If you ever wanted to know what 1800 degree (F) bronze looks like, the QC Co-Lab is the place you want to be. David Hinkle (Twitter: @drachs1978) constructed a blast furnace and used it to liquify bronze ingots for sandcasting coins. Tonight’s firing was a dry (or maybe molten) run, and a complete success. Hopefully tomorrow our MakerBot will produce a mold fine enough for use in casting a QC Co-Lab coin! Now if that doesn’t signify a great first day of a grand opening, I don’t know what does.

In addition, we had solder kits from Adafruit and Makershed, which were a big hit. A neighboring makerspace visitor showed up as well, Jonathan Barclay (Twitter: @jtbarclay) from Twin Cities Maker. Hopefully more of our hackerspace bretheren show up tomorrow.

We’re very excited to have all our speakers tomorrow, and to kick this thing off officially with our ribbon cutting ceremony. If you want to see the schedule of events, head on over to the Grand Opening page. Can’t wait for tomorrow, and see you soon!