The Spot: A Place to Create
Welcome to The Spot at Riverside Public Library, a place to bring your imagination to life! With our collection of tools, no project is impossible.
The Spot is open Monday - Saturday by appointment.
3D Printing  | Mold Maker |  Laser Etching  | Cutting
Embroidery  | Heat Presses  | Button Maker/Punch  |  Photo/Video
Using the Spot
In order to use the equipment within The Spot, a person must be a Riverside Public Library cardholder in good standing. A liability waiver needs to be signed prior to use of any equipment. Once the liability waiver is signed, you must request an appointment time and date. We require a 24-hour advanced notice for an appointment. Appointments are not required for 3D printing. Some equipment does require a staff member to be present. Please see the liability waiver for additional information on use and restrictions.
Questions, comments, or concerns, please email thespot@riversidelibrary.org.
The Spot Policy & Waiver
The Spot Appointment Request
3D Print Request
Material Price List
The Spot
DIY Kits
Coming in December
Use of The Spot is available by appointment only at this time. Please fill out the form with as much information as possible. Submission does not guarantee the time and date of request is available. The library will reach out to you to confirm appointment date and time. Please refer to The Spot Policy for use restrictions.
Equipment:
Prusa i3 MK3S+ 3D Printer
Looking to take the design you have created, and turn it into a 3-dimensional object? Look no further than The Spot’s Prusa i3 MK3S+ 3D Printer! Using PLA filament (made of corn and coconut fibers,) we can turn your imagined ideas into reality! While the advancements in technology are awe inspiring, we do not allow for the printing of items prohibited by local, state, and federal law including but not limited to guns, weapons, and obscene materials.
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To begin your design process, there are many free tools available online. Tinkercad.com is a great, free, web-based 3D modeling program that can help jump start your design process. Printables.com is another great site that has pre-designed items that you can select to print and modify to your liking!
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To request a 3D print, please fill out this form, and the library will be in contact with you with additional information. Maximum object print size: 9.84” x 8.3” x 8.3”. Please allow 1 – 2 weeks to complete.
Mayku Formbox Mold Maker
Recreate shapes in minutes with industrial grade vacuum forming at your fingertips! The Mayku FormBox allows you to take almost any object and create a detailed mold. The FormBox is able to pick up detail as small as a grain of sand to make sure your project as high quality as possible. With options for food-safe molds, the possibilities to create are endless!
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Vacuum Forming Info
FormBox How-to Video
Check out Mayku’s project page here to see what people are working on and to get some ideas of your own.
Glowforge Pro
Glowforge 3D laser printer creates beautiful things at the push of a button. You can make an endless variety of useful, beautiful, and practical things from a bunch of different materials like wood, leather, felt, fabric, acrylic, paper, and more. With Glowforge, you will put a piece of material like leather, wood, or acrylic in the machine and it carves out your product-using laser light. The technical name for the category of tools that includes Glowforge is a CNC laser cutter engraver.
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Cricut Maker 3
The Cricut Maker 3 is an electronic cutting machine that can be used on over 300 materials. The smart tool system enables you to switch out 13 different tools to score, cut, draw, deboss, engrave, and even foil a variety of materials.
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Brother PE800 Embroidery Machine
The Brother PE800 Embroidery machine features 138 built-in embroidery designs including scrollwork, florals, and quilt patterns. There are seven fonts in English, three in Japanese, and one Cyrillic to make monogramming and lettering a breeze. There is also a USB port, which allows you to import your own designs into the machine's memory. Compatible file types include .pes, .dst, .phc, and .pen. Moreover, with a 3.2” inch LCD color touchscreen, you will be able to preview your designs before embroidering!
To start, you will need a pattern that you want to embroider. You can also look for patterns at sites like Creativefabrica.com and Embroiderydesigns.com.
*Please note, at this time, we do NOT have software to convert an image into an embroidery pattern. You can find services online that, for a nominal fee, will convert your image to an embroidery pattern, one of them being Zdigitizing.com.
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Cricut EasyPress 2 & Dododum Mini Heat Press
The Cricut EasyPress is a heat tool designed specifically for adding iron-on materials to your creative projects. It gives you professional iron-on results in 60 seconds or less. You can use a Cricut EasyPress to iron designs onto shirts, bags, pillows, banners, shoes, hats, blankets, and much more.
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Unlike a conventional iron, the EasyPress applies even, consistent pressure. Its digital control panel gives you full control over the temperature settings and includes a handy timer. Those settings really take the guesswork out of iron-on projects!
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Button Maker & Graphic Punch
Need a bunch of buttons made fast? Look no further! The Spot offers two button machines to make 1” or 2.25” buttons*. In order to make button making even faster, use our graphic punch to cut out perfectly sized images. You can also print your designs at the library if you need to (standard printing pricing).
The library does have button-making kits available for sale (you need to provide your own art).
1” Button Kit: Makes 5 Complete Buttons - $1.00
2.25” Button Kit: Makes 5 Complete Buttons - $1.00
*While you may bring your own buttons, we cannot promise they will work in our machines. If you would like to purchase materials that we also use, please visit AmericanButtonMachine.com. Please note, due to the wrapping of the image onto the button, final product images may be slightly smaller than 1" or 2.25".
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Photography & Videography
Neewer 700W Light Kit
A 2-piece extendable light kit with umbrella covers to improve photo and video projects.
Neewer 5’ x 7’ Chromakey Collapsible Backdrop and T-stand
Use our T stand with our collapsible green screen or your own backdrop.
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Information: