(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - Have you ever wanted to build a gadget or make a piece of art or just play with some cool machines?

Well, you can do that and more in central Illinois without having to shell out big bucks to buy a 3D printer or a laser cutter or a forge.

Jeep Johnson is the president of River City Labs and Josh Malavolti is a founding member.

Guys, thanks for coming in.

Appreciate it.

- Thanks for having us today, yeah.

- So, River City Labs is known as a makerspace.

Define makerspace for us.

- The best way I describe a makerspace is a gym membership with tools.

You pay a monthly membership just like you do at the gym, but instead of going to lift weights, you come in and use the tools that we have.

- [Mark] That's a pretty good explanation.

And I've seen video.

You guys have a ton of tools over there.

Before we get into some of the neat things that you have, tell us how this makerspace, River City Labs in Peoria got started.

- So, back in 2014, and it may even been a little bit before that, I came on right as we were writing the bylaws.

So, we actually met in somebody's living room back in, I believe it was in 2014.

And we started kind of like taking bylaws from other makerspaces around the country and putting the things together that we liked, didn't like, and put it together.

And then essentially found a location which was literally this little hundred-square-foot room in an art gallery.

And we submitted for our 501c3 and kind of like the vision kind of started at least and then we built from there, so.

- And coming up with this idea, what was the mindset behind it?

Was it that it's a fun thing for people to be able to tinker, things like that?

Or did you have something more in mind?

- So, a lot of what River City Labs has really been based on is education, and not just education, but also, too, you know, you think about, you know, 10 years ago, I would've been 28 years old.

You know, younger people don't always have the resources available to them like a house, a garage, you know, and all of that.

So, some of it was, you know, we wanted them to have a place that people that didn't always have the space to have tools or the funds to have tools, to be able to have a place to be able to kind of come in and use tools.

But then also, too, a lot of it as well was we were able to kind of learn from each other and teach other people as well, not just in our own internal community, but also the community at large.

So, over the years, we've had everything from classes, we've reached out to local groups to do education events, things like that, and been a part of it, so.

- And Jeep, when we're talking about tools, we're not just talking about a hammer and a screwdriver here.

You guys have some pretty cool stuff over there, some big stuff.

- Yeah, so, especially when you're talking the larger machines like the lasers and things like that, collectively, a normal home or household will not have something that at home, one, for space, two, for cost.

And by collectively having this and we are able to have those tools and it just takes a small portion from each person, input their membership fees or a donation or something like that, to make these tools happen at River City Labs, rather than one person being responsible for the full cost of something like that.

- Let's talk about some of the tools specifically.

What is your most popular tool over there you think?

- Definitely we just recently acquired the San Antonio Razor 2.

It's a hundred-watt CO2 laser, very high end, very high quality, and it's very popular.

And surprisingly, and it was a lot of Josh's forethought when we expanded, to put in a paint room, something where it would collect all in one area and be able to paint in, and that gets used constantly 'cause it's a good clean place to do your painting.

- I was gonna say, what kind of things would you use that machine for?

- For example, you can cut out wood, leather, acrylic.

So, if you're making... We have one guy that does signs.

I do, like, little coasters similar to these on it.

You can do almost exactly what's on this.

You laser in the cork and things like that.

You can also build parts of displays and things like that.

'Cause you can laser all the way down from paper all the way up to good half-inch-thick materials.

So, you have a wide range what that laser can do.

- You made some very nice things for us that we'll show folks here.

Describe what you made here and how you made it.

- So, the plywood thing is just that, and I took yours from your email, I took the logo off of that and put that on the software we can use called LightBurn, and literally the LightBurn does the rest of it.

That's the laser control software.

You put on whatever you want and you can put it in, whether it to be to cut it out or to etch it in this case, and you let the laser do the rest and you clean up afterwards.

- That's really cool.

I mean, how long would it take to do this by hand if you didn't have the machine?

(Mark laughs) - You'd probably have to, like, cut a template out of the logo, and then at that point probably burn it in, not like, I mean, that's what essentially a laser is doing.

But, I mean, days probably to do something like that.

- And it took how long for this?

- About three minutes.

- Three minutes?

- Yeah.

- That's definitely cost effective and time effective.

- [Josh] Yeah.

- What are some other machines that you have there that are popular?

- So, we have three kinda like, I would say three areas of the makerspace and how they're split up.

So, we have like our clean room.

I would say of our clean room, our most popular in there are our 3D printers, but we do have now sublimation machines to where you can, like, heat press onto shirts, onto koozies, cups, things like that.

We got a whole heat press kind of section now that's becoming a little bit more popular as well.

We have a vinyl cutter that gets used pretty heavily in there as well.

