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The local laser cutter place is running Full Spectrum ones and yeah, they are the most reliable ones by far. Same reasons.
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May 10, 2014 05:09
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Hillridge posted:It's super Chinese. The old one that burned down is a RL-150-1290 and the new one is a QX-80-1290, both from rabbitlaserusa.com Wow, the QX-80-1290 isn't significantly more expensive than the same model from China (especially considering the risk I'd have to take on in importing it). Plus, it looks like they're only a two hour drive away. How do you like the new one? This would be an upgrade from a 40W Full Spectrum laser for us.
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May 10, 2014 05:27
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Hillridge posted:We recently got a replacement for our laser cutter. The old one was privately owned and left when the owner moved. Do you have high-resolution versions of these images? I've been wanting to make a DO NOT LEAVE LASER CUTTER UNATTENDED poster for our shop for ages now (because students keep zoning out and I'm tired of dragging them back in) and those images would be perfect for it.
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May 10, 2014 08:31
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Zuph posted:Wow, the QX-80-1290 isn't significantly more expensive than the same model from China (especially considering the risk I'd have to take on in importing it). Plus, it looks like they're only a two hour drive away. The new one is significantly improved over the last one we had. It requires a little tinkering to get set up correctly, but has been fine after that. For you that wouldn't be an issue because you're 2 hours away. The company is owned by a guy named Ray, and every new laser comes with Ray. He would likely deliver it in your case, but for our first one, it had to be shipped and he flew out. He then sets the entire thing up, teaching you how to do it, and trains you on how to operate and maintain it. Since this one was our second we asked if we could set it up on our own to save the cost of flying him out, and he was fine with it. I compared FS, Rabbit, and Epilog when looking for a new one. Epilog is nice, but I could buy 3 lasers from the other places for the price of one of theirs, so no thanks. FS and Rabbit are pretty much the same thing, though FS I think makes their own controller and software now. I know someone with one of their machines and it seemed on par with Rabbit, though Rabbit uses a Leetro controller, which is nice since you can find documentation on line. Ray also encourages (safe) modification to add new features. I've been documenting some stuff we did to RFID lockout the laser for him to possibly use going forward. Sagebrush posted:Do you have high-resolution versions of these images? I've been wanting to make a DO NOT LEAVE LASER CUTTER UNATTENDED poster for our shop for ages now (because students keep zoning out and I'm tired of dragging them back in) and those images would be perfect for it. I sent him a message asking for high res and will let you know!
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May 10, 2014 12:13
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Apparently that laser cutter fire happened at Artisans Asylum. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcbotics/hexy-the-hexapod-low-cost-six-legged-open-robot/posts/330122 edit: Looks like they left the laser cutter unattended, that's a massive no-no in our space. Yeti Fiasco fucked around with this message at 19:17 on May 10, 2014 |
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May 10, 2014 19:08
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Demolition is in progress at our new space: https://plus.google.com/114795390556371105642/posts/BveTn5BEiaq We've already filled one 10-yard dumpster, and it looks like we're probably going to fill up 3 more before we're done. Next step: Pulling permits and ordering construction supplies to build walls.
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May 13, 2014 15:52
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Our renovation just finished up this past weekend. The Forge / Greensboro Hackerspace is aliiiiveee. The four requirements that I had for our space when we were bringing it together were to be downtown, have a roll up garage door, be wired for 3 phase power, and have great aesthetics. I think we got it all. The street front of the building that we're in.  Big view of our workshop area sans equipment.  Door from the workshop to the community space.  Furniture and AV equipment. I wish the crane was in he workshop area, but that's where it was and that's where it stayed.  More community space with temporary desks and furniture.  Door to the data closet. We re-purposed the original door to the building. Our IT infrastructure starts going in tonight. The door is an inside joke since all of our servers are 5-15 years old.  Back patio with a tensioned parabolic canopy.
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Jun 11, 2014 18:29
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funkatron3000 posted:Hackspace porn Goddamnit so loving jealous. My hackspace is drama personified at present. I keep trying to persuade people to actually make a loving decision once in a while, but we've been discussing how to have discussions for about 60 emails in the last two days. Arg. I just want to use a tablesaw guys.
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Jun 11, 2014 19:50
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drat, that place is swank. We would drink so many beers on the patio.
