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Zuph posted:LVL1 is having our one year anniversary the same day, July 2nd, starting at 7pm. Anyone near Louisville should stop by, more details here: http://www.lvl1.org/2011/06/21/1-year-anniversary/ This is technically our 1 year as well as the grand re-opening!  
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Jun 22, 2011 15:57
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Not really hackerspace related, but if anyone will know this you guys will: A year or so ago I read an article in Wired magazine about a machining service that you could email a 3D CAD file to and they'd produce the part on a 6-axis CNC mill and ship it back to you. I'm designing a part that would be perfect for this kind of thing since it breaks just about every 'easy to machine' rule there is - it's tiny, has lots of off-axis cuts, and needs super tight tolerances for a couple of press-fit interfaces. It'd be a master work for a human machinist, but a CNC mill could poo poo it out no problem. Anyone know the name of a company that does this kind of thing? If you've used their service in the past how did your parts come out? Any special do's or dont's when laying out the design? Thanks!
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Jun 23, 2011 15:52
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There is e machine shop. Perhaps you should reconsider some of your design features. I am a prototype CNC machinist and if you have things like multiple datums on opposing surfaces that require removing the part from the machine but still need to be located off of or else use a 5 or 6 axis mill the price is gonna be very very high. Point being it prob will poo poo it out. As in garbage in, garbage out.
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Jun 24, 2011 09:04
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PDP-1 posted:Not really hackerspace related, but if anyone will know this you guys will: Have you considered 3d printing instead? Not sure how well it's going to fit your tolerance requirement however.. https://www.shapeways.com
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Jun 24, 2011 22:37
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Can you post a drawing or step file or something? I'm curious to see what it actually is.
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Jun 25, 2011 06:02
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Thanks for the replies. I really don't want to derail the hackerspace thread so I'll make this my last post on the subject unless people have major comments/questions. I just figured that if anyone had used a mail-order CNC service it'd be you folks.Lord Gaga posted:There is e machine shop. Perhaps you should reconsider some of your design features. I am a prototype CNC machinist and if you have things like multiple datums on opposing surfaces that require removing the part from the machine but still need to be located off of or else use a 5 or 6 axis mill the price is gonna be very very high. eMachineShop.com was the kind of thing I was looking for. It seemed like such a cool concept and sometimes our local machine shop is backed up for days so having the extra option as a backup is super useful. Thanks. I also did do a re-design and the part is a lot more machinist friendly now. macpod posted:Have you considered 3d printing instead? Not sure how well it's going to fit your tolerance requirement however.. As far as I know 3D printers can only work in plastic/resin type materials and part of this project involves acting as a heatsink so thermal conductivity is pretty important and I don't think plastics will meet that requirement. I did add shapeways to the list of bookmarks for future use - thanks! henne posted:Can you post a drawing or step file or something? I'm curious to see what it actually is. It's a mounting stage that lets you do fine adjustments of the tip/tilt/yaw axes while keeping the x/y/z position relatively fixed, and also provides internal water cooling lines to remove 10-20W DC heat. Here's a few pics of the re-design, it is much more machinable now:  The bottom plate has a hole with a set of three hardened steel roller pins arranged in an equilateral triangle (yellow). The top plate has a hardened steel ball bearing (also yellow) that sits inside the triangle to form a three point contact that pins the x/y/z degrees of freedom while still allowing rolling motion. The ball bearing is press-fit into the upper plate.  There are two rare-earth magnets (purple) that are also press-fit into the plates to provide a clamping force, and are slightly offset to provide a lateral force that pushes the top plate against a set screw (black) on one side to control the yaw. Two other set screws (should be black, appear as dark gray for some reason) are mounted vertically to give tip/roll adjustment. These two degrees of freedom are coupled in the sense that you have to adjust both vertical set screws - I'm not super happy with that but I also won't be able to access the centerline of the mount when it's in use so it seems like the best I can do for now. The top plate also has a couple of internal water cooling lines, two of the holes shown will be capped with connectors to plastic water tubes, the third one will be capped with a set screw to act as a plug. The top place can be removed/replaced since there is no fixed mechanical junction between it and the lower plate. When the plates are assembled there's about a 0.1" gap between the two parts with the ball bearing and set screws forming the only contacts. The whole package is about 0.7" tall and should give a few degrees of adjustment in each rotational axis which is all I need.
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Jun 25, 2011 14:55
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PDP-1 posted:As far as I know 3D printers can only work in plastic/resin type materials and part of this project involves acting as a heatsink so thermal conductivity is pretty important and I don't think plastics will meet that requirement. I did add shapeways to the list of bookmarks for future use - thanks! http://www.shapeways.com/materials/ Shapeways can print in stainless steel, alumide, ceramic, glass, sterling silver, along with the usual acrylics. Might not meet the specific thermal conductivity requirements for this project, but they do have some nice options nowadays.
