There aren't many places where people with zero aeronautic experience can help build a lunar lander. But that's exactly what Earl Powell is doing at TechShop, located at 120 Independence Drive in Menlo Park.

   Powell graduated from Southern Illinois University with an industrial arts degree and intended to teach the field, but was sidetracked to pursue a career in solar technology. Now, four decades later, thanks to TechShop, he has the opportunity to share his passion to teach, leading two classes metal spinning spinning and wood turning. 

   After one of his classes at one of the weekly Friday night, TechShop mixers, Powell struck up conversation with fellow TechShop member Will Baird, who he had seen attempting to build a rocket that could land on the moon.

     Baird told Powell that he was sending pieces of the rocket to Canada to get them worked on, which prompted Powell to let him know that he could get that service done locally. And just like that, Powell agreed to help make fuel tanks for the rocket that's now part of a project they hope will win the Google Lunar X Prize competition.

    At TechShop, similar stories happen all the time.  More than 600 members frequent the establishment to utilize the space and tools they need to turn their dreams into reality.  Oftentimes, they will meet others with whom they can share their schematics.

    "A lot of collaboration happens here," said James Erd, also member of Team Phoenicia, the crew working on the lunar lander. "It's a hub for a lot of innovators."

    Erd is a former machinist who stepped away from the business because he felt it stunted his creativity. But still with a urge to build, he paid the $99 membership fee to TechShop and gained access to a spacious garage that is fully stocked with tools, computers and machinery.

     "At work I couldn't make what I wanted to," said Erd. "But here, anything that I can imagine, I can build."

    After a few months of working and teaching classes at TechShop, similar to Powell, Erd was enlisted by Baird to assist with the lunar lander. Erd offered fabrication expertise and a translated his knowledge of cars to wiring the rocket.

    "There's things that I know and bring with me that others don't, and vice versa," said Erd when asked about his motivation.

    Team Phoenicia hopes that they will become another chapter in the book of successes being written at TechShop during the four years it has been open.

    Other successes include the creation of a bamboo iPad case which is now sold commercially, a man-powered downhill racer that exceeds 45 mph and has won national competitions, and a high-powered electronic cooling system for computer servers made by Clustered Systems, which recently received  a $2.8 million development grant from the federal government.

    Stories like these, and many others, are the part of the reason why TechShop is expanding. Another branch will open in San Francisco next year, and expansions to San Jose and beyond state borders to New York, Portland, Detroit and other cities are being planned as well.

    Each new location will feature the same tools and machinery as the the original Menlo Park facility, which provides members access to machines that work on pretty much any other material they could imagine.

    If the member has a vision, and provides their own material, TechShop will provide the equipment, and classes how to use it.

    "This is not just a garage," said Terry Sandin, who will manage the San Francisco branch. "It's a community where knowledge and making connections with people is more powerful than any tool."

    For those not looking to make a million dollars or land on the moon, TechShop offers that opportunity as well.

    Menlo Park store manager Michael Catterlin said one of the members is using the garage's equipment in an attempt to create jewelry-grade diamonds.

    The man's dream is to eventually make a ring that consists solely of synthetic diamonds for his wife, said Catterlin.

    Visions like these are what happens when TechShop makes equipment available to people that wouldn't normally have the same access.

    "We are bringing high-priced equipment and making it accessible to the people," said Joe Menard, TechShop's Vice President of Product Management and Sales.
"Whatever you can imagine can be made here."

   To Earl Powell, shop teacher turned rocket maker, the story is much more simple.

   "This is the shop I always dreamed of," he said.