Quelab is having some upstream mailserver problems right now, so if you just got home from the Albuquerque Maker Faire, and are sending us an email. it might bounce or fail please try again in a few days or hit us up on facebook! Or Drop by for open hacknight Tuesday 7pm-10pm
Last month we celebrated our 6 year opening day — Just last week we celebrated our 6 years since our official Grand opening! It’s hard not to feel like a proud parent watching it grow and get better all the time!
2010
2013
Take a stroll with us through the good times.
Iconic moments from Quelab’s last 3+ years (slideshow)
Some older iconic moments at Quelab. (slideshow)
In our our early days we had less than 1,400 square feet of space, we are now pushing 10,000 square feet with a huge selection of tools and equipment we never dreamed we would get to acquire. But it is not the tools or the space that is what makes Quelab so special — it’s the members, the supportive friends, and the whole Maker Movement that is what makes the magic happen!
This 4th of July, many of us near Albuquerque are living with the fresh memory of the Dog Head Fire — 17 thousand acres just went poof! — a few miles out of town, it’s now considered 95% contained, but as hot and fierce as it burned, it’s important to continue looking for fireless ways for people to celebrate. Since 2012 I (Adric) have collected ideas for sending out to friends, and Quelab friends.
I know my mother, who supported the responsible use of fireworks to entertain us kids, hated anything that went boom or whistled. (and if it flew in the air, it was pretty much forbidden by our county firework laws) This naturally made me love and lust for anything that whistled, boomed, or flew in the air. But her lessons on knowing where to safely set up fireworks, how to set up buckets and hoses and all to make sure we could contain anything that did start to burn, and other general safety ideas did stick with me. I’m not in favor of banning personal fireworks, but i do plead that everyone who uses them please be careful and responsible!
On with the Fireless Stuff!
Some of these can be combined as entertainment before and after the fireworks (no matter if it’s a big stadium display or your own small home one).
All ages ideas:
A bazooka that does not explode — and despite the fact it sucks, it throws a pingpong ball or paper ball pretty far!
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-a-Vacuum-cleaner-Bazooka/
Smoke ring cannon, with dry ice fog
http://www.instructables.com/id/Dry-Ice-Smoke-Ring-Cannon-No-fog-machine-necessa/
Salt paint fireworks, (might be fun to setup some blowgun targets with paintballs and see if salt will stick to the “paint”) …
http://busymommymedia.com/firework-salt-painting/
Fourth of July slime
http://www.pleasantestthing.com/4th-july-activity-make-slime
Dish brush painted fireworks
http://www.craftymorning.com/kids-fireworks-craft-using-dish-brush/
Wind twirls
http://happyhooligans.ca/patriotic-wind-twirlers-paper-towel-rolls/
Make pretty giant stars out of nothing but paperbags and glue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAYLq1k264I
Bubblewrap machine gun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76usvBPZbSk
On the food front we have:
Alton Brown’s Favorite 4th recipes
http://altonbrown.com/alton-browns-july-4th-recipes/
Stained Glass Jello
http://www.instructables.com/id/Stained-Glass-Jello/
Red White and Blue Layered Drinks for kids.
http://artsymomma.com/2013/07/red-white-blue-layered-kids-drink-4th-of-july.html
And Red White and Blue Drinks for adults.
http://www.countryliving.com/food-drinks/g2465/boozy-4th-of-july-drinks/
Pizza Box Solar Smores!
http://www.stevespanglerscience.com/lab/experiments/solar-oven/
#Danger# Section:
Exploding water bottle bb/blowgun/pellet targets.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rDRFFSUrPI
Liquid nitrogen can be pretty hard to get, and surely needs a little more safety, but here is a build for liquid nitrogen and water rocket launcher.
https://youtu.be/jrRmID81wrc
This one is for home made caps/exploding targets, it’s not entirely fireless, the compound does explode but there is no sustained flame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctX3juq9Okw
#needs work section:
Glowing fountain (blacklight), this one was a bit of a failure, but i suspect the addition of some yellow highlighter marker ink, and a brighter blacklight could probably make this work. But its good to know others are also on the hunt.
https://tutorialsformyparents.com/how-to-create-the-fireless-firework-a-humbling-scientific-exploration-and-thoughtful-relfection-on-the-michelson-morley-experiment/
Link to 2015’s Fireless Fourth, which also links back 2014, 2012, 2011!
https://quelab.net/19047/quelabs-annual-fireless-4th-collection-of-links/
All community meetings are open to members of the public. Please bring a potluck dish if you’d like to join us at 4 PM. You are welcome to stay for our hack night at 7 PM as well! We hope to see you there!
