member-based workshop existing in a dreamland of tools and machines, and inspiring collaboration from a variety of fields, are an experiment gone right.

Sometimes the only thing that will get the job done is a fully equipped metalworking shop with a 32 square foot CNC machine. But those things cost a fortune, and who has room for one, anyway? TechShop does ... TechShop is a group of workshops with tons of equipment, capable instructors, and a community of like-minded builders. On a given day in the shop, you'll find people restoring motorcycles, fabricating prototypes, making furniture, sandblasting salvaged metal—just about anything, really.

How will we turn these designs into products? By “printing” them at home or at modern-day Kinko’s: shared public manufacturing facilities such as TechShop, a membership-based manufacturing workshop, using new manufacturing technologies that are now on the horizon.

About six minutes into the video, Michael Eisenberg mentions TechShop in the interview about innovation economies.

“We describe our members as five basic categories: hobbyists, entrepreneurs, artists, tinkerers, and students,” said CEO Mark Hatch. Whatever category they fall into, all members have the opportunity to receive training on a wide variety of machines and tools, and then subsequently use them at their local TechShop.

How will we turn these designs into products? By "printing" them at home or at modern-day Kinko's -- shared public manufacturing facilities such as TechShop, a membership-based manufacturing workshop, using new manufacturing technologies that are now on the horizon.

On a recent afternoon the team was working on SkyCube at TechShop Menlo Park, a workshop popular with geeks and tinkerers that allows access to machinery and electronic test equipment for a monthly fee.

Do you have a great idea for a fun, inventive, maybe even world-changing product, but you don't yet have all the tools or the skill set needed to bring it to life? Step into TechShop and you can make it happen! Electronic Design's Bill Wong visited the TechShop located in Detroit, MI, and got the scoop on their membership-based workshop and skill-building programs from General Manager Will Brick.

TechShop is coming to Pittsburgh. This will be a great addition to Pittsburgh’s DIY / Hacker culture – which has a slightly different flavor in Pittsburgh because – unlike the big coastal cities that are ‘rediscovering’ the idea of building stuff – Pittsburgh is a city that never stopped thinking of itself as working, industrial city.

If you haven’t heard of TechShop before, it is a membership-based workshop that provides members with access to shop tools and equipment, instruction, and a community of creative and supportive people so they can build the things they have always wanted to make. Seriously such a fabulous idea! TechShop has five different locations throughout the United States, and is rapidly growing.

TechShop is where your ideas become reality, even if you lack the tools at home or skill base to build your ideas. It is a place the ensures everyone has a shot at making something themselves ... TechShop makes it possible for anyone to make pretty much anything. And we mean anything.

“Our goal is to get as many OpenROVs out into the world as we can,” said David Lang, the co-founder of a new underwater robot (or “ROV,” remotely operated vehicle) [developed at TechShop] ... To meet their goal of robotic ubiquity, Lang and his partner, Eric Stackpole, share the prototype plans on their website and will soon sell out-of-the-box OpenROV kits. (Make a big donation to the project on their Kickstarter page and they’ll send you one of the first kits available.)

Using the Arduino open source software development platform and machining the parts at TechShop, a membership-based club for makers and tinkerers, Stackpole and Lang have created an OpenROV kit that they’re selling on Kickstarter.

After the sessions we had dinner and explored TechShop. HOLY CRAP! These people get paid to work there?! ... I hope to visit the TechShop office in San Francisco soon!

This week Dave and Rob bring you highlights from the "Go Further with Ford" 2012 ... Mark Hatch, CEO – TechShop ...

Creativity. It’s what gives us new products and time saving ideas. Sometimes, those ideas need to be helped along. A place like TechShop is one of those places. Letting you create prototype so it can get the chance to go to market.

A new collaborative ethos has emerged, creating a culture that attracts and develops people who want to help each other and are good at working together, a sort of brains trust for 21st century entrepreneurs. Take TechShop, the brainchild of Jim Newton, a Californian inventor who wondered what would happen if machines needed for rapid prototyping – laser cutters, 3D printers, lathes, drill presses, injection moulds – could be put in the hands of inventors.

Trend #5 is DIY. We spent an evening at TechShop – the dream workshop shared space for anyone who wants to create anything. We made sandblasted glass mugs, custom pewter jewelry, silk screening and high-pressured waterjet demo. The CEO of TechShop, Mark Hatch, said they are opening one in Brooklyn at Jay Street Metrotech soon.

So what are TechShops? About what you might expect, a shop where there are a lot of tech tools that you can use, but this is not your typical garage shop. They have everything from Flow Waterjet Cutters (Fig. 2 and Fig. 3) to the latest CAD tools from Autodesk's AutoCAD.

You may have heard a few WGNC members refer to TechShop, the member-based do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio off Route 70 near Rt 540. They have a well equipped wood shop -- now with a full-size Powermatic 4224 lathe -- as well as metal working and other tools you might love to get your hands on.

“It’s a very exciting time for us at Ford,” Mulally said during an event Tuesday night at TechShop Detroit for Ford’s annual trend conference ... TechShop Inc. CEO Mark Hatch, who also spoke at the event, said the reason the shop opened in Metro Detroit was thanks to the automaker.

We'll start showing Session 4: Globality of TED Global promptly at noon on Wednesday, June 27th. Bring your lunch and join us in the Conference Room at TechShop in San Jose.  

Innovators, executives, entrepreneurs, academics and thought leaders from technology, business, government and design will assemble at Wayne State University on September 12, 2012, to discuss the far-reaching potential of technology-enabled change to accelerate economic, urban and social progress. Confirmed speakers include: -- Jack Dorsey, inventor of Twitter and founder of payments company Square -- Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist -- Steve Case, co-founder of AOL and Revolution Capital -- Vivek Kundra, EVP of Emerging Markets, salesforce.com and former CIO of the United States -- Richard N. Bolles, author of job-hunting bible What Color is Your Parachute? -- Carlo Ratti, director of MIT's SENSEable City Lab -- Catherine Kelly, publisher of The Michigan Citizen -- Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop ...

North of Nine Communications, the San Francisco-based innovation communications boutique, announced today that TechShop has selected the firm as public relations agency of record ... North of Nine will partner with TechShop to support corporate and executive awareness and influencer relation programs as the brand expands its national presence.

TechShop, a membership-based do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio, has hired North of Nine Communications as AOR.nTechShop's goal is to provide consumers with the tools and space they need to invent “the next big thing,” said Carrie Motamedi, director of PR and marketing communications at the company.

Lemnos gives each business $50,000 in exchange for a 10 percent stake and a sprawling office in San Francisco’s tech-friendly South of Market district, located near a TechShop, where engineers can use industrial-strength machinery for the work that can’t be done using the tools Lemnos provides.

Shared workspaces let you learn new skills and wield expensive tools. These are some of the largest and most active. TECHSHOP: Each of TechShop’s five 15,000-square-foot locations contains more than $1 million in prototyping equipment and software. Its 3,000-plus members include entrants in the Google Lunar X Prize and the makers of the fastest electric motorcycle.

Or you might run into the Rushing brothers at TechShop Detroit, where they will be clad in spandex as they build their own American Gladiators Assault Course.

TechShop, the perfect father's day gift for the man who doesn't have everything as in powerful, industrial-grade tools. The Menlo Park-based workshop is coming to Pittsburgh, bringing with it a playground of heavy duty tools for artists, craftspeople and entrepreneurs of all genders.

TechShop, the perfect father's day gift for the man who doesn't have everything as in powerful, industrial-grade tools. The Menlo Park-based workshop is coming to Pittsburgh, bringing with it a playground of heavy duty tools for artists, craftspeople and entrepreneurs of all genders.

Collaboration creates community. Fearless sharing creates community. We will serve the community. People want to create and contribute. Maker communities encourage this contribution. Maker and hackerspaces, places like TechShop ... and many other co-working spaces are fueling this exchange.

TechShop is a community workshop that works kind of like a gym membership. You pay a monthly fee, and in return you get access to a plethora of tools and space to make almost anything you want ... In addition to the pictures above, they also have plastic forming equipment, an electronics lab, and a sand-blasting/powder coating area. This gallery contains 15 photos.

A 2-day workshop on (musical) Hardware Hacking with composer, instrument builder and DIY advocate Nicolas Collins. 

TechShop -- a "maker" workshop -- offers access to professional saws, sanders, welding gear, laser cutters and more, while hosting a dizzying array of shop classes at SanFrancisco, Menlo Park and San Jose branches.

TechShop, which opened in San Jose last year, is a do-it-yourself membership club offering a workshop filled with high-tech woodworking, metal shop, sewing and other tools ... TechShop also offers classes, camaraderie and advice.

"I left my 9-to-5 job at Apple," said Youngblood, a 35-year-old San Jose TechShop member. "Inside me, I just wanted to build things." Those are precisely the type of folks TechShop aims to serve -- creative people cradling an idea but needing equipment, expertise or space to build.

As far as Cinderella stories go, it doesn't get much better than Patrick Buckley's DODOcase. The chic, bamboo iPad covers went from an idea ignited by the announcement of the first iPad in 2010 to sitting on President Obama's desk in a Huffington Post photo near the end of 2011. Today, you can not only purchase a DODOcase iPad cover on the company website, but also at J. Crew. In this entrepreneurial fairytale, a new kind of workshop incubator called TechShop played the role of the Fairy Godmother.