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Jun 11, 2014 20:27
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Hillridge posted:drat, that place is swank. We would drink so many beers on the patio. The brewery moving in next door will help with that hah. We're already putting rules on the books stating that while drinking is generally allowed, once you've had a drink access to the workshop is strictly forbidden. We've got a 5,000 lb metal lathe from 1941 going in, we don't need anyone getting mangled. I talked to a lot of people from other makerspaces at the NC Maker Faire this past weekend. Seems like the #1 thing most spaces weren't doing enough of was networking within their cities. Have a vision for your space, know what it can offer your community, then get out there at least one or more times per week and tell everyone you can about how well your space fills all those needs. Eventually you'll find folks that believe in your cause who have resources to help make it happen.
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Jun 12, 2014 04:12
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funkatron3000 posted:I talked to a lot of people from other makerspaces at the NC Maker Faire this past weekend. Seems like the #1 thing most spaces weren't doing enough of was networking within their cities. Have a vision for your space, know what it can offer your community, then get out there at least one or more times per week and tell everyone you can about how well your space fills all those needs. Eventually you'll find folks that believe in your cause who have resources to help make it happen. As true as this is, you guys still lucked out! I'm happy that after over a year of searching, we were able to find a place half as awesome as your new location. We're still at the "Building Walls" phase, which we'll have to do ourselves for lack of money.
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Jun 12, 2014 13:39
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Moving has been a totally miserable, hosed up nightmare of red tape, budget overruns, volunteer hissy-fits, and space shut-downs, but we're almost finished. We just have to resolve an argument between our landlords and the city inspector about a portion of the building that does not include our space, and we're in. DSC_3720.JPG by OculusLVL1, on FlickrNew Classroom (I am super excited about this):  DSC_3722.JPG by OculusLVL1, on FlickrStorage Area:  DSC_3725.JPG by OculusLVL1, on FlickrWood Shop:  DSC_3715.JPG by OculusLVL1, on FlickrMetal Shop:  DSC_3716.JPG by OculusLVL1, on Flickr
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Jul 29, 2014 13:43
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Niiice. drat jealous, I hope we can manage to find somewhere to move to soon. The 4mx4m studio is getting REALLY cramped.
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Jul 29, 2014 19:34
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That's a fantasic space, wow. Erie Makerspace is still operational, but man, we're cutting it close these days. Something needs to change, but I'm not really sure what. We've started doing a couple events regularly, namely a retro video game night and a halo LAN night, both have proven to be pretty popular and we've gotten walk-ins and new faces consistently each time, but we're just not driving new membership up. We have a big public event coming up in a couple weeks, a cardboard boat race that groups from all over the city participate in, so we're hopeful that our entry there will at least draw some attention. I think part of the problem, though, is the facilities: we have a fairly small workshop, I think it's like 20x30 for the main space, although the landlord is kind enough to let us use a 10x10 storage room across the hall, and also a 15x15 room (also across the hall) as a sort of lounge, that's where we've set up our "arcade." So when people come in to visit, yeah, we have a few rooms but the makerspace itself doesn't really look conducive to, well, making. There's a room we'd like to move to, just down the hall, right there at the front entrance, that is probably 2.5 times the size of our main room, has hard floors, etc. Problem is, there's just no way we can afford to move down there right now. The landlord is already giving us an insanely good deal, I doubt we can beg much more out of him. So we really just need the capital, so we can build up better facilities so people see more that they don't otherwise have access to when they visit. But in order to get capital, we need a consistent supply of money. And in order to get a consistent supply of money, we need members. And in order to draw members, we need better facilities. And so on. Any tips for raising capital? Drawing sponsorship from local businesses? Anything like that? We don't have a lot of experience eliciting that sort of thing, just looking for any sort of tips you more experienced groups might have.
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Jul 29, 2014 19:46
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It's the classic hackspace catch-22, I think. Basically, from hanging out on the UK scene for a bit, the solution, sadly, is get lucky, one way or another. Look out for government grants for startup businesses, see if you can find corporate sponsors if you space swings that way, look for empty buildings you might be able to wheedle a lease on for cheap, etc etc etc. Pledges are also a potential way forward - if there's a room you like with your current landlord, talk to him and agree a figure at which he might let you move in there - then see if you can get people to agree. it's a lot easier to get people on board if you have a concrete plan.
