Goats & Karts
The creation of Majik Faktory results from a desire to lead a “sufficient life.” By sufficient life I mean a life where I and my people can create, sustain and defend life. As Adam Smith suggested, we create what we need to survive and produce surplus goods and services to trade for everything. The thing is, I was never taught how to do that.
Both of my parents grew-up as sustenance farmers in the South; but my brother and I grew-up in Washington state outside of Fort Lewis. Everything was provided for us. Aside from chores and part-time work, our days were spent having fun. We never had to rely on our wits to survive. While we camped with the Boy Scouts and woodworked at the Boys Club, we never had to grow the food we ate, hunt, make clothes or build a home. That made us dependent on other people and organizations that could do those things.
In 2002, my wife and I bought a small farm to reclaim some of the skill and knowledge that my people lost when they moved north. More than that, I wanted to share with others the possibilities that rural living provides.
One idea I had to share the experience of country living was to have children come to a camp on the farm. The students would build and race go-karts. They would also take care of goats and chickens, practice hunting skills and play tennis. With a learn-by-doing approach, I believed participants would gain self-confidence, grit and a better understanding of the cycle-of-life.
8KIT
To further our sufficiency agenda, we founded Nfr Institute of Technology in 2013 as a vehicle for developing incredible people. We called our first program 8 Kids-in-Training (8KIT). The concept involves a mash-up of Gladwell’s, “Outliers,” Florida’s, “Creative Class,” and FIRST-Robotics-Competition (FRC). By spending 8,000-10,000 hours learning maths, engineering, computer science and art, and then solving problems in a competitive environment such as FRC, we believed that we could invigorate our local creative class by showing our students that they could achieve the lifestyle that they want while remaining here.
While the concept is sound, it is difficult for ninth graders with little or no training in critical and divergent thinking to complete such a rigorous program by graduation. As a result, we spend most of our efforts on courses-of-study designed to prepare students for 8KIT.
Fab Lab
As we pursued ways for our students to learn the analytical, design and production skills that it takes to be sufficient, we continued to grow our tool arsenal. One such tool that we coveted after seeing one on a tour of Medtronics was a 3D printer. Unfortunately, most of the options available at the time were either very expensive or not capable of making parts for prototyping.
We eventually found SeeMeCNC–a printer manufacturer from Goshen–during a RepRap meetup. They offered printers capable of high precision and accuracy for less than $1,500.00. We bought several kits from them. It was neat to be able to go to their small shop and see them using machines to make other machines. To see a few smart people leveraging digital fabrication to fulfill their dreams was disruptive and inspiring.
We wanted to follow the SeeMeCNC of using digital fabrication; but instead of making machines, we wanted to help people use the machines to make businesses. Maker spaces were growing in popularity at the time. Fab Labs from MIT are one such example. They emphasize digital fabrication as the primary means of production. We purchased laser cutters, CNC mills and other equipment to qualify as a Fab Lab with the intent that people would use the lab develop their business ideas.
Fab Academy
While Fab Labs focus on providing access to equipment, Fab Academy focuses on teaching people how to use the equipment. It is a six-month course based on the Center-for-Bits-and-Atoms course, “How to Make Almost Anything.”
The course taught us how to integrate digital fabrication into our design process. It also gives us access to a store of knowledge and skilled individuals. However, rather than make making more accessible, Fab Academy demonstrates how steep a learning curve digital fabrication requires. We did not understand that for a long time. The building techniques that we saw at SeeMeCNC was a mote in our collective eye: the desire to share digital fabrication with others prevented us from realizing that people just want to build. We were making building too complicated.
Asmbly
In March of 2023, I went to SXSW for the EdTech conference. While I was there, I visited Asmbly–a maker space based in Austin.
At 8,000 s.f., I was impressed by the scope of the space. With more than 400 members, I was also impressed with how organized it was since at the time it was completely run by volunteers.
What stood out the most, though, was why the members with whom I spoke joined Asmbly. To a person, they said that they joined to use the equipment. They just wanted to make things.
This was a revelation to me since we had focused on digital fabrication almost to the exclusion of other forms of production. While it is extremely powerful, the learning bandwidth that it requires makes it less attractive than those other forms.
So, I returned to Northwest Indiana not with a new mission but with an expanded one: to make a place for people who just want to build. It so happened that one of our founders, Leslie Samelson, learned that a family friend wanted to sell the old Burnham Glove Factory. It seemed like a great space to have a workshop. We moved into the property in September of 2023 and have spent the time since preparing for use.
Majik Faktory
That is how Majik Faktory came to be. While this page records the steps that we took to arrive at this point, Majik is a living organism and will continue to evolve. It was a long path but our journey continues. Welcome to Majik Faktory. Let’s build the future together.