May 2026 Newsletter

Leesburg Workday: 5/30/2026 9am-2pm

Purcellville Workday: 5/06/2026 9am - 12pm

(There's something for everyone -get those volunteer hours in!)

Monthly Membership Meeting

Meetings are the first Wednesday of every month at 7:30 PM. Log to:

http://meet.google.com/ubz-ykxr-kiu

or

Dial-in: (US) +1 304-609-2532

PIN: 114 333 983#

Announcements

Message from the Board of Directors

James Waldron, Secretary 

At the Makersmiths Board of Directors on April 25, the treasurer reported that March Income exceeded budget and March Expenses were below budget. There was one item passed by the Board via Consent in Lieu in March – Approval for additions to the CO2 lasers to prevent operation without air pressure.

Business items included approval of new expenditures for the following: Maintenance on the UV Printer, a small budget to build and test an emergency call button, and the purchase of a replacement compressor for the CO2 laser cutter in Leesburg. Amy Copley was appointed as a new Co-Steward for Leesburg Sewing & Crafts. Further details may be found in the Board minutes on the Wiki.

The May 6 Members Meeting is very important for all members to attend. The meeting is online, and a link will be sent to the email you gave Makersmiths when becoming a member. You can also go directly to the online meeting by visiting Monthly Membership Meeting http://meet.google.com/ubz-ykxr-kiu at 7:30 PM.
Or, you can Dial-in: (US) +1 304-609-2532 PIN: 114 333 983#

The election to fill two seats on our Board of Directors will open at that Member Meeting on May 6 and will run through the following member meeting on June 3. Candidates will have a chance to address the membership, and the election will open once all candidates have spoken on May 6.  Each member will then receive an email with a link to the voting site. The election will run until the member meeting on June 3 (which is also our annual member meeting). It is very important that we have at least 1/3rd of our membership vote in order to have a successful election. Please respond to the email with that link to the voting site at your first earliest convenience.

News from the 3D Steward

Bryan Daniels, 3D co-steward: 

Quick and gentle reminder y'all--

•If you're using TPU, it cannot be placed in our AMSs.

oIt must be either fed in by the external spool holder or an AMS HT that you purchased yourself. Even "TPU for AMS" still runs a high risk of getting jammed up in the AMS. You can pull the PFTE tub from the rear of the AMS so that you can use that to feed the filament in.

•We do not allow the usage of cardboard spools in the AMS as the cardboard can degrade and get stuck in the AMS's gears.

oIf this happens and the machine needs to be sent for repairs Bambu may deny the warranty repair claim under "user caused damage."

oIf that happens you are responsible for the cost of the repair.

•We do not allow the usage of non-Bambu Labs brand filaments in our machines.

This is because we can't guarantee such filaments can't/won't cause damage to the machine in addition to issues with settings not being set correctly and/or machine clogging issues.

Please just keep these things in mind so we can maximize machine up time and minimize 'Bryan is trying to fit his giant hands into tiny spaces” to fix the machine' time. If you are not sure about something, please refer to the wiki, ask a question in this chat, or message me directly in Slack. I typically get back to folks pretty quickly.

Education News

Makersmiths 2026 KidWind Teams Come Home Winners

Diane Painter (Diane.Painter@makersmiths.org)

On April 11, five Makersmiths, Inc. KidWind teams competed in both the wind and solar events at the KidWind Virginia State Challenge at James Madison University. The Middle school solar team (called Error 404: Team Not Found) came in first place in their grade division and will go on to the KidWind Worlds Challenge at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin May 16-20. Other Makersmiths winning teams were the high school solar team (called Salamander 6) that tied for second place, the high school wind team (called the Cardinal Directions) came in third place, and the middle school wind team (called Microsoft Wind Support) came in third place. Although the elementary wind team (called the Hurricanes) did not place at the state level, the team won first place in the Northern Virginia Regional Challenge at George Mason University’s Potomac Science Center in Woodbridge on March 17. 

We want to thank so many Makersmiths members for coaching our teams: Blair Marendt, Liz Clarkson, Chris Rodgers, Tim and Joanna Pearson, Jana Artz, Brian Jo, Oliver Arend, Carol Grigg and Dan Schmidt. Makersmiths technical coaches were Andrew Taylor, Ken Parker and Gary DuFour. Helping at challenges (Northern Va Regional and States) were Ken Fuentecilla and Jennifer Chu. If we have forgotten to thank anyone, we apologize! What a great group of people we have at Makersmiths! 

