Dallas Makerspace Build the Beest

Strandbeest, a machine unlike any other.  Child of a brilliant engineer artist, the Beest was "birthed" by Dutch artist Theo Jansen, whose machine's organic movements have spawned variations that carry the DNA of the originals to be "birthed” by others. A group of Dallas Makerspace members saw the Strandbeest & bike build championed by Blaine Elliott  and we’ve decided to start our own, completely birthed from the wheelhouse of tools that makerspace encompasses. We've decided to document and share the entire experience with the world. 



Dallas Makerspace  is an all-volunteer non-profit located in Carrollton, Texas that is open 24-7 where its nearly 1,900 members build and realize maker-based creations.   With our resources at Dallas Makerspace and your funding we will make this happen. What will you get out of it you ask? You will be able to come along for the journey, follow our progress, have access to our CNC plans, and learn alongside us. 



This project will foster learning and cooperation between members, knowledge bases, committees, and general tool usage. Many areas of makerspace will be utilized: MultiCam CNC, 3D printing, Machining, silk screening custom “buildabeest” shirts – everything we do we will be doing under the roof of Dallas Makerspace. We are seeking $1000 to purchase the raw materials to create a full-sized functioning bike. This bike will be used and displayed at a number of maker, art and community shows throughout the area. We would like this campaign to be funded by the end of August, we believe with passionate makers backing this build we will be quickly successful in our campaign.  Any additional funds will go to advancing and upgrading tools in all areas of Makerspace to help the efficiency and ease of our build.



The team has completed much of the planning for this project, including test runs of the plans, and we are currently in the revision stage of design for producibility and as funds are received we will be immediately begin production on the machining and CNC cutting using our MultiCam.





Note that as this is an all-volunteer staffed build that ALL funds will be only spent on this hardware. No other funds will be required. Your dollars mean one thing – the belief that we can be successful in this endeavor. This crossover between the creation as well as the pursuit of the technical concepts required bring together a wide variety of personalities, allowing for avenues of communication and learning. Out of this project we will be releasing our CNC Strandbeest bike build plans to the general public and detailing the build as clearly as we can via www.buildabeest.com . We believe that our mistakes and growth in learning will benefit others who are seeking to build something similar.