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Jun 26, 2011 01:31
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How do you intend to get those three rollers installed?
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Jun 26, 2011 02:41
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Pew pew pew! 
Hillridge fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Jun 27, 2011 |
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Jun 27, 2011 02:12
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Goddamn, that is a huuuuggge laser! All we have access to is a dinky 8" x 11" @ 50W and the one at the Fablab which I believe is 24" x 24" @ 100W. Do you mind if I ask how you could afford that? Was it paid for entirely on dues or what?
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Jun 30, 2011 14:43
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This is a 1200 x 900 mm (47.2 x 35.4 in.) bed @150W max. You can also take off the front and back to feed long stock through it, though we haven't attempted this yet. It's going to take some experimentation to dial in the correct speeds and powers for each material. The money portion is complicated at best. We had one member buy it outright for another member who will be paying him back in monthly installments, and leasing it to the hackerspace in exchange for something (contract still in the works) like discounted membership and space rental. A lot of our stuff is like this right now since we're just getting started. One person will buy an item, keep it at the space, but retain ownership of it and lease it to the space in exchange for discounts. Eventually the space will own it. That's boring though. The important thing is that I engraved the space's name on a friggin rock I found out back and cut a pacman ghost out of blue foam with the same tool. We're having our grand opening party Saturday and I plan to sear people's names and cooking preferences onto food that will be tossed on the grill.
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Jun 30, 2011 19:37
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My local group does electronics mainly but I think I can get them into craftier areas eventually. I've only been going for a month so far and every time it's been noted that 'This is our first female member who is not somebody's wife or girlfriend'. They are super geeky but really nice and I think I can learn a lot. I'm going through the Make Electronics book now but want to get into some kind of automata.
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Jun 30, 2011 21:44
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A group of guys is working on getting one of these set up. I'm thinking about going(Need a hobby other than 'computer games' these days) but have no idea what the gently caress I would actually make. 
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Jul 4, 2011 21:31
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We had an awesome turnout for our grand re-opening party. Highlights include: Creative use of the Laser  Instant Mustaches  Glass Kiln Show and Tell  Videos on the cleanspace projector  Tours of the workshop  Not pictured are KNO3&sugar "test" burns, thermite demonstrations, and the ridiculous amount of fireworks we set off later that night. We introduced a lot of people to the hackerspace, made some contacts and connections, and picked up a few new members. All in all it was an excellent day.
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Jul 5, 2011 20:26
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Citizen Z posted:A group of guys is working on getting one of these set up. I'm thinking about going(Need a hobby other than 'computer games' these days) but have no idea what the gently caress I would actually make. If you don't really have any ideas, if you have any technical ability at all, you can easily just be someone who is there and helps others. There are always people with more imagination than reach. Just being around helps a lot. Also, hearing an offhand comment about something cool can quickly turn into a project of your own. Here are some quick starters though: delta robot arm tesla coil pulse-jet engine (bike optional) daft punk table 3d printer
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Jul 6, 2011 02:59
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My team from Harford Hackerspace just finished competing in The Redbull Creation competition yesterday. We built a inchworm style people mover:
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Jul 11, 2011 23:36
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There was a hackerspace here in Atlanta called Freeside Atlanta that started out very promising some time ago, but has basically turned into a shithole. People are leaving now because of disagreements over use of space, keeping the place clean (or lack of such), people thinking that their projects are more important than others, people not being recognized for their contributions and help, and the list goes on. I don't go there any more but I'm still on the email distribution list so I've been able to see the drama unfold from a distance. I think this can be useful information for anyone who wants to run or be part of a hackerspace. These things can eat away at the group from the inside and before you know it things are falling apart.
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Jul 12, 2011 01:40
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Powdered Toast Man posted:There was a hackerspace here in Atlanta called Freeside Atlanta that started out very promising some time ago, but has basically turned into a shithole. People are leaving now because of disagreements over use of space, keeping the place clean (or lack of such), people thinking that their projects are more important than others, people not being recognized for their contributions and help, and the list goes on. I don't go there any more but I'm still on the email distribution list so I've been able to see the drama unfold from a distance. Yeah, these are a few of the things that can lead to a space self destruct, so we're trying to prevent them as best we can from the beginning. For starters, we govern the space by a board of 5 of us. While member input is taken very seriously with any suggestions welcome, members don't have any voting rights, and the space is not a total democracy. We still operate as transparently as possible, with board meeting minutes available for any member to read. Clean up is a huge issue, both with trash and tools. We are trying to combat this by offering high level memberships in exchange for the price of a low level membership and a weekly task. So you can get more access for cheap if you also agree to keep a particular area clean and organized. Space isn't a concern yet, as we have tons of it, but we have rules in place to govern this, we just ignore them for the moment. Officially members get a set amount of storage space, and can rent plots of extra floor space for big projects. Unofficially we let this slide right now.