To learn more about this fantastic STEM initiative that teaches youth about renewable energies, visit www.kidwind.org. To involve your teens in a fun solar action summer camp, consider this opportunity at Virginia Tech’s Alexandria campus.

This is the Middle School Solar Team's Project

Loudoun Student Environmental Action Showcase

On April 29, two of Makersmiths KidWind teams presented their projects at the Loudoun Student Environmental Action Showcase (SEAS) at the Academies of Loudoun. At this event, the Middle School solar team (called Error 404: Team Not Found) had the opportunity to present their project to the Loudoun County Public Schools’ superintendent, Dr. Aaron Spence.

The high school solar team (called Salamander 6) was also represented at the showcase. Pictured here are the students presenting to one of the showcase judges. At the end of the evening, it was announced that the high school team won third place in the showcase judging!

The Loudoun Student Environmental Action Showcase (SEAS) is an annual event where students present their work on a variety of environmental topics such as recycling, energy conservation, preserving natural habitats and other sustainability projects that they completed in their schools and communities. 

Participation in SEAS is open to all K-12 students in Loudoun County and is considered the Loudoun Environmental Education Alliance’s (LEEA) flagship annual event. LEEA is a sponsored project of the Virginia Association for Environmental Education, a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Makersmiths joined LEEA as an affiliate partner so that our KidWind teams could be represented at the annual SEAS events.  To learn more about LEEA, visit https://www.facebook.com/LoudounEEA/

Dr. Spence Visiting the Middle School Solar Team at SEAS

The High School Solar Team Being Judged at the SEAS Event

•July 18 from 2 to 8 p.m.

•Dillon’s Woods (next to Fireman’s Field)

•Show attendees of the Purcellville Wine and Food Festival how you create your works for art.

•Apply online by July 3, 2026

•November 7 and 8, 2026

•Artists’ Studios, Purcellville Train Station

•Open your studio to show (and sell) your artwork.

•Apply online by June 30, 2026

Meet Makersmiths Member, James Grue

Proposed Makersmiths Community Recycling Project

A recycling project started out as an idea for my grandson’s junior high science fair project. What would demonstrate how pollution adversely affects the water cycle? Then my grandson and I thought that if the project was constructed out of locally recycled materials, that would affect the impact of the project. With a little bit of effort and the support of Purcellville Makersmiths where there is a large commercial oven perfect for heating the plastic to the ideal temperatures, the effort showed that locally gathered #2 and #4 plastics can be successfully recycled into usable flat plastic sheets. 

We also found that there is significant community interest in supporting the project. Bridges Auto Center in Purcellville and the Purcellville Pub are both saving plastic for the recycling project. The Clark County Convenience Recycling Center has put in place a way to make the plastics available as well. However, there are challenges related to obtaining uncontaminated used plastic containers. Recycling centers report that even with people that are trying to recycle, there are issues with containers being improperly rinsed and in other materials being put into the recycle bins that complicate recycling efforts. When community members are asked about participating, we find that there is almost 100% support for recycling, but considerable skepticism that even when they put materials into the recycling containers, that actual recycling occurs.

Makersmiths seems to be ideally positioned to lead a joint community/Makersmiths recycling project that could encourage recycling in general teach proper recycling techniques; demonstrate that not only is recycling possible; it is being done locally; and, 

help reinforce Makersmiths position as a vital community asset. These steps could help make the project successful:

1. Makersmiths members would become more active in recycling. Members would need to become familiar with the recycled plastics so they can identify ways the materials could be used in projects such as the plastic sheets my grandson and I made.
   
2. Local communities would need to be educated on the project and encouraged to support the initiative through recycling and saving items for Makersmiths members to use.
   

How would we educate the public? Repurposed recycling products, such as the plastic sheets, could be put on display at events hosted by Makersmiths such as our weekly Open Houses or at our Makersmiths site locations where the public would see what can be made by recycling and repurposing efforts. By doing so, community members would be encouraged to identity how they might be able to utilize the recycled materials in their businesses, hobbies and other activities.