Think Menlo Park, Edison’s celebrated idea hatchery in New Jersey, with contemporary manufacturing tools and membership privileges. That’s TechShop, a California-based franchise that aims to serve the guy who has outgrown building bird houses as well as the restless would-be inventor who needs a milling machine to test out his idea. Six years after the business started in another Menlo Park, TechShops are beginning to appear across the country.

The new entity will capitalize on a partnership between Ford, TechShop, AutoHarvest Foundation and TechTown to create another pipeline of start-ups in the region. The bottom line is to connect people with ideas for new technologies and products with the tools they need to commercialize them.

While all of this incredibly ambitious, Ford announced two new initiatives to help foster growth: The Motor City Innovation Exchange: A collaboration between Ford, TechShop Detroit, Wayne State University’s TechTown and AutoHarvest. Its goal is to help entrepreneurs commercialize various creations. This program will also have a showroom so various entrepreneurs can exhibit their innovations to industry peers ...

Automotive maker Ford Motor Co. is the latest company to set aside a bias toward “not invented here” ideas with the creation of several programs intended to support inventors and entrepreneurs that don’t happen to work on its payroll. The programs include a concept called the Motor City Innovation Exchange, which is a collaboration between Ford, the TechShop Detroit (a workshop and fabrication studio where inventors can work on ideas) ...

Mark Hatch, a former Green Beret with an M.B.A. from the Drucker School at Claremont College, is bringing the new manufacturing capabilities to almost anyone. His six-year-old TechShop chain, which he dubs “Kinko’s for geeks,” is a locus for tinkerers building iPad cases and desktop machines that can crank out diamonds on demand.

Two initiatives were also announced: the Motor City Innovation Exchange, which provides a showroom for innovators to show off their creations; and the Jump Start Program, which offers start-up suites with space located near TechShop to provide discounted work space and support for members ready to grow their business.

TechShop is a playground for hobbyists and inventors during the day. But at midnight, it could turn into a place where workers from the Defense Department's ultrasecretive technology development engine tinker behind closed doors.

If you’ve ever wanted to build your own product, but didn’t know where to start then you need to check out TechShop. I interviewed Michael Madsen who designed and built his own 4 bay iPad charger thanks in part to the tools and skills available through TechShop.

Integration of communications and vehicle technologies can help Michigan address issues with urban mobility. Creation of more high-tech jobs could make Michigan the the Silicon Valley of mobility. The company has announced a partnership with TechTown, AutoHarvest and TechShop called as the Motor City Innovation Exchange for encouraging entrepreneurs and innovators in Michigan.

If you don't know about TECH Shop, CHECK IT OUT! Learn how to use Laser Cutters, anodizing, welding, sandblasting, and all kinds of machine tool technologies. CAD (Computer Aided Design) CAM Computer Aided Manufacturing, CNC Mills, vinyl cutters and more are all at your disposal.

One new initiative is the Motor City Innovation Exchange, a collaboration among Ford's intellectual property licensing group, the new TechShop Detroit workshop, Wayne State University's TechTown and AutoHarvest to help entrepreneurs commercialize their creations. It provides a showroom to display and pitch inventions.

Coughlin says the concept was not only something he had never seen before, it was something he had never even thought of. That’s the kind of outside innovation that Ford has made it a priority to seek out, as evidenced by its recent partnership with TechShop in Allen Park, MI and its focus on reaching out to entrepreneurs outside the automotive sector.

Top blog of the day: TechShop video, TechShop Member Stories. (Blogger's interests include sustainable technologies in the developing world and paradigm breaking technologies in general. Timbuktu Chronicles seeks to spur dialogue in areas of entrepreneurship, technology and the scientific method as it impacts Africa.)

As promised, the partnership between ITU and TechShop is oozing with creative surprises. Students in Marina Christodoulides’s course, Manufacturing Cinematic Space, were given the opportunity to create their final projects using state-of-the-art tools at TechShop.

Ford Land also announced the Jump Start Program, which offers startup suites, including space located near TechShop, to provide flexible, discounted work space and support for TechShop members who are ready to grow their businesses.

The Dearborn automaker is expected to announce today the creation of Motor City Innovation Exchange, a collaboration between Ford, TechShop Detroit, AutoHarvest and TechTown to support entrepreneurship. And Ford is in the process of opening an office ...

The shop is part of Menlo Park, Calif.-based TechShop Inc. and is part of a collaboration between TechShop, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). TechShop is a membership based group that has facilities in California, North Carolina and Michigan. In addition to the Pittsburgh location the group is also adding Washington, D.C., to its list of sites.