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Jul 29, 2014 20:45
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For small towns, thespaceinvader probably has the gist of it. We're fortunate, in that we've both gotten lucky with real estate, and we're in a city of ~1.25 million, and our membership numbers show no signs of stopping at 75. We've also been able to leverage a couple more traditional non-profit funding routes, including our local Community Foundation. Earlier this year, we won a $23,500 competitive grant, and we crowdfunded $9,001 for moving through them. (A good loving thing, too. We estimated tear-down, clean-out, and build-out to cost about $5000, and we've gone over that by half.) If your membership is doing cool stuff, and plays nice with the local traditional non-profit scene, luck could just be a matter of boots-on-the-ground time. Bloominglabs, in Bloomington, IN just managed to rent a pretty sweet new space from the City of Bloomington. AFAIK, they're holding pretty steady at a couple dozen members.
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Jul 30, 2014 13:24
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Woo, we have the walls painted, all the junk moved in, and a temporary occupancy permit from the city! We're having an Open House on Saturday (including a Ribbon Exploding ceremony, with the Mayor of Louisville), so if you're in the Louisville, KY area, feel free to swing by. We're also hosting Ben Nuttal from the Raspberry Pi foundation on August 14th! Everything's coming up Milhouse!
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Aug 7, 2014 02:43
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Nice! I'm rapidly flipping being happy for you and bitterly jealous of you. Hope your event goes well, that location looks pretty swank.
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Aug 7, 2014 02:59
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The grand opening went really well: DSC_3837.JPG by OculusLVL1, on Flickr DSC_3839.JPG by OculusLVL1, on Flickrhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtr-Lv-lw30 The Mayor of Louisville is now a fully-fledged member of LVL1!
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Aug 10, 2014 03:50
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Niiiice. How did you do the exploding ribbon? I'll have to remember it if we ever move!
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Aug 10, 2014 09:09
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One of our members worked for a fireworks company for a while, and he acquired a tape fuse. It's basically a thin line of gunpowder sandwiched between two pieces of tape. One piece is larger than the other, so we stuck it to the back of the caution tape, and wired an electric ignitor into it. Here's the closest thing I could google: http://www.pyrouniverse.com/fusemaking/boetapefuse.htm
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Aug 10, 2014 15:49
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Shapeoko2 and Giant Laser Cutter this weekend! DSC_3987.JPG by OculusLVL1, on Flickr DSC_3986.JPG by OculusLVL1, on Flickr DSC_3995.JPG by OculusLVL1, on Flickr
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Aug 24, 2014 03:16
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I know exactly where that laser came from. I did a few hacks ( ) to ours so that we can use the door RFID cards to unlock and keep track of cut time. I also made it so that the blower and exhaust only come on while it is cutting and then shut off 30 seconds after the cut finishes.
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Aug 25, 2014 18:49
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Super interested in the blower hack. I'm already looking to replace the dinky little air pump with a shop-air hookup. Of course, that would require us to get our shop air hooked up.
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Aug 25, 2014 19:40
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I'm a director at the local hackspace now, and I'm realising that all of the backend stuff is a total mess. How do you guys manage/track memberships? Some looking around shows that Seltzer CRM might be good. And how do you guys manage tool donations/loans? We've been having problems where certain things have been loaned to us, but over time it's not really clear who owns what equipment, what conditions apply, liability, etc. Are there any boilerplate agreements kicking around?
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Sep 1, 2014 20:48
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London Hackspace has a good set of docs detailing... basically everythinhg about how they run you might want to look at https://london.hackspace.org.uk/organisation/docs/articles.pdf On another note, did anyone go to Electromagnetic Field? What did you think, if so? I had a good time, albeit quite a lot of the more techy stuff is a bit lost on me, but I made a ring, did some blacksmithing and lockpicking and generally hung out with some cool people from around the EU. I was mostly in the Oxford Hackspace tent, where the ring-making workshop also was. Anyone else go?
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Sep 1, 2014 22:32
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Welp, our space is getting shut down. We were leasing a very nice warehouse facility from the local community college and they gave us a sweetheart deal on the rent for the first year to get started and grow membership. Apparently the rent went up to "fair market value" rates after that initial time was up and our income wasn't able to cover the new rate so we've been slowly bleeding money for the last year until the coffers finally went dry. I'm pretty pissed that the officers decided to keep the whole monthly operating loss thing under wraps until it killed the space. If it was just a matter of a few hundred dollars per month I'm sure the core members could have covered it for a year or so while we tried a bit harder to recruit & retain some new people. Instead the member-facing messaging was "everything is great!", followed by "we've got a meeting coming up with our landlord to iron out a few wrinkles, ha ha", and now "so we didn't pay our rent for the last two months and we're getting evicted, who wants to show up this weekend and help move our poo poo out?". Gah. If any of you are involved with spaces that are organized as educational non-profits, learn from our mistake and make sure your leadership publishes financial statements at least quarterly. Our membership asked for that several times, it got done twice and then always got forgotten about due to not being as fun of a thing to talk about as what tools to buy next. Now we're paying the price and getting shut down because of something that should have been both foreseeable and preventable.
