Camp Starblock

Camp Starblock LLC · Northern Minnesota

Building the future, one family at a time.

A family maker camp. You design the first kit piece at home in Tinkercad. You show up already in the iteration loop. Message @Stina_Lotus — no camp email.

Open TinkercadOpen the camp appJoin a cohort
Camp Starblock poster: families building at a northern Minnesota lakeside shop

Why this exists

Most kids arrive as consumers.

Screens. Kits that only go together one way. Adult hands doing the hard parts. We refuse that. The only requirement is to show up with something you made.

  • Parents stay. This is not drop-off camp.
  • Hands on the part. Cut, fit, fail, try again.
  • Units in millimeters. Geometry that scales at camp.
Hands assembling cube connectors and rods on a workbench

The loop

Design. Make. Test. Iterate.

  1. 01

    Design

    The first kit piece is designed at home in Tinkercad. Parent and child as co-pilots from day zero.

  2. 02

    Make

    At camp we cut, fit, and assemble. Real geometry. Real parts. No entertainment screens.

  3. 03

    Test

    Does the hole fit the rod? Does the lattice stand? The part either works or it does not.

  4. 04

    Iterate

    Change one dimension. Rebuild. Compare v1 and v2. That is the loop we protect.

First object

The modular connector

20 mm cube. 6 mm hole. Optional second axis. This is the simplest useful object that teaches the core loop.

Connector studio

Live dimensions

Same object as the pre-camp CAD. Change a number. Watch the part.

Solid volume
~7435 mm³
Name it
Family-Connector-v1

Kit pieces

Modular connector

20 × 20 × 20 mm cube, 6 mm through-hole

The atom. Solid + hole + dimension control. First object in the pre-camp CAD session.

Lattice node

Two 6 mm holes at 90°, optional 4 mm counterbore

Turns the cube into a 3-axis joint. Frames and lattices snap in minutes.

Adjustable strut

80 × 8 × 8 mm beam, holes at both ends

Teaches tolerance. A 2 mm slot lets a second piece slide and lock with a pin.

Family kit plate

60 × 60 × 3 mm base, 40 mm hole square

Drop connector and strut onto it. One plate goes home. One stays as the camp reference.

Close-up of a cube, strut, and base plate on stone and graph paper

From Canva

Camp art

Full gallery
Camp Starblock poster: families building at dusk by a northern Minnesota lake
Building the future. Together.
Camp Starblock one-pager with lakeside workshop and 5–15 family cohorts
Official one-pager
Official Camp Starblock lakeside shop with CAD tables and parent-child teams
Official Camp Starblock

Age guidance

4–8

Parent drives

Kid chooses shapes, colors, and names. Keep sessions under 15 minutes. Celebrate the finished object.

9–12

Kid does the majority

Parent sits as co-pilot. Answers questions. Does not take over.

13–16

Full ownership

Parent can design a parallel piece. Compare notes. Treat it as a shop, not a class.

Timber workshop at the edge of a Minnesota pine forest at dusk

Pilot cohorts, 5–15 families.

Northern Minnesota. Hands-on. Small on purpose. If you already live in a build loop — shop, code, flight hardware, farm, studio — this is for you.

Tell us who is coming