Great, right? What is really cool is that the designs can be downloaded and taken to a local TechShop, where the designs can be cut into cardboard sheets and assembled. This gives the designer the experience of seeing his or her designs in physical form.

“We are heading in the right direction to grow Michigan by putting the right policies in place and investing in Michigan’s future.” The two new initiatives include the Motor City Innovation Exchange, which is a collaboration between Ford, TechShop Detroit, Wayne State University’s TechTown and AutoHarvest to help entrepreneurs commercialize their creations.

Ford is working to encourage entrepreneurship and innovation in the business and design communities. It began with the creation of their cutting-edge TechShop, which gives Ford’s employees access to high-tech resources and material for design and creation.

But, says Hatch, there’s no reason for regular TechShop members to hide out and spy on the DARPA team. "There’s nothing secret about the activity" ... No, the DARPA staff simply wants what other TechShop members enjoy--the chance to use plasma cutters, welders, 3-D printers, and any number of other tools to perfect their projects. They won’t get any special equipment; just what TechShop normally offers ... While rapid manufacturing of military vehicles may not actually improve our daily lives, some of the other projects coming out of the new TechShop locations may one day be able to do just that.

Ford also touted TechShop Detroit, an Allen Park invention accelerator created by a San Francisco entrepreneur and brought to Michigan by Ford. And he announced the Motor City Innovation Exchange, a collaboration between Ford Motor Co., TechShop Detroit, AutoHarvest and TechTown to encourage Michigan innovators and entrepreneurs by offering affordable work/hacker space and support ...

What's most interesting about Maker Faire is the enabling technologies and the organisations. There's something about the democratisation of sophisticated tooling through places likeTechShop that's liberating ideas and innovation in ways that we really couldn’t imagine.

The two new initiatives include the Motor City Innovation Exchange, which is a collaboration between Ford, TechShop Detroit, Wayne State University's TechTown and AutoHarvest to help entrepreneurs commercialize their creations.

As the price continues to drop on 3-D printers, TechShops spring up across the country and VCs start getting interested, the “maker movement” or “DIY movement” is gaining steam. (See the accompanying slide show of TechShop members and CEO Mark Hatch.)

Ford has provided an intellectual home to innovation for more than a century, and now is taking their penchant for the creation of intellectual property into the field via the Motor City Innovation Exchange, TechShop and Jump Start.

The Motor City Innovation Exchange is a partnership between Ford Motor Company, Wayne State University's Tech Town, AutoHarvest and Tech Shop Detroit. Inventors will get help in bringing their ideas to the public.

Conditions are improving for hardware startups, venture capital aside. Low-cost manufacturing facilities in Asia are more accessible to startups in particular, thanks to U.S. prototyping facilities such as TechShop.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) might not be ready to set up a booth at the next Maker Faire, but the agency is heading in that direction. DARPA’s new Adaptive Vehicle Make program has just teamed up with TechShop, a maker-friendly chain of shared workshops, to collaborate on a test bed for developing advanced new manufacturing technologies.

TechShop, the California-based hacker/makerspace which just opened its first Detroit location. The Exchange, says Ford Global Technologies' CEO William Coughlin, “will be an open meeting place that will enable inventors to showcase what they create in TechShop ..."

TechShop Inc., based in Menlo Park, Calif., will use a $3.5 million investment by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, to add centers at unspecified locations in the Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., areas, said Carrie Motamedi, a TechShop spokeswoman.

TechShop is one of the most amazing commercial membership-based makerspaces in existence. I recently wrote about their partnership with Ford in Detroit on Forbes and am amazed at their growth plans. If you've seen the Square credit card reader,  you’ve seen one of the products prototyped in a TechShop. 

Instead of being built in a factory, OpenROV’s chassis is constructed using laser cutter machines that Mr. Stackpole pays to use at San Francisco’s TechShop, a community tool-share and clubhouse for tech wizards and designers in the South of Market neighborhood of San Francisco. 

It’s Friday! That means it’s time for our weekly Storify wrapping up the week on Ideas@Innovations ... Thursday: In other news, DARPA posted a press release detailing their collaboration with TechShop. It's looking like D.C. is going to get a TechShop of our very own (and DARPA's) ...

The first prototype of the Square, a device that turns smartphones and tablets into credit-card readers, came out of TechShop.

Now, thanks to a new collaboration between DARPA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and TechShop, a test-bed will exist to examine new methods and various approaches to creating an effective iFAB. At the same time, the facilities provide a space for innovators to access industrial tools, training and equipment needed to pursue their own ‘make’ ideas without the need for affiliation with a large manufacturer.

