July 10-12, 2015

Maysville, Missouri, USA

Build Yourself. Build Your World.

This 3 day workshop – led by Marcin Jakubowski, founder of Open Source Ecology (OSE) – and Thomas Griffing, OSE Power Cube Lead Developer, shows how Extreme Manufacturing techniques are used to build a complete Power Cube – in One Day.

Workshop immersion involves concept and practice, and includes crash courses on key elements of fabrication, hydraulic power unit design, CAD, open source hardware documentation, and open enterprise models. As a participant, you will be helping us to test the OSE collaborative production model, which we see as the future of bringing production and skills back to communities.

The three day workshop includes a one day build of the structural Power Cube – a 28 horsepower, hydraulic power unit. The first day includes crash courses in welding, torching, and other tool use. The build will involve fabrication followed by assembly. The workshop features use of OSE’s open source machines – including the open source 20-ton hole puncher and ironworker machine. OSE’s open source CNC Torch Table will be used for the first time in a workshop setting. This workshop is intended for people interested in immersion, hands-on skills training and practical results. This immersion course may be especiallay useful to people who would like to build their own machines, such that they can maintain them for a lifetime.

We will use structural steel tubing which creates a structural frame around the Power Cube (note that the video above uses angle, not tubing, for the frame). This allows the Power Cube to be used standalone or as part of another machine. We will also be running a MicroTractor workshop right after the Power Cube workshop – where participants build a MicroTractor using the Power Cube as a core, structural component. See the MicroTractor announcement. Further, we will build a charcoal gasifier after the MicroTractor workshop – so that the Power Cube, or MicroTractor – can be run on locally-produced, carbon-negative biomass resources.

We are inviting those individuals who are interested in building their own Power Cube – or entrepreneurs interested in starting a business. OSE’s goal is to create open, collaborative, ethical enterprise ecosystems that accelerate innovation towards a better world. We are also inviting dedicated documenters to participate in documenting the build.

The overall workshop is designed for people interested in transitioning from Zero to Maker – but is also full of learning for those with experience. Can’t weld? We’ll give you a crash course. This course assumes no prior skills outside of general body awareness. Some people will be given documentation tasks if appropriate.

This is the first OSE workshop where participants can purchase and build their own 28 hp Power Cube kits (limit of 8 kit builds).

As a bonus, we are also screening a pre-release of a documentary film on one of OSE’s collaborations, Reversing the Mississippi.

If you can’t attend the workshop because you need financial assistance, email us and we will put you on the waiting list. We will select you if a Sponsor provides funding.

Weekend Workshop (July 10-12): Design, Build, and Get Skills.

Design, Build, and Get Skills. Documentation Track (July 10-12): Document for replicability.

Have questions? Drop us an email: info at opensourceecology dot org

