Spark Studio Salem

On January 10th, 2026, Spark Studio Salem moved 0.3 miles to the south: 2915 22nd St SE!

This location was last occupied by a laser etching shop, from whom we received a donation of several 150 watt laser cutters and an industrial venting system.

We also gained 200 sq ft of indoor ground floor space (now 1500 sq ft), and are now 60 ft from the Tsunami Taproom, an inviting place for food/drink/socializing! We expect this will improve the approachability of our makerspace to match our…

It’s been a while since our last post, since then we’ve been busy behind the scenes, making improvements, adding new tools, and continuing to build our community. Here’s a glimpse into what we’ve been up to:

Our space has received some upgrades! We’ve been cleaning, painting, and reorganizing to make room for more making capabilities. Flexibility is key, and we’re excited about the new possibilities that our newly updated space offers.

We’ve expanded…

A “mad scientist garage” for makers opens in Salem

It’s happening.

As of August 1st, Spark Studio Salem has a leased physical location, 2701 22nd Street SE. We have the existing list of renewing patrons / super-patrons at the $50 to $200/mo level for the first year, those people that stepped up to make this possible before we had anything locked in.

We’ll continue to widen our pool of contributors, now that the space exists (note: still time to be among those with us from month one!), and the board members will arrange to manually open…

First Tuesday Social for June at Ratchet went well, and later in the month, we heard that Ratchet was moving. After some conversations with the owner, we started to see this as a right-size starter makerspace location that checked the boxes for the criteria the board had just been discussing: 1295 sq ft, bathroom, sinks, outdoor storage with power, internet, garage door, direct access from parking lot, etc.

Late June, we had a special meetup at the legacy Ratchet location to pitch the…

First Tuesday Socials resumed as in-person events in April at Ratchet Brewery, with large attendence of those eager to see humans in the relative safety of outdoor tables. The Solar Trailer was brought out as exhibit, and we discussed ways to divide power to isolate power tools from more sensitive computers and 3d printers.

For First Tuesday Social for May, we returned to Ratchet and it’s outdoor seating, had another great meet with many returning faces, and a couple of ‘new-to-Salem’ people…

FIRST TUESDAY SOCIAL – MARCH

(featured image: Gary working on a COB light)

11 people attended (including a first time visitor)

We talked about the large collection of electronic parts that Microportal has been sharing at their meetings (aka, ‘The Dragon Hoard’), and talked about how to use pulse-width modulation to dim some of the COB (Chip-On-Board) lights from the hoard.

One person showed off his Pico Pi, $4 for 132Mhz board with 8 IO pins.

Another person shared his progess on…

• Investigated / decided on new bank (MaPS Credit Union) re fees, services, and accessibility, starting in March.
• Standing agenda item to discuss in-person meetups and/or resuming hunt for physical facilities: First step is resuming physical Social meetups. Between Omicron and cold weather, stuck with virtual First Tuesday Social meetings for Jan/Feb/March. Considering physical meetup at April Social, and will put link to survey in meetup.com event entry for April Social re preferences for meetup…

In the virtual 1st Tuesday for January, a participant talked extensively about his experience assembling a 3d printable micro jib (https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-micro-jib-181909).

12 attended virtual 1st Tuesday for February, including a few new faces. Our friends in the Microportal Electronics Club received a large donation of a retired Las Vegas repair tech’s collection of parts, which will be shared into the community at meetings and as needed.

Trailer update – New 12v solar charge controller feeding two 105Ah batteries, 3000w pure-sine inverter, tested with 7A power saw (dimmed light). Prompted discussion about how to partition power for more sensitive electronics. Have free 2nd 1500w modified-sine inverter that should be temporary solution (want pure sine for everything). Also added a remote switch at trailer doorway to turn inverter on/off.

11 attended virtual First Tuesday…