Red Mountain Makers moves to ‘amazing’ location at Hardware Park

Until recently, nonprofit makerspace Red Mountain Makers operated in Woodlawn at Woodrow Hall, where it began in 2013.

The volunteer-based RMM offers its members a workshop, a laboratory, equipment and other resources, including classes, to help support their creative and research projects, primarily on the tech side.

Members can even get advice on taking their inventions to the next level.

However, the nonprofit needed more space than the 4,000 square feet it had in Woodlawn.

In February, RMM moved into a new 8,000-square-foot space in Hardware Park, a business campus downtown that blends engineering, innovation and manufacturing with education and workforce development.

Hardware Park, measuring 100,000 square feet, anchors the west end of the Innovation District at 811 Fifth Ave. N. in Smithfield.

The move is “incredibly exciting” for RMM, the group’s vice chair, Carlo Rezzonico, told Iron City Ink.

It allows the facility to offer more classes, workspace and studio rentals for small businesses and entrepreneurs, Rezzonico said.

And the new facility’s location — near UAB and the Innovation Depot — “is just amazing,” Rezzonico said.

“The proximity to this new community — Hardware Park, the other tenants, and the Innovation District — will foster additional growth and collaboration for Birmingham’s maker community,” he said.

RMM currently has 50 members, but that number is expected to grow in the new space.

“We want to get to 100 in a year,” Rezzonico said.

RMM members can take advantage of lots of gear, some of it big, expensive and specialized, he said.

That includes 3D printers, laser cutters, CNC (computer numerical control) machines, professional sewing machines and anvils and forges for blacksmithing.

The facility also offers a wood shop with table saws and other power tools, a metal shop, machining tools such as lathes and all kinds of welding gear.

In addition, RMM and Hardware Park are “a perfect match,” Rezzonico said.

Hardware Park brings together startups and creatives on the for-profit side, while RMM does something similar on the non-profit side, Rezzonico said.

“People get to do their product development, their manufacturing, at Hardware Park, and then they have a creative outlet by joining RMM,” he said.

Rezzonico said he takes pride in being part of RMM.

“We’ll be able to say we provided this to other people, something we love and are passionate about, and other people can do it with us,” he said.