The well publicized MakeIt Fest 2026 hosted by MakeIt Labs at 25 Crown St., Nashua, drew hundreds of participants from many towns and also out-of-state visitors to the day of learning, sharing and membership enrollments in the open-access community makerspace. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

Tom Doucet, a mechanical designer from Pepperell, Mass., and a member of MakeIt Labs, takes a turn during MakeIt Fest 2026 to work at his computer within the MakeIt Labs workspaces in the continuation of a work in progress, a Terminator T-800 endoskeleton whose finished iteration will be a creation of 6-feet, 3-inches in height made completely of 3D printed parts. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

Mike Catanese and his son, Dalcon, visited from Hudson and paused here at one of nearly 50 vendors whose products displayed for sale at MakeIt Fest 2026, alongside the MakeIt Labs building on Crown Street, included woodworking, pottery, textile weaving and ceramics glazing, in addition to open-access workshops where hobbyists, engineers, artists and students gather to learn and share their talents and skills. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

MakeIt Fest 2026 attractions include demonstrations of blacksmithing, performed here by MakeIt Lab member craftsmen, from left, John Haynes of Hudson, Thaddeus Williams of Nashua, and Bill Schongar of Mason, men whose ironworking tutoring presented during MakeIt Fest 2026 acquainted hundreds of visitors with the making of metal decor and implements hammered at an anvil upon handling with tools that included tongs, protective aprons, safety goggles and fireproof mitts. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

Welcoming hundreds to MakeIt Fest 2026, hosted June 13 at MakeIt Labs on Crown Street in Nashua, is this trio of dedicated MakeIt Labs event organizers, from left, Kathryn and Brad Goodman, residents of Nashua, and Jim Drewett, a MakeIt Labs member from Haverhill, Mass. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

A remotely controlled Star Wars replica resembling R2-D2 built by Nashua's Doug Wilcox, a MakeIt Labs member and robotics specialist, is displayed here, foreground left, accompanied by team members and robotic machines designed and operated by these members of FIRST Robotics Teams that include Tough Techs 151, FTC Team Avant-Garde 24018, Mayhem Robotics FTC 8724 and FTC Team 33574 — The Baby Sharks. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

John Cook, a member of the Granite State Modelers Club and a MakeIt Labs member from Nashua, displays at MakeIt Fest 2026 some of the hand-painted works and hand-detailed plastic kit models that he enjoys transforming into Armor, Aircraft, Sci-Fi machinery and pure 3-D-printed models, some comprised of more than 1,000 tiny parts for high detail. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON

Nashua's Liomar Romero, foreground, and fellow Nashuan Tom Callori, up top, representing Blackdog Builders' Lowell Kinetic Sculpture Race entry titled, "Moose," the name of a black dog, shares with Liomar at MakeIt Fest 2026 that a human-powered, all-terrain event from the crossroads of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics is upcoming on Sept. 19, wherein operators of the Sculptures traverse Lowell city streets, a mud pit, and the Merrimack River with games for kids, food trucks and music throughout the day. Info: lowellkinetic.com. Photo by LORETTA JACKSON