About the Maker
I’ve been taking things apart, fixing them, modifying them and building new things for as long as I can remember.
That probably started with my father. He was very much a “why buy a new one if we can fix it ourselves?” kind of person. Repairing or making something was almost always preferable to replacing it — and paying someone else to do a job you could figure out yourself wasn’t high on his list either. I learned a lot from him, including the perhaps slightly dangerous conviction that almost anything can be repaired if you’re willing to find out how it works.
As a teenager, that meant completely dismantling engines from mopeds and motorcycles — and, importantly, getting them running again afterwards.
Over the years the projects became rather more diverse: repairing household appliances, rebuilding parts of houses, designing electronics, machining components and making whatever was needed when an off-the-shelf solution wasn’t quite right.
My approach to repairs has always been simple: start taking it apart and see where we end up. So far, the success rate has been surprisingly good. Never repaired or built something like it before? Neither had I the first time. Worst case, I’ll learn how it works. Best case, it works again — with no mysterious screws left over.
My technical education followed much the same path. I studied electrical engineering and electronics at LTS, MTS and HTS level in the Netherlands. Especially during LTS, that education was very hands-on and also included traditional workshop skills such as metalworking, machining and woodworking. Much later, I added an MBA, which admittedly involved considerably fewer lathes and soldering irons.
The tools changed along the way as well. Designs that once started with pencil, ruler and paper moved to 2D drawing software such as CorelDRAW and eventually to full 3D CAD in Fusion 360. Today, 3D printers, CNC, laser engraving and modern electronics sit alongside traditional hand and power tools in my workshop.
Professionally, I took a different but equally technical route. I built a career in IT, ran my own company for ten years and have spent almost twenty years working in cybersecurity. During that career I’ve occupied positions ranging from doing the technical work myself — with my boots firmly in the mud — to management and company director, and quite a few things in between.
In 2027 I’ll retire from professional life.
I have no intention of retiring from making things.
9M2 CREATORY is where all those years come together: engineering, electronics, IT, design, fabrication, curiosity and a lifelong reluctance to accept that something is impossible simply because nobody sells it.
If I can understand how it works, there’s a reasonable chance I’ll try to build it.
And if it breaks, well… now I have another project.
How 9M2 CREATORY Came to Be
The need for a dedicated workshop really became obvious in 2020, during one particularly ambitious maker project: building a motorized Dobsonian telescope mount in my living room.
It involved mechanical design, electronics, motors, controllers, fabrication, testing and plenty of tools and parts. It was great fun — but having an increasingly well-equipped workshop slowly spread across the living room was perhaps not the most sustainable arrangement. It also turns out that not every member of a household shares the same enthusiasm for having machine tools, electronics and half-finished telescope parts permanently integrated into the living-room décor.
The opportunity came when our children had moved out and a room became available. Rather than letting perfectly good square metres go to waste, I gradually transformed it into a dedicated workshop.
That room measures only about nine square metres.
Over the years it has evolved into what is now 9M2 CREATORY: a compact but fully equipped makerspace where virtually every cubic centimetre has been put to work. 3D printers, CNC, laser engraving, electronics equipment, power tools, hand tools, materials, components and work surfaces all coexist in a space that really has no business containing this much equipment.
And yet, somehow, it does.
In hindsight, building a motorized telescope in the living room may have been one of my better ideas. It eventually got me an entire workshop.