In addition, TechShop ( www.techshop.ws ), a membership-based workshop that provides access to tools, equipment, and instruction, will host Geek Dad events in San Jose, San Francisco, Menlo Park, Raleigh, and Detroit. 

So he did what a lot of Silicon Valley geeks do: He went to a TechShop. The TechShop chain is a paradise for people who like to make things. The average facility runs about 17,000 square feet and has all manner of apparatus, from Industrial Age staples such as sewing machines, metal lathes, and mills to $200,000 computer-controlled contraptions that can cut precise patterns out of slabs of metal. 

When or if I need more building material, I may buy it from the Jergensons, or I could make it myself at a place like TechShop. 

The DIY movement is joining forces with the Pentagon. DARPA, the highly secretive Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, is partnering with TechShop to continue work on iFab, a turn-on-a-dime factory that would allow the government to quickly and seamlessly create parts and products as needed.

Our largest untapped apparatus for creation and a flourishing economy is not solar or breeze power. It’s not amicable networking or electric vehicles. It is many millions of people who have the giveaway time, disposable income, belief and passion compulsory to make things.

Our largest untapped resource for innovation and a growing economy is not solar or wind power. It’s not social networking or electric vehicles. It is the many millions of people who have the free time, disposable income, knowledge and passion required to make things. Or at least, that’s what Tech Shop CEO Mark Hatch explained to a packed house of computer hobbyists, DIY fans and makers of all stripes at the seventh annual Maker Faire in San Mateo, Calif., on Saturday, May 19.

Mark Hatch, the CEO of TechShop, was up next, talking about what happens when you democratize access to the tools of innovation. TechShop is a shared workspace that gives Makers access to tools that would normally be out of reach.

“What happens when you give the tools of the industrial revolution to the creative class, for the cost of a bad coffee addiction?” asked Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, of TechShop, a company that offers its members access to workspaces armed with industrial-strength toolsets. Then he reeled off some impressive examples ...

Will this be a huge market or another .COM bubble? I’m not qualified to say. For now, I’m enjoying the TechShops and the Ponokos and the ShopBots and the Local Motors and what they are doing. If you work in traditional design and manufacturing, you better keep your eyes open. 100,000 new thinkers that leave here today are going to have an impact on something.

Conor Landenberger will be spending most of Saturday building a bamboo bike in the TechShop Pavilion. Stop by and say hello if you’re in the Expo Hall!

Follow Ford Motor Company’s example and build a TechShop. Yes, I know there’s two nearby, but take all those 25,000, put them on notice, and give them six months to invent your way out of this hole. Here is just a snippet of what the recent launch of TechShop Detroit means for Ford.

With all that in mind, take a read on the article and videos below about Ford Motor Company and the innovative TechShop in Detroit. Employees are allowed to access the facilities whenever they want and to work on their own projects. Perks are even given out to potential windfall projects that could be used on new vehicles.

Making new stuff from old stuff now has a name—upcycling—and an army of ingenious practitioners ... And thanks to places like Etsy, Kickstarter, and SoMa’s TechShop San Francisco work space, it’s never been easier to play around and earn some money besides.

Making new stuff from old stuff now has a name—upcycling—and an army of ingenious practitioners. A rags-to-cashmere overview of the zeitgeistiest design trend around.

Before he invented the assembly line, Henry Ford built his first prototype on a workbench in a shed. More than a century later, his company has partnered with TechShop, Detroit, the 21st-century equivalent of that shed, with a bold program to ignite innovation in the company.

 The fella’ and I are super excited to start taking classes at TechShop. We paid the San Francisco shop a visit the other day, and a very friendly guy showed us around the metal shop, wood shop, computer labs, work tables, sewing machines, laser cutters, 3D printers and so much more jaw-dropping coolness. It’s almost overwhelming how much can be at your disposal with a membership ...

Every kid needs a place to play, to unwind, to let their imagination run free, and the tools and tutoring necessary to brings those dreams to reality.

Sometimes US automakers get it right. TechShop Detroit, a recent addition to Ford's Dearborn product development campus, is the perfect example. Although originally from California, TechShop is a DIY workshop business which offers a wide array of cutting edge (pun intended) tools to paying members. And the best part: Ford is working closely with TechShop to incentivze employee inventions to bolster the automaker's patent portfolio.

The ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday at the grand opening of TechShop was unlike others. The ribbon was not made of cloth, but steel. Instead of a giant pair of scissors to snip it in two, the ribbon-cutters — Randy Visintanier, director of Ford Motor Co. research and innovation, and U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-15th District) — donned safety goggles and used a plasma cutter.

This idea is so good, I can't believe that it hasn't been done before. Well, I guess it has, but never on this scale, and with this quality. Here's to hoping they put one in Dallas, TX. Wonder if they'll do club memberships?

