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"Ever used a laser cutter? How about a cold saw, ironworker, injection molder or 3D printer? If not, do you want to?\nNo matter your power-tool qualifications (or lack thereof), GE wants to give you a chance to get some hands-on time with them.\nThe company is launching a series of pop-up open workshops at South by Southwest called GE Garages. A promotion for its \u201CGE Works\u201D campaign, the garages are scheduled to appear in Houston, Cincinnati and San Francisco later in the year.\nTools in the garage are free, and they're open to anyone to use for their own projects (with \"support in product building\"). But since most people won\u2019t want to spend a whole day in the workshop when they\u2019re at SXSW, GE has defined some quick projects for the conference as well. \nThe projects include using an injection molder to make an iPhone case with a customized spot for mobile payment device Square. You can also weld together bike racks for the city of Austin and etch your name into a business-sized toolkit. If you\u2019re so inclined, you can subject your own mobile device to the engraving tools.\nGE partnered with collaborative development platform Quirky, peer-to-peer learning marketplace Skillshare, membership-based workshop and fabrication studio TechShop on the project. The garage was designed and built by an agency called Sub Rosa.\nDespite obvious liability issues involved in letting the public operate your power tools, GE global director of communications Linda Boff assures us there\u2019s no need to worry about lost fingers.\n\u201CWe have a lot of faith in people,\u201D Boff says. \u201CAnd the tools will be well supervised.\u201D\nWhat would you make in the GE Garage? Tell us in the comments. \n\n\n\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2012/03/08/ge-garages/>