Please provide feedback to the Makersmiths leadership (Board members and our president) whether you would support a formal project if it was adopted as a Makersmiths initiative. Contact the Board of Directors secretaries to put it on the May Board of Directors’ meeting agenda for discussion: James.Waldron@makersmiths.org. Also, let me know if you are interested in working with me and my grandson a recycling initiative or have any questions and comments: James Grue at jgrue@outlook.com. 

The Plastic Sheet from the Recycling Project

Whatcha Making Makersmiths Members?

At the April 25 Music and Arts Festival at Purcellville, several members displayed their work. Colleen Borley’s serving board and puzzle box were a real hit. She used both the laser cutter and UV printer to make these items.

Rob Thomson brought to the festival one of several labyrinths that he has made for meditation. Close your eyes, with a pointer finger, follow the line from the edge to the middle, and relax as you do it!

Cricket Pagano displayed her ceramics bowls in the festival’s Tabernacle.

Herb Regensburger also displayed his challenge coin display and wooden pull toy dog that he made.

Back at Makersmiths-Purcellville, Allen Hamlin is quite serious about playing board games. He is now an enthusiastic user of the EBF (the CNC machine at MSP), even adding a quick and easy way to vacuum up the dust and bits of wood when using it. 

Speaking of games, at Makersmiths Leesburg, Ken Fuentecilla created pawn trophies for his next chess tournament. They just need the plaques added. The bases are made of hardwood macacauba and mango. The pawns are an unknown species. 

MS-L

May 11 MSL-R100:New Member Orientation 

May 12 WWL-R100: Woodworking Red Tool

May 13 SWL-G000: Sewing Circle

May 14 ELL-G100: Electronics, AI and Cloud Night   

May 17 BNL-R100: Print Vinyl Stickers Red Tool

May 17 LCL-R100: CO2 Laser Basic Red Tool

May 18 UVL-R100: UV Printer Red Tool

May 25 MSL: R100: New Member Orientation

MS-P

May 9 EXP-G000 Gourd Group Meeting

May 14 MSP-R100: Metal-Working Basics Red Tool

May 14 WWP-R100: Woodworking Basics Red Tool

May 17 WWP-R200: Woodworking Advanced Red Tool

Makersmiths runs on volunteers!

Consider teaching a class or holding a workshop! check out the #class_planning_and_requests channel on Slack and join a meeting to get some help with your idea!

MONTHLY OPEN HOUSES

Every Tuesday In Purcellville from 6pm-8pm

785 South 20th Street Purcellville, Va 20132

Every Thursday In Leesburg from 6pm-8pm

106 South Royal Street SW Leesburg, Va 20175

Tool Authorization Groups

Dean Williamson

Makersmiths has lots of cool and useful tools, machines, and equipment.  Many of them require training or authorization before you can use the equipment.  The training can be as simple as an orientation, to a more formal “red tool” class, to demonstrating proficiency to the tool steward. Such mandatory training helps ensure that all users understand how to use the equipment properly and safely, thus helping to keep the equipment running smoothly and minimize maintenance downtime as well as ensuring the safety of our members.

Below is a link to the list of tools which require training and authorization from a Steward. Please contact the steward for more information about each tool. This list is not exhaustive of the tools available at Makersmiths and is updated regularly as we get new equipment or as needed:

By clicking above, you can view the most current list posted on the Makersmiths wiki. Consider checking it out, you might discover a new tool that you didn’t realize Makersmiths had.

Makersmith Board Officers

Board Name/Officer | Position | Term

Brad Hess | Board Member | 2022 - 2025

Bo Wernick | Board Member| 2024 - 2027

Evin Grano | Board Member/Chairperson | 2023 - 2026

Jennifer Chu | Board Member | 2024 - 2027

Diane Bollinger | President | 2025 - 2026

Mary Waldron | Treasurer | 2025 - 2026

Jim Waldron | Board Member/Secretary | 2025 - 2026

Mike Brady | Webmaster | 2025

Rob Donahue | IT Steward | 2025

Did You Know...

You can find the newsletters from the last several years archived on our website?

Makersmiths also has a Blog, Instagram, and YouTube!

The Newsletter could always use some new blood - share your projects, pitch some article ideas, tell us about something cool you've seen in your Maker travels!

Makersmiths Leesburg: 106 Royal St SW, Leesburg, VA 20175

Makersmiths Purcellville: 785 S. 20th St, Purcellville, VA 20132