Quelab is open to the public for hacknight every Sunday and Tuesday from 7 PM to 10 PM, this is a great time to check out Quelab, have a tour of the space, and meet some of the wonderful folks in our community of makers.
See our calendar at quelab.net
Morgan Gangwere (Statement)
Charel Morris (Statement)
John Benedetto
Craig Goldsmith (Zoot) (Statement)
Don “Gonner” Menning
Andrew King
John Murray
Ben Cole (Statement)
Darrel Knutson (Statement)
Darren Moody (Statement)
Jeremy Hoel
Rebecca Snyder
Quelab is proud to announce that the IRS has approved 501(c)3 nonprofit status for us!
Quelab has been a New Mexico nonprofit, partnered with School Factory as our fiscal sponsor, for the last four years. We very much appreciate their ongoing support and assistance as we prepare for our transition to becoming our own 501(c)3 nonprofit. Having our own 501(c)3 means that we are now a federally tax-exempt non-profit on our own, and we are very excited about the new possibilities for Quelab!
We still have much to do as we prepare for this new phase of our growth, but we wanted to go ahead and share the news with all of our supporters so you can share the excitement with us! Thank you so much to all of our members, friends, event attendees, partner organizations, and YOU!
The next Quelab community meeting is scheduled for Sunday October 4th 2015 at 4:00 PM.
Please bring something for the potluck at 4:00PM, and we’ll start the meeting at 5:05 PM. If there is anything you would like to discuss at the meeting, bring it up to one of the officers, and we’ll put it on the agenda.
Hack night will begin at 7:00 PM as usual, so bring your projects as well as a dish to share!
Hi there, Im Adric. I love fireworks, Big, Small Loud/Smok!! But this year like several in the past, I have very much enjoyed collecting ideas and links for Kids and adults to do in places where fireworks are either not legal, not safe or not advisable. Some of these ideas can be used to entertain away the long hours it takes to get dark for the big shows, Or your own fireworks.
As always I don’t claim the rights to any of these ideas, (unless otherwise noted). But I do encourage people to share this post Share it on your social media, share it to your clubs and school groups. Its all a fun part of learning to DIY!
-This one is a fun color changing drink: starts off with a purple(blue) liquid, and mix in a clear (white) and you get a pink(red) right in front of your eyes.
http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Color-Changing-Sports-Drink-Mocktail/
-Red, White and Blue Patriotic Parfaits
http://www.ehow.com/info_12340443_red-white-blue-patriotic-parfaits.html
-OOPS, this is a repeat from last year! sorry, but its still fun! Not technically a firework, but still cool, and I think some skybloom fireworks look like jellyfish, make a pseudo jellyfish!
-Or How about DIY Origami Fireworks:
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Origami-Fireworks/
Steve spangler show’s both the yeast, and the potassium iodide version of Elephant Toothpaste (in a Red White and blue motif):
-Funfetti or sprinkles to paint teeny firework paintings?
http://www.readingconfetti.com/2012/06/sprinkle-fireworks.html
-Glowsticks in old refilled water bottles, then pick your favorite ball. and night time bowling!
-15 second paper screamer.
http://www.instructables.com/id/15-Second-Paper-Screamer/
-This one requires liquid nitrogen, and there is a danger frostburn or bottle fragmentation, but i think the risk is pretty low.
-Smoke ring launcher (on the subject of cold stuff, this can be done with dry ice)
http://www.instructables.com/id/Dry-Ice-Smoke-Ring-Cannon-No-fog-machine-necessa/
-Diy stomp rockets, 2l soda bottle, and an old innertube,
http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Stomp-Rockets/
-Past years collections
Quelabs 2014 Fireless 4th links
Quelabs 2013 Fireless 4th links
Quelabs 2011 Fireless forth ideas
As always if if you do play with traditional fireworks keep a garden hose handy, and one or 2 buckets of water. and if your doing fountains, you might consider launching them from a ladder or other stand to get them up off the ground. It makes the fountains look more impressive, and more of the sparks are out before they can reach dry grasses or other combustibles.
Have ideas that have not been covered? send me a note and I will add them! Or collect them for next years post! adric at quelab.net
