Our Journey as Makers

As a maker, I started out with very little in the way of tools and skills. I was just starting college and started BountyBunker with Taylor as a fun experiment. Like most of my expirements at that age, I almost expected it to fizzle out after a few weeks or months, but it didn’t.

All we had were some cans of spray paint and some toys off of Amazon or eBay that we repainted. As time went on, we invested more money into materials. We bought sandpaper, rub’n buff and more paint. We kept investing the money we made into more tools. As our needs grew, our arsenal of tools matched it. My dad saw my hobby growing and generously gave me some of his old tools or duplicate. I got my first drill, hammer and tape measure and it felt like there was something to this.

Then, the big one happened. We came across this new fangled contraption called a 3D printer. We were enamored with this new machine and just had to have one. There was just a small problem, we were poor college kids and they were expensive. Luckily, I had an amazing uncle that saw our passion and gave us a “business loan” for the printer. We both felt guilty accepting such an offer but the temptation of creation at our fingertips was too much to bare.

So began The BountyBunker renaissance. We started 3D printing like crazy and we made a Decent chunk of change from it. Just before heading off to our own apartment for college, we paid off our business loan and we’re ready to start in a new place. During college, our workspace was a small room but it was enough. I slowly collected more and more tools and with it, the skills required to operate them.

Unfortunely, during that point in our lives, time was in short supply and our shop was taking up too much of it. Years went by and I’d make stuff occasionally. We moved again and my workspace was even smaller, a closet absolutely packed with everything we had acquired over the years. I don’t know why but my hobby started to feel like a chore more than something I enjoyed. So I did what I needed to and took a break from it while I gained some fresh perspective.

Enter the Pandemic (Dun dun duuuuuuunnn). I suddenly was at home all the time and needed something to do. Oddly enough I felt an urge pulling me back to that dark cramped closet. A layer of dust over all my tools showed their lack of use over the course of the past year. I decided to give it a shot and jump back in but not for money this time, but something far more valuable, fun.

Fast forward a few more years and we have a house, a small one, but a house. It has a garage that Taylor kindly let me turn into a workspace and I’ve never been more happy with my hobby. I have more space than I ever had before and I have more tools than I have space for. My skills have been refined and I’ve picked up quite a few new ones on the way, but there’s always something more I can learn. I’ve been branching out, trying new things, new techniques and making has become more than a hobby. It has become a true passion, to be able to create something and say “I made that”.

-Josh