TechShop just opened the country's newest TechShop location, and ShopBot Tools — a technology supplier and sponsor of TechShop and the maker movement — was on hand to celebrate TechShop's establishment in the Motor City.

Ford hopes its involvement with the recently opened TechShop here will inspire employees to come up with the next automotive innovation and provide a new revenue stream for the company.

Ford is offering a three month free membership to employees who submit ideas for invention to TechShop as a part of their plan to tap ideas and innovations from among their employees.

TechShop Detroit gives Ford employees a place to invent by offering access to both tools and a collaborative space. Ford Global Technologies is offering an Employee Patent Incentive Award program so that inventors get a free three-month membership to TechShop Detroit for submitting an invention worthy of patent consideration.

TechShop Detroit opened last week. TechShop is the do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio, based in Menlo Park, California and opening workshops around the USA.

As TechShop Detroit celebrated its grand opening last weekend, Ford announced a new employee incentive program at the makerspace designed to encourage the next generation of Henry Fords by unleashing their inner inventors. 

When it comes to inventing things, where would you be without a spanner, monkey wrench and a lathe? TechShop, America’s first nationwide open access workshop, provides its members with free use of a vast array of design and fabrication tools to build the things they’ve always wanted to.

Detroit TechShop had its grand opening in Allen Park, Mich. on Friday, May 4, 2012. This shop was planned to be the 39th one built, but through the persistence of Ford Motor Company, it came to life today with the cutting of a steel ribbon.

This week the management and staff have been working around the clock to complete a major upgrade to the Menlo Park Techshop...

Some companies cater lunch on Fridays. Some throw in gym memberships or childcare or chair massages. Not Ford. These guys are going big: They’re giving invention-focused employees TechShop memberships ...

TechShop, a membership-based, do-it-yourself workshop and fabrication studio, was awarded the 2012 Innovator of the Year award at the recent Dearborn Chamber of Commerce’s annual Business  recognition Awards Ceremony & Expo (BRACE).

Innovation space will allow inventors to learn valuable skills, access high tech machinery for only $99/month.

TechShop Detroit will give Ford employees, plus all Metro Detroiters, access to classes, coaching and state-of-the-art tools to turn ideas into reality. 

TechShop Detroit is finally a reality, after its grand opening today in Allen Park next to the Detroit Lions training facility and headquarters. Part fabrication shop, part vocational training facility, the TechShop idea was started in 2006 in Menlo Park, California ...

We stopped by the San Francisco codeathon taking part at TechShop and spoke to astronaut Ron Garan and Willow Brugh from Geeks Without Bounds – SF’s location lead about their involvement with the project. You can check out the 200 + solutions here.

The brainchild of Jim Newton, TechShop is a membership-based workshop where your ideas can become a reality. Think of it as a gym-membership for your mind, with the tools and equipment for the tech savvy and the tech-savvy-in-need-of-assistance.

I'm not sure I can adequately explain the purpose, scope and potential of a new venture taking shape in Allen Park, but I sense that it's important, so here goes: It starts with TechShop Detroit, a collaborative work space chock full of tools for woodworking, welding, machining, plasma- and laser-cutting.

Laser cutting, machine sewing, wood-working – they're some of the skills used to build today's latest tech product. And more and more entrepreneurs are getting hands-on training to make their ideas a reality. Mark Hatch, CEO of TechShop, talks to SmartPlanet correspondent Sumi Das about what is being called the Maker Movement.

Vid from Monocle on the Maker movement: “Today in the Bay Area, tech rules ...”

The ultimate DIY workshop has been designed for ‘makers’ of all skill levels and it is now open for business in Allen Park thanks to a little help from Ford.

 A key to innovation? "Fail fast," said Mark Hatch, CEO of Techshop, at the Detroit Business Conference on Tuesday.

Teams gathered around the world on Saturday, April 21, and Sunday, April 22, to participate in NASA’s first International Space Apps Challenge — a “technology development event” that challenges members of the public to find solutions to some of NASA’s biggest challenges. Some participants met in San Francisco at TechShop, a workspace that provides resources for various projects. 

On May 5th and 6th, TechShop will be opening its newest location in Detroit, a city where there are probably quite a few guys who would really appreciate it.

There’s one thing every would-be inventor needs to get their ideas off of paper and into reality, and it’s often the thing that’s hardest to come by: tools. 

Watch TechShop makers as they create letters in the Wired Design logo using a variety of media.

 Mark Hatch, TechShop shared his insights on what mobility has meant for collaboration as part of Intel's 60 Second Insights forum. Running TechShop, a business that thrives on collaboration, Hatch sees first-hand the impact of reaching out across physical and time boundaries has on innovation.

