Columbia Gadget Works

Somebody at this shop decided we needed an arena, so we built one. The Chamber of Robotic Aggression is a member-built battle box: a welded steel frame, a plywood floor, polycarbonate walls, expanded metal over the top, and hazard striping along the bottom rail so nobody forgets what it is for.

Here is fourteen seconds of what happens once two bots are in there together.

Your browser cannot play this clip. Download the video instead.

The Columbia Gadget Works website has been rebuilt from the ground up. The old site was a handful of pages and blog posts. The new one tries to answer the questions people actually ask before they walk through the door on Grand Avenue.

• A page for every part of the shop. The tools section covers the laser cutter, CNC router, 3D printers, metal shop, metal casting, electronics bench, and woodshop: what each one does, what people make with it, and which tools need training first.
• A…

For our open night two weeks from now, we’ll be taking a field trip to the local KOPN radio station!

KOPN has graciously offered to give us a tour of their radio station facility, including some of their very cool equipment and studios.

If you’d like to participate, please join our Discord server and check the announcements channel. You can meet us at the KOPN station at 6:30 pm (401 Bernadette Drive), or carpool from the CGW shop between 6:00 and 6:15.

Just a reminder that the CGW soldering class will be March 26th at 6 pm. We’ll be going over hand soldering and reflow/SMD soldering techniques, with free giveaways!

Also, CGW is planning to have a booth at Art in the Park (June 6 and 7). If you’re interested in showcasing projects for CGW or hanging out at the booth, please get in touch.

Update: Art in the Park has since passed. We take a booth to community events through the year, so if you would like to help with the next one, get in touch an…

Thanks to everyone who showed up for the metal casting class. Members cast their own custom parts in aluminum bronze, starting from patterns made on the shop’s 3D printers.

The method was lost-pattern plaster casting, and the appeal of it is that you can go from a drawing to a solid metal object without ever cutting metal:

1. Print the pattern. Each person started with a part printed on the 3D printers, with a sprue attached, which is the channel the metal flows down.
2. Invest it. The pattern gets…

Join us this Thursday (Feb 26, 2026) for a free metal casting class at 6 pm. Learn how to make a plaster mold from a 3D-printed part and cast it in different types of metal with the equipment you can use for free at Columbia Gadget Works!

No experience needed. Bring closed-toe shoes and long pants; we’ll supply everything else.

Update: the class has been and gone. See the recap for how it went and what members cast.

CGW has been running monthly classes, and last month’s was machining. Jeff walked members through the methods used on the two machines at the heart of the metal shop: the manual milling machine and the lathe.

Those two machines are what turn “I need a part that does not exist” into a part. The mill cuts flat faces, slots, pockets and holes in a solid block. The lathe turns round things: shafts, bushings, knobs, and anything else that needs to be true about its axis. Between them they cover most…