Our main room, the lasers that Jeep was talking about.

Yesterday, like, somebody was pounding on metal in the forging area, and so that actually, forging gets a decent amount and blacksmithing gets a decent amount of work in there.

And then where our paint room is, that room is kind of our woodworking area.

And so, I mean, your table saws, your chop saws.

We have some CNC routers that on occasion get used in there too, so.

- So, typically, when folks come in, and we'll tell people how they can become members in a bit, are they doing this just for fun or are they trying to learn a trade?

What are some of the motivations for people coming in?

- I think it's a mix, and that's actually the best part about the makerspace is every person that joins or comes to visit River City Labs all have different reasons why.

Some people it's for fun.

Some people wanna learn.

Some people know what they know and they just need access to the tools.

There have been people that have even kind of, like, developed into jobs and roles that kind of have gone outside of River City Labs, but a lot of it started there.

I mean, myself, where I work probably would not have been possible if it wasn't for River City Labs and some of the things that I learned there and then essentially the things that it motivated me to kind of expand out on beyond the makerspace, so.

- Yeah, I would guess if you wanted to learn how to use one of these machines, you'd either have to go to a trade school or something like that.

- YouTube.

- YouTube?

- YouTube, YouTube.

- Yeah (chuckles).

Yeah, I mean a lot of it, and it's really interesting 'cause a lot of people, some of them have, you know, some formal training in some of this.

A lot of us were self-taught and we've learned just over the years and then we just kind of passed that knowledge onto the next.

And a lot of the machines that are, you know, I would say have a little bit more risk factor, we have a lot more documentation on training and things like that to make sure people are safe.

But we make sure that, you know, we try to meet people where they're at with what they are trying to get out of the makerspace, and it's a collective of all the members.

We have no employee, we pay no employee.

We are all essentially volunteers.

You know, even though you're a member, you're, you know, in essence, a volunteer as well, so.

- Do you ever have people come in there and say, "Man, I really wanna forge and work on that," and then take a look at the 3D printer and say, "Ah, I wouldn't mind figuring that out too?"

- Absolutely.

- Almost every person that comes, yeah.

It always starts with one thing, and then before you know it, they've got a million other machines or things they want to do because- - [Jeep] Definitely grows.

- Yeah.

The exposure does a lot to people because, you know, sometimes somebody has this one agenda that they want to try and accomplish and you only know what you know and you only know based on the exposure, the things maybe you Google searched or whatever.

But then by walking into the makerspace, you're exposed to so much more.

It kind of, like, broadens the horizons of things.

And it's amazing to watch, like, the creativity and people's minds then quickly evolve into the other things that maybe were in the back of their mind that they didn't think about because they just didn't know.

- Or even the process to get there.

They didn't know that this tool could achieve what they are trying to do.

They were, you know, saw this way of doing it, but again, you could do it this way or this way.

You may have several options, and one of those may be the 3D printer rather than trying to cut it out of wood to 3D print it, or resin cast it so you can do multiple of the same thing.

So, the knowledge base that is there is exponential and it could bring you out and broaden your horizons and make things easier for something that you're interested and want to make or do.

- After you see someone, I don't wanna say master or something, but get really good at it, do you ever try and recruit them to say, "Hey, why don't you hang around and teach some other folks?"

- We hold classes, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

I call on Josh a lot.

Josh has a real good, he's been there the whole time, 10 years, and so I recruit him a lot to do classes and things like that.

And I've done a few myself.

And when I joined, I had a very limited tool-based knowledge and now I'm part of that teaching class and learning and sharing what all the former members, I don't say former, but the longer-term members shared with me and now I'm sharing it with the new members that are coming on also.

- Yeah.

I say I've seen, it's interesting 'cause being there the full 10 years, it's like, Jeep specifically, I remember him coming in there and it's, like, primarily it was the metalworking, the blacksmithing.

And then to watch him over the years evolve into the 3D printing and master that and then get into the, like, laser cutting world, it's amazing watching, like, his skills that have evolved.

And now because he's been able to master that skills and understand it, he's able to pass that on to the next person as well.

So, it's been interesting to watch, you know, being there so long.

- Yeah.

What kind of people come in?

I mean, I'm sure you have a wide variety of people, but is it mostly people that are just inquisitive or maybe they have some time on their hands, they're retired, maybe they're young and they wanna learn a new trade?

- You've started here and went all the way through them all.

There's artists and people that just want social, there's a whole social side of a makerspace.

They're more interested with interacting with the other people.

You have the ones that are strictly there for knowledge.

You have the ones that every time, they're doing something different.

You have the one that comes in and only uses one tool ever.