A fun chat with Willow Brugh of Geeks Without Bounds & Dan Woods of TechShop about the International Space Apps mainstage city event in San Francisco.

ITU, a Silicon Valley Based Graduate University, will partner their Digital Arts Department with TechShop, a DIY workshop and fabrication studio. The partnership will give ITU Digital Arts students unparalleled access to high quality fabrication tools and equipment.

Mark Hatch of TechShop (I spoke to Mark recently, and wow, I’d attend just to hear him share his vision.) ... The workshop promises to make you aware of the movers, shakers, and makers who are starting hardware-related startups as well as to the venture capital and angel investor types who are looking toward this next generation of companies.

 PD&D TV Host Louise Rainone visits GE Works' Garages at SXSW Interactive 2012 and talks to Taylor Kuffner, resident artist of the Austin, TX TechShop.

A few weeks ago, Makezine ran a feature on Adam Ellsworth and Bryan Duxbury’s delightful Cube Lamp. The write-up did a wonderful job of exploring how entrepreneurs and makers meet at makerspaces and create businesses.

Wandering around the 2012 SXSW Interactive Festival, editor-in-chief Scott Henderson sought out people and ideas with the potential of shifting how the world works.

In this episode, he makes a stop at the GE Garages to speak with Kyle Rushing from TechShop, one of GE’s featured partners in the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) sector.

When a gust of wind destroyed a favorite lawn decoration, Charlie Knight knew exactly where to go. Knight, the owner of a Marathon gas station in Trenton, took the battered wooden stem of a lawn umbrella to the Allen Park TechShop to rebuild it with sturdier aluminum.

Bryan Duxbury and Adam Ellsworth loved playing Super Mario Bros. as kids. Now, as adults, they've turned the classic NES video game into a cool DIY project with help from membership-based workspace TechShop.

Projects include using an injection molder to make an iPhone case with a customized spot for mobile payment device Square. You can also weld together bike racks for the city of Austin and etch your name into a business-sized toolkit. If you’re so inclined, you can subject your own mobile device to the engraving tools. GE partnered with collaborative development platform Quirky, peer-to-peer learning marketplace Skillshare, membership-based workshop and fabrication studio TechShop on the project.

If you have an idea, want to put it in action but don’t have The Knowledge or know-how to use the machines involved, TechShop will organize a course ... The whole point of TechShop is to empower you with a wide variety of new capabilities so you can start to see the pathway that lets you make new and exciting things ... TechShop’s highest aim is really to celebrate the creative spirit and encourage those looking for ways to get back to the art of making it themselves.

Yesterday, Future Tense hosted an event called “Tinkering With Tomorrow: Will the DIY Movement Craft the Future?” at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. Make magazine’s Dale Dougherty, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s Tom Kalil, TechShop founder Jim Newton, Kickstarter’s Cindy Au, and many others joined journalists ... about the movement’s philosophy, its implications for the economy and for intellectual property law, and more.

McKelvey hunkered down at TechShop, a tool shop in San Francisco, to build a prototype of the Square dongle. After a month of using TechShop's industrial tools, McKelvey had his prototype and Square was off and running.

Then there are the people who would like to turn what they love to make into a business and earn a living or part-time income from their craft, design, invention or kit. Many of them are already doing it (partly why makerspaces and innovative models like TechShop are growing, too). This group is the one under the radar right now, but quickly emerging as an important force in our economy.

The experiment was the brainchild of Bill Coughlin, CEO of Ford Global Technology. He'd been inspired by TechShop, a new business headed by Mark Hatch ... created as a place where anyone with an idea can figure out how to turn it into reality. It isn't just the equipment that works the magic. As a welcoming, open environment, it is full of people with experience, enthusiasm and encouragement who can both instruct would-be inventors and bring a lot of insight and guidance to their ideas.

Among other topics, we’ll discuss crowdfunding, community spaces for innovation, how (or if) DIY will affect the economy, and the legal implications of this new mode of creating. Speakers from the innovation community include Tim Wu, White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Associate Director Tom Kalil, Kickstarter’s Cindy Au, Make magazine’s Dale Dougherty, and TechShop’s Jim Newton.

The class, taught at TechShop San Francisco, featured best practices for helping your brand stand out from the competition. The best part? Genevieve and Shana featured design ideas and inspiration that can be created on some of the super-cool high-tech equipment at TechShop.

Here at Autodesk University 2011, the second Keynote speaker we were excited to hear from was Mark Hatch, CEO and founder of open-access workshop TechShop.

See Jesse Harrington Au, Solutions Specialist - the Maker Advocate, Autodesk give a tour of the TechShop display at the Autodesk University 2011 Exhibit Hall.

