News on Columbia Gadget Works

Robot combat in the Chamber of Robotic Aggression

Sun, 20 Sep 2026 10:00:00 -0500

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.

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New Website!

Sat, 19 Sep 2026 23:01:02 -0500

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.

What’s new

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 guide for first-time visitors. The visit page explains what to expect at Open Hack Night, every Thursday from 6 to 8 pm. No membership, no experience, and nothing to bring.
Classes and events in one place. The classes page collects the workshops members have taught and explains how to propose one, and the events calendar lists Open Hack Night, the free monthly City of Columbia grant classes starting in November, and board meetings.
Easier giving. You can donate directly on the donate page, as a one-time, monthly, or yearly gift, and membership dues and scholarship options are laid out plainly.
Ways to reach us. There is a contact form, and you can sign up for email updates about new classes and events.

Built by members

The site is a fast static site, and its source is public on GitHub. Any member can fix a typo, add an event, or write up a project by opening a pull request. If you taught a class, finished a build, or took a good photo on a Thursday night, we would love to post it here.

KOPN tour: April 23

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 07:05:47 -0500

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.

Soldering Class and Art in the Park

Fri, 20 Mar 2026 14:57:50 -0500

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 any time.

Metal casting class: recap

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 09:44:09 -0600

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:

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.
Invest it. The pattern gets buried in plaster inside a flask, and the plaster sets around every detail of it.
Burn it out. The flask goes into the kiln, where the printed pattern burns away and leaves a cavity that is an exact negative of it. This is the “lost” part of lost-pattern casting.
Pour. Molten aluminum bronze goes into the hot mold and fills the cavity the pattern left behind.
Break out and finish. Once it has cooled, the plaster breaks away, the sprue gets cut off, and what is left is the part.

Everyone went home with something they had cast themselves.

Metal casting class: February 26

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 09:52:15 -0600

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.

Metalworking Class

Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:10:59 -0600

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 of what a small shop needs to make in metal, and they are the reason members can repair equipment that stopped being sold decades ago.