Heat Tools

1. Heat gun

   1. A heat gun is useful for applying shrink tubing on electronic connections, taking whisps of plastic off a 3D print, and a million other very small uses.

2. Iron

   1. A basic clothes iron can be extremely useful for fusing thin disposable plastic bags into plastic “fabric” and applying heat transfer vinyl.  Even though I only use our iron for making purposes with a sheet of parchment paper between, it’s probably best to get an inexpensive and/or used iron to only use for this purpose.

3. Hot plate

   1. A hot plate is an inexpensive, portable heat source that is extremely useful for warming small batches of things and for a mobile vacuum forming setup.  At home, I’ll use an old toaster oven, but when taking the project on the go, a hot plate works super well.

4. Toaster oven

   1. I’ve seen people use toaster ovens¹ to perform flow soldering for small components with surface mount electronics.  Also, it can be easier than using a hot plate, providing more even heat, when doing vacuum forming.  I’m pretty sure you could also use it to melt plastic scraps into plastic sheets and crayon scraps into bigger crayons.

5. Panini Press

   1. This hadn’t even occurred to me, but I saw an Instagram video about a couple guys who were melting plastic scraps with a panini press to jumpstart their business making things.  Their process was basically…  apply heat source to plastic bits from bottle caps, melt them into sheets, cut with a cookie cutter or knife, shape with woodworking tools, profits.  I imagine that it would be very helpful to have a big press or custom press jig to make these sheets.

6. Microwave

   1. I don’t have a particular use in mind, but I imagine that if you had an old microwave in a makerspace, you’ll quickly find a use for it.

Shredding / Mixing

1. Blender

   1. Again, a used, thrifted, garage sale, or donated model is likely to be as good as any.  You could use this to shred paper and water for paper mache pulp or thin plastic pieces to be melted into useable parts.

2. Spice or coffee grinder

   1. Just as with the blender, but perhaps for smaller items.  I would probably go for a blender first, but I imagine a small grinder could be very handy too.

3. Paper shredder

   1. A regular office shredder could do double duty as a piece of standard office equipment as well as a pre-shredder for a blender based paper mache system – or as a source of paper to be used in paper mache.

4. Mixing attachment for drill

   1. For about $15-20 you can pick up a mixing attachment for a drill.  I don’t I’d get a ton of use out of this tool, but I imagine a $15 investment could save hours of work mixing white glue, water, and paper pulp into piles of paper mache.

Label Maker

1. I bought a thermal sticker label maker a while back and I love it.  You can find these for as little as $10 to $20.  The labels come in a variety of colors and shapes and features (transparent, shimmery, etc).  I use it for spice labels, labelling boxes of arts and crat supplies, little to-do lists, and even proxy cards for Magic: the Gathering.

Personal Protection Equipment

1.  Making things typically involves creating some kind of dust, materials that off-gas, create VOC’s, and caustic chemicals.  If I were building out a makerspace today, besides the normal fans and such, I’d probably build up a cheap Corsi-Rosenthal air scrubber.
2. Masks, respirators, exhausts, fans, air scrubbers
3. Gloves for sharp things, gloves for hot things
4. Fire extinguisher, fire blanket, eye wash system/station