If you have never been to a maker space before, the idea can sound more complicated than it is. Here is a straightforward look at what happens when you walk into Print and Play on Locke Street South.
What you see when you walk in
The printers are running. That is usually the first thing kids notice. A row of FDM printers building objects in real time — you can watch a part grow layer by layer while you wait. The shop is warm, smells faintly of plastic, and has finished pieces everywhere: hooks, figures, name plates, keychains, functional parts, art objects. All of it made in the shop.
How a walk-in session works
You come in, tell us what you want to make or look through the options, make a few design choices, and the staff sets up the print. While it runs, you can watch, ask questions, or look around the shop. When it finishes, you take it home. Most visits are 30 to 60 minutes from door to finished object.
How a workshop works
Workshops are more structured. A specific project is chosen in advance — a keychain, a name plate, a beginner CAD design — and the session walks through the design process step by step. Kids finish with something they built from a concept rather than a selection. Weekend workshops are posted on the events page and run for kids roughly 6 and up.
What kids actually do
They make choices: size, colour, text, shape. For more advanced workshops, they use beginner CAD tools to design from scratch. They watch a machine execute their decisions. They hold the result. That sequence — decide, build, hold — is the part that makes maker spaces stick with kids in a way that watching a video does not.
What parents usually say
The most common thing we hear from parents after a first visit is some version of "they haven't stopped talking about it." The second most common thing is a question about summer camps. Both are fine outcomes.
Print and Play is on Locke Street South in Hamilton. Walk-ins welcome. No membership, no prior experience needed.