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Sep 23, 2014 03:49
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Sucks. I'm curious what happens to the gear. If you actually have people dedicated to having a hackspace in the area, it shouldn't be too much trouble for a couple members to store it/rent out some storage and start up a new one that's not retarded with the core members. edit: I mean a shitload of work, still, but you know. Better than starting from scratch.
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Sep 23, 2014 04:09
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The official line right now is that they want all member-owned gear to get moved out within the next two weeks (a lot of our stuff was on loan from the core members), and then they plan to rent a storage unit for as much of the rest of it as will fit until we can find a new location. Neat idea, but I think it is going to be hard to find a good new spot with an eviction on our organization's record. I'm also curious to see how much of our membership we retain after this ordeal. We have kind of an inner core group of 10ish folks who are really active, an outer core group of another 10ish who show up occasionally but keep paying dues, and then a rotating mob of folks who sign up for 1-3 months until they finish whatever project inspired them to join or get distracted by some other interest and move on. Assuming we keep only the core folks we'd have $1000-$1500/month in dues to try to get restarted on. Finally, moving out is gonna suck. Holy poo poo have we accumulated a huge amount of heavy and oddly-shaped crap over the last two years. Like 5,000 square feet worth of heavy and oddly-shaped crap. Wood shop, metals shop, electronics shop, 3D printer area, automotive bay, general-use classroom, hangout/kitchen area, several specialty rooms that we'd rent out to people who wanted to be able to lock their poo poo up, and especially our "nifty poo poo pile" which consists of a bunch of shelves filled with stuff people donated free for any member to use for their projects. So much crap to move out or throw away. Oi.
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Sep 23, 2014 04:53
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PDP-1 posted:If any of you are involved with spaces that are organized as educational non-profits, learn from our mistake and make sure your leadership publishes financial statements at least quarterly. Our membership asked for that several times, it got done twice and then always got forgotten about due to not being as fun of a thing to talk about as what tools to buy next. Now we're paying the price and getting shut down because of something that should have been both foreseeable and preventable. This kills so many hackerspaces. We've got monthly financial reports baked in as part of the treasurer's responsibilities. It's worked out reasonably well so far, but very few people are willing to rake the treasurer through the coals when they're late. Nothings kills a space faster than not having a space. I hope you guys are able to find a new space quickly, and build in some financial reporting requirements.
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Sep 23, 2014 05:08
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In better news, a space that I've been helping launch has finally signed for a lease. 1250sqft for under $900 a month. We've been though losing our first (donated) space to the landlord selling and demolishing, and putting our stuff in storage for a bit under a year looking for a new one.  Also, we'd totally like $1500 a month.
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Sep 23, 2014 05:20
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Bad Munki posted:Any tips for raising capital? Drawing sponsorship from local businesses? Anything like that? We don't have a lot of experience eliciting that sort of thing, just looking for any sort of tips you more experienced groups might have. Things get really funny once you get outside the "lets do it ourselves" thing. Outside sponsors need ot know that hackerspaces are a herd of cats.. and cant' be expected to pay back. PS:1 operates soley on member money. Always has. I'd start looking at what you're charging members.
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Sep 26, 2014 18:03
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My space might (still only might, so no huuuge celebration as yet) be moving out of our 4m square studio into a 3000-odd square foot location very close to where we currently are, rent free and with ~£60k worth of very loving shiny tools into the bargain, including an A0 laser cutter. Is there a laser cutting thread, btw? Holy poo poo this is gonna be intense.