They have the tools at home, but they don't have the one tool and don't wanna expense it and it's cost effective for them to be a membership rather than purchase the tool.

You literally have every wide range and every possibility, and every time somebody comes in, they might even surprise us something new we didn't even think would be a possibility, and we learn from them also.

- Now, this is not a place, if I understand it correctly, that people can run a business out of.

Is that right?

- That's correct.

- That's correct.

And we don't take on jobs.

You know, we get a lot of phone calls through our number 'cause we list, you know, we have 3D printing, we list we have lasers.

So, anybody doing a Google search that will come up River City Labs, "Oh, I wonder if they can 3D print this part I need for my bicycle."

We don't take on jobs.

We actually encourage them to come take a tour, learn how to 3D print and make the parts that you want to go forward through that.

So, we encourage them to join rather than just purchasing.

- And Josh, you mentioned from what you've learned, it helped you get a job.

Have there been other instances you know of where members have come in and learned so much or something so well that it's gotten them another job or a advancement in their career?

- Absolutely, yeah, there's been, I can think of at least four or five instances where people have been able to kind of, like, develop themselves and then kind of essentially advance their own career and get into...

I mean, one of the other founding members, his background was expanded out by us doing the makerspace and learning different things around kind of the STEAM and STEM world.

And actually, he works at the same company I do.

He's got three years on me though.

But, like, he's another example of kind of the cultivation that the makerspace tends to kind of influence and, you know, the skills that ultimately people can learn from the makerspace and how it can actually be beneficial to your everyday lives.

Yeah, absolutely.

- What about getting young people in there?

Have you been successful at that?

You know, I'm talking college age kids or in their 20s.

- Benefit of having Cat in this location is we have a lot of interns that come and intern at Cat, and this year specifically, we had six from different areas, while they're here for their internship, join the makerspace so they could do things.

And some of them are used to makerspaces from their schools and things like that.

But we get those people in.

We also have people from Bradley and things like that that have joined.

We definitely try to expand that every chance we get, yes.

- Yeah, I mean, definitely.

I would say there's always young people that will venture in, especially college age, and Bradley specifically, there's one notable one from Bradley.

If people were to search self-playing guitar, Mike, what's Mike's last name?

- Kom, Kam.

- It starts with a K. Anyways, that self-playing guitar actually, a whole bunch of motivation and influence came out of the makerspace itself and now he's kind of, like, touring around the world with this self-playing guitar and has developed it to a point where it's absolutely incredible, has a patent on it and all kinds of stuff, so.

- I've seen that.

It's pretty cool.

- Yeah.

- Pretty cool.

Let's talk a little bit about, again, you're a nonprofit.

Tell us how your membership works.

I assume most of that money goes towards rent and machines and things like that.

And tell us other ways that you've gotten support from the community to help you guys grow.

- Well, again, like you based, the membership, we try to keep that as low as humanly possible so it's affordable for everybody and we try to stay that our membership pays for our doors to be open, being the maintenance on tools, the building, the lease, you know, the electric, water, things like that.

And that's just based off our membership.

That way we keep those even, very even together.

And beyond that, we rely on donations.

And because we are 501c3, it is a tax benefit to anybody that does donate through them, and that we are able to purchase new tools.

We've got three new lasers this year alone.

Thankful for the wonderful donations that do come in.

Again, totally tax-free.

We're a 501c3, and we have been since the start.

- Have our corporations around the area helped you guys at all, whether it's new equipment or maybe hand-me-downs?

- Yeah, there's been a few, that we've either gotten financial donations and then some that we've got just even, like, equipment.

I can think of one company early on to where they were essentially moving to the next stage of their business and getting more industrial production machines and they donated some of their, I'm gonna say their- - Legacy machines.

- Yeah, legacy machines.

Things that got them by enough to where they didn't have to spend, you know, 20, 30, $40,000 on, say, a CNC mill, for instance.

So, we got their hand-me-down and we made it work and kept it working, so.

- That's great.

- Yeah.

- Now, you guys mentioned that, you know, of course, this is your 10-year anniversary, you went through COVID and survived, but a lot of places like yours didn't.

How did that happen?

How did you guys get on the other side of that?

- Well, COVID was interesting because obviously you couldn't go in person to a lot of places and so we essentially kind of, like, looked at the rules and how we wanted to operate.

We had a lot of members that believed in the cause.

I mean, honestly, I do not wanna discount anything that our membership...

They really kept us alive in all of that.

We were able to kind of formulate our guidelines at our space to allow, you know, the right amount of people or maybe one person at a time in the space to do their job and then leave and the next person come in.