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Jul 12, 2011 16:11
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whats the difference between a high level membership and a low level membership?
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Jul 13, 2011 05:11
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Cost difference is $35. We also impose some restrictions on the lower level one like no free storage space (bring in stuff to work on, take it when you leave), semi-restricted hours of access, no free hours of use on "premium" tools like the laser cutter, less of a discount on classes than "pro" members, and a few other little things. We basically wanted an option for the people who like to hang out, but don't have a particular project in mind, or just want to experiment/learn from others without having to pay a lot. The restrictions are more to annoy people into upgrading to a pro membership if they become more active.
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Jul 13, 2011 16:33
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At PS:One the two levels of membership really just dictate weather you get a locker and voting rights. Since I really can't spend a lot of time there, I stick with the "starving hacker" membership. Speaking of premium tools. We just got an epilog laser cutter.
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Jul 13, 2011 17:23
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After reading about this I have emailed a local space, (Workshop88), in the Chicago suburbs. I have not seen the place yet but I'm about a mile away so I need to check it out. I'd love to get involved and learn about some Arduino stuff and in general meet some geeks in the area. Can anyone tell me about how you decide what classes are and how teaches them? Is there any compensation for that or anything? Ie. Member teaches a course that costs the space $40 for equipment but 10 people pay $20 each to come, the space nets $160. Does that person get a month membership or anything out of the deal? I'm not asking because I want this to be a money making venture but I was thinking a few things I'm interested in that I could teach a basic fun course about. (beerbrewing) More so would something like this be accepted? Would your member be interested in a course about brewing beer (3 part course, one week brewing, 2 weeks later kegging, 1 week later DRINKING!)? Also, How is alcohol handled at parties or what not at your spaces? Its obviously a bad idea around dangerous equipment but over all? Do you guys have kitchens in the space? Sorry for all the questions. The guy I got in touch with just suggested I attend a public meeting on monday, which I'm going to do.
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Jul 15, 2011 21:28
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Hi. I'm the President of Hackerspace Charlotte, this may not be how you guys roll, etc. Also, we won the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge, and are about to do the Playing Card Bit if one of y'all wants to get our box in the mail. Classes at HSC are all volunteer. If one wants to teach a class, or one has been asked for a class, it goes on the calendar, we hype it, then learning. If the class requires extra supplies (arduinos, own PCB materials, phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range) usually the participant brings those. Other spaces do classes differently, some charge, some cut the dues for people who teach as an incentive. We did homebrew. It didn't work. Generally, drinking is allowed, unless there's something dangerous/expensive going on. It hasn't been a problem yet, but we have good guys as members. It helps that the space isn't conducive to college style blackouts - no bathroom. Some spaces have kitchens. I think they're a bad idea - no one cleans them and they reek. Also, I'm kind of sad to hear about Freeside. Always liked them, and was looking forward to taunting them at Maker Faire Atlanta.
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Jul 15, 2011 22:49
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Anyone can teach classes at LVL1. If supplies are needed, the space furnishes those, with the understanding that fees for the class should cover the necessary price for supplies. We haven't done a homebrewing class yet, but we have many brewing members. As soon as it cools off a little outside, I intend to do one. All of my brewing equipment is at the space. Beer is unmoderated. We've yet to have anyone test our waiver of liability. In general, the crowd is mature enough to lay off the dangerous equipment if there's a risk to safety. We are building up a moderate kitchenette. We have countertops, a sink, a fridge, a grill outside, and a stove. Just need a gas pipe hooked up to the stove, and we're good to go.
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Jul 15, 2011 23:33
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Niacin posted:Hi. I'm the President of Hackerspace Charlotte, this may not be how you guys roll, etc. Also, we won the Great Global Hackerspace Challenge, and are about to do the Playing Card Bit if one of y'all wants to get our box in the mail. Congrats on the win! What's the playing card bit? We plan to start classes in the next month or so, but have yet to vote on what model to use. The tentative plan is to have the instructor do most of the work, including off site advertising, setting the price, etc. Then we split the revenue with them, with the bulk going to them. So, say a class is $110, of which $10 is materials. The instructor would get something like $70-85 with the rest going to the space's general fund. We have plenty of beer at the space, but it hasn't been a problem at all. The under age members know they will be instantly permabanned if caught drinking, and most drinking happens when people are done working for the night anyway. The city paper did a front page article on us this week so we got slammed with visitors at last night's open house, and expect the same on Monday.
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Jul 16, 2011 01:10
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MasterColin posted:After reading about this I have emailed a local space, (Workshop88), in the Chicago suburbs.
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Jul 16, 2011 02:34
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Nerobro posted:Pumping station one is the one in Chicago. I haven't visited workshop88 yet. You should come visit us some Tuesday night. Tempting but I'm way out in the burbs, W88 is about a mile from me. Thanks for the invite, I'll keep it in mind and maybe check it out some time.
