In late 2008 a group came together in a rented room and proceeded to bend some electronics to their will. They liked it. They repeated this several times. At some point this motley crew had to give themselves a name. They settled on "Dayton Diode," a homage to their geographical locus and their primary interest.
By 2010 the Diodians caught the attention of Gary Turner and with his support they allied with the Dayton Microcomputer Association (DMA). Under the DMA umbrella Dayton Diode became DMA's makerspace SIG and with their help established a more permanent settlement. Our first home was at the Front Street complex. Because we had a place to call home we could broaden our scope to include woodshop tools and equipment. Then came the homemade metal furnace, with only cinder block and some sand coming between a successful casting and a five-alarm conflagration.
It was about this time that I joined. It was clear we were outgrowing our Front Street partition. Lucky for us another partition, much larger and with a view, became available. A long weekend had us move in. Then there was the rehab of the walls. The lighting was terrible and the layout was difficult to work with, but the large windows and high ceilings made it worth the trouble.
Then came the member with a sweetheart deal. We could move into his building and share space with his startup. It was great! High-visibility location, garage-door entry, 3-phase power and separate industrial and clean areas. Granted, the building had been sitting empty for a while. A burst water pipe the previous Winter made a mess of the interior. But we tackled the remediation, removing moldy insulation and scrubbing mold-covered walls before repainting over the mess. It was our largest space ever, even taking into account that we shared it with the business.
Times change.
The building became attractive to another group with deeper pockets. Our landlord had no choice but to let our lease run its course. He was nice about it, giving us plenty of time to figure out where to go and to make the move. Which we did, in September of 2017.
The last quarter of the year is a terrible time to make changes. Everyone seemed to have lots on their plates. The holidays had us busy outside of creative pursuits. But we made the move to our new home and, slowly, have settled in.
There's more settling to be done. But make no mistake -
Dayton Diode is still here for the Maker community.
We have some exciting times ahead.
(Continued in part two of this post)
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