Come out to 300 S. 2nd Street between 10am-6pm to check out the new TechShop Downtown! ... This place should fit in nicely into SoFA and provide an invaluable resource for the Arts organizations there!

You don't need to look far to see that a growing community of makers--people who like to work on art- and science-based DIY projects--is blossoming in the U.S. Not all of these makers own the pricey tools necessary to work on their projects, of course. That's where TechShop, a San Francisco-based chain of DIY workshop spaces that offers tools for artists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between, comes in.

HowTechShop makes getting access to amazing high-end CNC hardware affordable. Will Smith and Norman Chan of Tested tour TechShop San Francisco in this featured video.

For evidence you need only poke your head into the TechShop in San Francisco’s Mission District, a sort of Hewlett Packard-garage meets vocational training that was founded by DIYer and serial entrepreneur Jim Newton. Home to a dazzling array of machinery, this facility attracts everyone from hobbyists to venture capitalists. There’s even a red phone that connects you directly to the U.S. Patent Office.

Most of us don't have $20,000 or $30,000 to spend on a laser cutter, but that's the beauty of TechShop Detroit. You don't have to spend that kind of money. All the tools a would-be inventor could want are right there and available to everyone.

If there was an award given for 'most mind-blowingly fun-looking thing likely to land you in the ICU,' then San Fran's TechShop would've taken it home.

With hundreds of members at each location, TechShop is in the process of expanding its franchise. Here's proof that the model can work.

But now there is TechShop. The equipment-rich Bay Area workshop has just opened a new location in downtown San Jose, near San Jose State. Seven days a week from 9 a.m. to midnight, members have access to tools and machinery to create just about anything they can envision. TechShop classes also are open to nonmembers to learn techniques, master the safe operation of high-tech equipment, and get a taste of the possibilities.

At Fifth and Howard streets in San Francisco sits TechShop, part of a growing franchise made just for makers. TechShop is designed to have the convenience of a corporate gym mixed with the underground hacker mindset. During CNET's visit, an eclectic bunch of members--including policemen, entrepreneurs, and fashionistas--all huddled in the gym-size playground and took prototyping into their own hands.

What Buckley did have: access to a nearby TechShop, a fledgling chain of workshops equipped with enough laser cutters, high-end saws, and other heavy-duty equipment to cause the eyes of any serious-minded do-it-yourselfer to bulge wide. Within four weeks, Buckley says, he had a prototype ...

To hear Jeff Sgroi tell it, there's nothing quite like the feeling of having a quarter-million dollars worth of equipment all to yourself. Most days, his is the first key to unlock the front doors to a 20,000-square-foot office building on Triangle Drive off Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh.

Scores of entrepreneurs in California have joined TechShop in Menlo Park, which provides members with access to industrial strength machinery.

"When you put the ability to make something in the hands of everybody, you’ll suddenly see all the ideas that were out there just waiting to come out" from "regular folks, not big companies."

In the tech-obsessed South of Market neighborhood that digital sensations like Twitter and Zynga call home, a newfangled workshop for would-be inventors blends a start-up sensibility with the area's historic manufacturing roots to give geeks a chance to get out from behind the keyboard. Modeled after gyms, TechShop is attracting members who pay as little as $100 a month to use industrial strength equipment to invent whatever they can imagine.

A workshop in San Francisco gives would-be inventors access to industrial strength equipment for as little as $100 a month. The TechShop is run like a gym, but these members exercise their brains and try [...]

San Francisco's TechShop, which had its grand opening Saturday, is a community that wants to offer anyone the chance to be a big thinker, by providing a start-up environment equipped with just about any tool you can think of, along with training ...

What I wouldn't give to have cheap access to my own ID shop, rather than the pair of sawhorses, hallway and irritated neighbors I have now ... Good news for us New Yorkers: TechShop Brooklyn is reportedly coming in Fall 2011!

"Without TechShop, we never would have been able to bring the iPad DODOcase to market," Buckley says ...

Calling all engineers, tinkerers and entrepreneurs: A new incubator coming to San Jose could be the place to launch your next business opportunity.

Meet a selection of the businesses that got their start at TechShop, a Bay Area company that charges inventors and hobbyists $125 a month to use i.ts tools and gear.

MARK HATCH sees the revolution going something like this: Wealthy, love-handled Americans will turn off their televisions, put down their golf clubs and step away from their Starbucks coffees. Then they will direct their disposable income and free time toward making things -- stuff like chairs, toys and, say, synthetic diamonds. They will do this because the tools needed to make really cool things have become cheaper and because humans feel good when they make really cool things.

They include the proposed addition of branches in San Francisco and San Jose in 2010 by TechShop, an incubator company with three West Coast branches.