And then another thing is, too, is the membership itself, the maker community worldwide, I mean, United States and worldwide, really helped with a lot of the shortages and issues that occurred in COVID and that helped, actually the ones that did survive, which there's a bunch that did across the United States and the world, but the ones that did survive, a lot of them, if you look at it, they were actually contributing to help with the PPE shortages and stuff like that.

And we were no exception to that.

We were helping make masks, face shields.

We did a whole research project around filtration- - Filtration.

- Yeah, in masks.

And even got to talk to huge companies and research labs and all of that to really, like, make that possible, and it was used in not just masks but also, like, PAPA devices as well.

So, it was really neat.

And using just regular household products to create the same filtration you have in masks that are used in, like, the hospitals and stuff like that.

So, yeah.

- Pretty impressive.

You were talking to me earlier about how, at least on this scale, not a lot of places like this around, maybe Decatur and, of course, St. Louis and Chicago, but that's it as far as being as large as you guys are.

- Yeah, yeah, and the same type of thing that we do.

We want to keep, you know, the theme of what this style of makerspace is.

You know, it's literally a collection of tools and you get to use the tools, and what you do beyond that, we more than encourage each person to go and take that wherever they want to go.

Like Josh was talking, benefit of your job later down the road.

Or you're just a tinkerer and you just want to make little things that you put on your cabinet.

Whatever it may be, we want that whole wide range.

And we have people that are very interested in the furthering education, the STEM and STEAM things, and we have people that just, like I said, the little tinkerer that they keep on their cabinet.

But we want to continue to grow and service central Illinois here.

- Have you had any interactions locally with schools or trade schools to try and get maybe more students interested in doing this kind of thing?

- They are very all familiar with us.

We also do things with the library.

Libraries are a wonderful source and a way to get our word out, but they also ask us to assist in the classes they hold also.

- Mm-hm.

What's on your wishlist?

It sounds like you've got a lot of cool stuff already.

Do you have any machines or anything else that you really would love to have?

- We have a very large wishlist.

That was one of our projects this year, is as we continue to grow, what tools would be essential for a makerspace?

And a large drum sander for the wood shop and a new, faster 3D printer, one that would cut time significantly in printing, and a small band saw for the metal shop.

We have a real big band saw.

We need a small band saw to do the little handheld jobs and things like that.

So, we do have a very large wishlist and we try to tackle, (whistles) we just move that peg right along there and try to get each time something, so.

- When people come in, you know, you mentioned they kind of beeline to one specific thing.

They know what they want to do.

How does that work in terms of, let's say, they wanna use a laser cutter.

They've never used it before.

Someone's there to help them?

Do they have kind of a mini class before the person is getting on the machine?

- You have to be certified on some of the machines, especially on some of the machines that, one, you could get hurt on, but also, two, ones that the machine could get hurt.

Obviously more, you know, critical machines that have parts that maybe are a little more sensitive.

We have a...

So, not only is the person that's kind of like giving them the tour kind of, like, becoming a little bit of, like, talking through things with them, getting to know them, but they also, when you become a member, you get connected up on a chat engine, Slack, that we use.

And on there, you're able to reach out to people and say, "Hey, I wanna do this.

Can somebody train me?"

And, I mean, almost every time we have somebody that is willing to step up and help you and teach you.

It may not be right then and there, but it may be in a couple days, maybe a week or something like that, and help them really get going.

- Before we wrap it up, tell us a little bit about your open houses and what people can expect when they show up to those.

- Well, we're fortunate enough that we do an open house every week.

Thursday night, 6:30, we open the door.

We give tours.

We socialize.

We make it a great event to even come and talk about your vision and see if we play into that.

Makerspaces aren't for everybody, but come and find out if it is something that would maybe benefit.

And just the talking with the vast amount of people that show up on Thursdays could benefit you even if you don't become a member.

It's still a great way to expand and maybe gain a little bit of knowledge and see.

- We'll put the information up for you.

River City Labs is at 7916 North Hale Avenue in Peoria.

There's the phone number and their website so you can find out more if you're interested in maybe donating or learning a new trade.

And it's every Thursday night at 6:30 you have your open houses?

- Yes.

- And how long does that last usually?

- It depends on the questions.

We'll go as long as it takes.

We wanna make sure you get the vast amount of intake that you can take in.

We have people that go in and do the loop and leave.

We have people that spend most of the rest of the evening there talking and wanting to learn more.

- We've closed it out like 1 and 2:00 a.m. in the past.

- Okay.

- So, yeah.

- All right, so, no rush.

Josh and Jeep, thanks very much.

- We appreciate it, yeah.

- Sounds like a great place to be.

- Yeah, definitely.

- Thank you very much.

- Thank you very much.

- All right, thank you.

And thank you for joining us.

That is our time for right now.

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