Maker Spaces: Adam Savage Tours Ryan Nagata’s Workshop!

In this new series, Adam Savage visits makers to learn about their work spaces and how they build. We first stop by the new shop of spacesuit replica builder Ryan Nagata. Ryan moved into this space after working out of a garage, and chats with Adam about how he organizes and utilizes his tools for costume and prop fabrication.

Shot by Joey Fameli
Edited by Adam Isaak
Music by Jinglepunks

Comments (34)

34 thoughts on “Maker Spaces: Adam Savage Tours Ryan Nagata’s Workshop!

  1. I’ve been hoping you would do something like this for a while now, so I’m excited to see this and what comes next! I’m thinking it would be awesome seeing big shops and little shops, and Individual spaces, team shops, and maker spaces.

  2. Get out of his hair? Unlikely. I’m sure Adam picked his brain for those ideas that we saw forming in Adams own brain, like what was the website for the custom cutting mats.

    8p

  3. Good luck Ryan! Shop looks awesome!

    Quick questin: Don’t you feel lowering the sewing machines into table level would be more comfortable?

  4. Good for him. Very cool. I wish him luck. He’s doing what a lot of us dream about doing — taking our hobby and making it into our day job.

  5. Awesome, I believe there is a Maker Space in downtown Denver, I’d love to visit but it’s hard to find time to get out of the burbs with the kids. I do have a need for a table saw for a few jobs so I gotta check them out and make the time. Thank you for this video.

  6. IIRC last time Tested visited Harrison Krix he was still in his garage. His new shop (shared with the excellent cosplay seamstress GSTQ Fashions) would be an excellent subject of one of these… and since he’s in Atlanta, he’d be an easy visit if Adam is going to Dragoncon this year 🙂

    I think Norm mentioned that they already did a tour of Frank’s new shop, so I can’t wait to see that too!

  7. Next time you’re in DC, Adam, I’d be happy to give you a tour of Nova Labs, or to hook you up with other Nova Labs folk. We just added a welding area to our metal shop (across from the Matsura Tiger huuuuuge CNC) and I got to screw up my first couple of beads!

  8. Is it the kit from Dragon Models? I gotta pick up a vehicle from them. Congrats on the new shop btw.

  9. Another stellar production. This is so exciting to see workspaces evolve. I am learning so much from these.

  10. Thanks so much for this series! Really inspiring and idea generating for someone like me in the early stages of setting up a workshop. Love the space, worktables, smaller scale machines and storage consideration. Also great when people are so open about showing their personal spaces. Thanks Ryan, Adam and Tested 🙂

  11. This is great, I also would love to have space like that, unfortunately I just do hobby stuff at home, and makes no income to afford it’s own space 🙂

    I would would be great if hobbyists show their home setup, to show what can be done with small spaces, and still have a great work space, here is mine from a few years ago:

  12. I bought my first apartment last fall, and finally have space to set up my various equipment.

    So far I have only set up my printshop, in one of my three storage spaces. It isn’t huge (about 15×10 feet) but after spending five years printing in my living room/kitchen in San Francisco, this is a big step up 🙂

    Haven’t got a recent photo, but this is a shot after I got the big stuff moved in, some ridiculously heavy cabinets of lead type (Adam’s “to hell with drawers” philosophy isn’t really an option for us printers :)) and a Vandercook SP-15 press which I restored last summer. Been dreaming of a setup like this for ages.

  13.   Nice. Did you buy in a former industrial space conversion? Do you have issues with the weight of those cabinets when they’re filled and the press? How much tonnage are we looking at?

  14. Very inspiring to see other spaces. I am really looking forward to future installments of this new segment. Thanks Tested.

  15. Not an industrial conversion 🙂 just a block of 12 apartments, where each apt. has a pair of storage units like this in the non-finished basement (and one in the hallway outside the apartment which will probably become my regular workshop for non-printing stuff).

    Tonnage is pretty substantial for the type. Each case (printer’s term for drawers of type) weighs somewhere between 20-45kgs, so with 60 cases that is approximately 1,950kgs. They are fairly solid to hold that weight, I’d put the filled cabinets somewhere north of 2100kgs total. Each cabinet now also has a rack of spacing material on top, weighing about 75kgs each.

    So in total, that stuff weighs about the same as the average car, with passengers.

    The press is about 350kgs.

    Since it is in the basement, there is no problem with the weight. It was a lot of work getting it down there, though. :p

  16. oh man, an actual typesetting and printing workshop! this is heaven! 😀 what kind of stuff do you do with it?

  17. I moved back to Norway from San Francisco last year and only got things set up here a few weeks ago, so there hasn’t been an awful lot of printing going on in the new shop yet.

    I print all sorts of stuff, both for myself and the occasional client. I’ve done wedding invites, birthday/holiday cards, business-cards and posters etc., but I also teach workshops to students and others who are interested in the craft. You can see some of my work and other printing related stuff (such as press restoration) on my Instagram http://www.instagram.com/kimaboe

    I’m a graphic designer working mostly in digital interaction design (aka. apps) so most of my days are spent at the computer. Typesetting and letterpress printing is a nice, design-related hobby to balance out all the screen-time.

  18. i can imagine that. there’s something deeply satisfying about hands-on crafts, isn’t it? the products have a different heft to them, and having to do things by hand lends a certain kind of appreciation for details that could be altered digitally with practically no effort.

    (at least that’s how i feel about my wood bows compared to what most of the guys at the archery range are shooting)

    also, i’m always thrilled to discover a fellow type nerd. 😀

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