Kingfield Group Hosts Coolest Shop Class You Never Had

Friday night, trek on down to 43rd and Nicollet to Southwest Minneapolis' local hacker space for a big dose of fun.

Leonardo's Basement is hosting their fifth annual Rube Goldgberg building competition from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. This year's theme, according to a post on the Kingfield Neighborhood Association's website, is "chemical causation." 

"This means that we will be really happy if your portion of the causation machine contains a simple or elaborate chemical reaction as part of its mechanical operation," the post says.

For $15, you'll get to help create a giant homage to the late cartoonist Rube Goldberg, famous for designing fanciful—and completely impractical—machines to perform simple household tasks. Here's what we wrote when we visited one such building event at Leonardo's Basement a few years ago:

The crisp sound of hammer against nail, the smell of saw dust, 40 or so people hunched over tables, tinkering with ramps and pulleys, a tiny Gonzo figurine catapulting off a mousetrap. This was the scene at Leonardo’s Basement a few weeks back. It was like a cool version of a shop class, complete with roaming instructors offering advice and brief shrieks of delight when a contraption, after much trial and error, finally worked. 

Sound cool?