Makerspace Fox. Build opens in St. Charles

ST. CHARLES - A new collaborative makerspace, Fox. Build, has opened in Downtown St. Charles.

Tim Allen and Rick Carlino started Fox. Build after seeing a need for a space that would allow collaboration and a sense of community in the Fox Valley. It allows for all forms of creativity including writing code, carving wood, building machines, or solving a problem.

Allen and Carlino met at a makerspace in Naperville and wanted to bring the idea to the Fox Valley.

"Makerspaces are still an up and coming idea for communities," Allen said. "We want to partner with as many schools, libraries and community groups to allow for easy access to a creative atmosphere that helps foster the makers, inventors, hackers, and learners to continue, in whatever medium."

Bosch Tools and Dremmel are sponsors for the space. Tools can be found all around the shared space for interested members to try out. Members can take advantage of energetic work space and the ability to bounce ideas off each other, including Paul Krush of GemHunt.com, who is creating a Coin Sorter System and Nick Dale who creates incredible reptile terrariums.

With membership only being $60 a month for a space to work and access to top-of-the line equipment, Fox. Build encourages interest individuals to come check them out.

One of the major success stories in the Fox. Build family is Carlino's latest venture, FarmBot. FarmBot is an innovative home gardening robot that has been featured in Wired Magazine, Smithsonian Initiation and several other tech news sources. FarmBot is essentially drag and drop farming tool that has raised $813,000 in 30 days with the product launch. Currently, FarmBot kits include a machine that's installed around a small garden. Once built, FarmBot performs nearly the entire gardening process prior to harvesting, including planting the seeds, watering each plant precisely and on a set schedule, checking conditions, and even handling the weeds.

"It's been a crazy ride and we seem to have found our demographic with the serious gardeners. We have been blown away with the tech and gardening communities support and we are excited for FarmBots future," Carlino said.