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Sep 26, 2014 20:23
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PDP-1 posted:Welp, our space is getting shut down. We were leasing a very nice warehouse facility from the local community college and they gave us a sweetheart deal on the rent for the first year to get started and grow membership. Apparently the rent went up to "fair market value" rates after that initial time was up and our income wasn't able to cover the new rate so we've been slowly bleeding money for the last year until the coffers finally went dry. JFC that fuckin' sucks. thespaceinvader posted:My space might (still only might, so no huuuge celebration as yet) be moving out of our 4m square studio into a 3000-odd square foot location very close to where we currently are, rent free and with ~£60k worth of very loving shiny tools into the bargain, including an A0 laser cutter. Is there a laser cutting thread, btw? JFC that fuckin' rocks! Having recently moved (to large town population 70k, east coast USA) I looked for a local space, there's an organization that's been around a couple years with no permanent space. I showed up to meetings and made noises. The hard-workin' hard-sassin' director managed to get a 1,000sqft space -- rent free and up to code, sponsored by the city -- for three months! With no obligation, but opportunity, to renew a lease. Hopefully by January 1st we'll be moving on to a bigger space!
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Sep 27, 2014 06:03
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PDP-1 posted:Oh no, our space is shutting down! When word got out that our old space was closing some kind of magic happened and we were contacted with an offer to let us set up in a new (and better) space. Contracts have been signed and we moved over 90% of the stuff we plan to keep yesterday. There is a lot of set-up work to do, but in a month or so we should be open again! The Good: The new space is in an "Art Park", basically an old industrial area that got bought up by a family of rich hippies and turned into a series of studios/cultural centers/small businesses. They only charge enough money to keep the lights on and pay for a groundskeeper to maintain the outside and once a month they host a big fair that draws in maybe 1000 people if the weather is nice. Our spot is 3000 sq. ft. divided into three large rooms including a loading dock w/ ramp and three phase power available. It's also located near the downtown and between the two local colleges so it's much easier for members/visitors to get to than our old spot on the edge of the city. The Bad: We are still our own worst enemy, organization-wise. Apparently in addition to missing our last few months rent we had not been paying our utility bills at the old location for quite some time (good job, officers!) and are in hock to the old landlord for multiple thousands of dollars. This probably will result in a payment plan that is going to bleed our funds for the next year or two. Aside from scheduling yesterday's move-in event there's been zero discussion about how we want to set up the new space, planning out a To-Do list with a budget, etc. They're also being pretty lax in communicating these major changes to the general membership which has lead to a ton of confusion and extra work. In short, they seem hell bent on repeating the old mistakes that nearly shut us down last time. Still, it's better to be alive with a few issues than to be dead and buried.
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Oct 5, 2014 17:48
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PDP-1 posted:The Bad: Ugh. Sounds like you guys definitely need some reforms to make the books public record. Maybe even an ousting of officers so willing to repeat past mistakes. We recently had our own shake-up in the Treasury, with our treasurer suddenly quitting. We have a requirement for monthly financial reporting, and he had been chronically late for the past year or so. After going through the books, the worst surprises were that we had gone almost $2000 over-budget on moving expenses, and we were 9 members short of where we thought we were. Nothing disastrous, but it would have been nice to catch it a little earlier.
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Oct 5, 2014 18:10
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Yeah, it sounds like you guys either need to appeal to some crowd funding or need to hold some serious bake sales and arts and crafts sales. Just from experience in quite a number of various levels in various businesses, you'll almost definitely wanna get the people responsible for that mess out of power as soon as possible. Anecdotally, people don't change. Once they've hosed up like that, they will do it again. It's just a matter of when.
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Oct 5, 2014 19:19
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Got some great news today. 501(c)(3) status: approved.
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Oct 8, 2014 06:11
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Served with eviction notice today  We've been at this space for a year and a half and literally in the last 40 days we've gotten one warning about laser cutter fumes (we ceased usage immediately) and then a shitstorm of the property manager alleging that we're unsafe and then finally serving notice. As far as we can tell, we've done everything right, but the lawyers don't like lasers, despite thorough training procedures ante fucked around with this message at 18:18 on Oct 29, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 07:09
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I know this thread is kind of dead, but I just joined the Dallas Makerspace and while it's nice to have access to large machines that I don't have the room for at home, their hand tools are a loving mess. I spend just as much time working on stuff as I do trying to find tools or tool accessories like chucks, drill bits, etc. It's a mess. I just take a small toolbox in of my own tools, and hope I didn't forget something I need. Also, apparently theft is a huge problem. Some people in committees were saying they spend thousands of dollars a month on missing tools. For example, Dremel donated 10 rotary tools, and within something like the first week, 5 vanished. From my limited time there, it seems like most people are selfish, disorganized, and careless. It's amazing it's still functioning.
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