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Jul 16, 2011 03:03
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Twerpling posted:I'm a member of Harford Hackerspace in Baltimore MD. Twerpling, I've recently moved into the area and would like to know a little more about your shop. What kind of projects do you normally work on? Are people free to drop in? Would driving in from Harford County be an huge pain in the rear end?
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Jul 17, 2011 21:25
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The junk collector posted:Twerpling, I've recently moved into the area and would like to know a little more about your shop. What kind of projects do you normally work on? Are people free to drop in? Would driving in from Harford County be an huge pain in the rear end? People are free to drop in on Wednesdays at 7PM, as well as whenever we have a class or special event. I live in Bel Air and it is about a 20-30 minute drive at most. Real easy to get to, just down 95, get on 695 then get on Bel Air road south. As for projects there are a good deal of them and they are kinda all over the place. We usually do a group project every other month or so. Just to give you a feel, we did Red Bull Creation earlier this month and made this worm thing. We do a lot of electronic stuff, but since everyone learned to weld at Redbull we will probably start makin' crazy rear end bikes or go-karts in the future as well. I'd encourage you to come down one Wednesday and take a look.
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Jul 21, 2011 07:50
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A writer for hack-a-day visited our space while he was in town to visit family, and he liked it so much he wrote an article! http://hackaday.com/2011/07/22/hack-a-day-visits-lvl1-hackerspace-in-louisville/ Another visitor stopped by the same day, and made this great video tour of our space: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C8cKVqtUDY Also, we got our laser cutter. One member was so riled up by the idea that we were going to spend $3000 on a laser cutter, that he decided to make his own laser cutter. It uses a 75 mW laser diode, and can cut through paper, thin plastic, and other similar materials, as long as they're no bigger than a business card. His was cutting a day before our $3000 cutter, but, well, "I heard you liked laser cutters..."  DSC_8907.JPG by OculusLVL1, on Flickr I would also like to say, buying a digital camera outfitted with an EyeFi card has been the best thing to happen to the space. Now, anyone can just grab the camera, snap some photos, and they automatically appear on Flickr, tagged in our flickr pool, and are tweeted to the world. Project documentation has gone up a million percent: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lvl1/
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Jul 24, 2011 05:44
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You guys have an awesome space. I'd love to drop by if I'm ever in the area. I can't wait until out space fills up with more cool projects, it looks so empty right now. I may have to steal that EyeFi card idea, we're terrible with documentation. I love seeing the similarities between spaces. We also use a QR code system for equipment, have an RFID door, and have a forbidden door (ours is marked "bees" because that's all we could spell with the vinyl letter stickers we had left left). Here's the article I mentioned before: http://www.nashuatelegraph.com/news/925808-196/big-bad-tools-creativity-most-important-at.html We've picked up around a dozen new members since then, so it really helped us out. We also have a guy working on a 3 axis CNC gantry router that should be capable of building the parts needed to copy itself (minus hardware), or modify itself. Save your humor, I've already heard my fill of skynet jokes.
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Jul 25, 2011 02:43
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Hillridge posted:You guys have an awesome space. I'd love to drop by if I'm ever in the area. I can't wait until out space fills up with more cool projects, it looks so empty right now. I may have to steal that EyeFi card idea, we're terrible with documentation. Thanks! I'll be sure to crash your guys' space, likewise. One of the greatest thing about the proliferation of hackerspaces is the co-opting of ides that occurs. Good ideas spread like wild-fire. We weren't the first space to come up with the EyeFi idea, but we've enhanced it with tagging and tweeting. AFAIK, we *are* the first space that documented the effort to QR tag everything. We've got a really nice configuration: Any wiki article created under the "equipment" category automatically gets its own QR code, just print and stick. I would kill to have as much space as you guys. Even though we have a large space available to us, it's only until the landlords rent it out, and it isn't climate controlled at all. It's miserable most of the year. We also don't have sturdy enough floors to bring in anything really heavy. One member wants to donate his CNC Mill, but it weighs over 2000 lbs.
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Jul 25, 2011 15:40
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We have no AC, so the clean space portion of our area (huge south facing windows) can get pretty warm in the summer. I had to pull cookies&creme Hershey bars from the vending machine because they were liquid most of the time. We do have two gigantic heaters though, so staying warm this winter will depend only on our ability to pay for gas. Floors are no issue because we're on the ground level with at least a 4" slab under us. We wanted it that way so we could drive vehicles in too. Our QR system is similar. We have a custom built page for entering an item into inventory, where you can put who it belongs to, who to notify if it breaks, etc. The QR code then gets generated and you print it on the attached label machine and stick it to the item. A scan then takes you to the inventory page. I like your idea of a wiki though, so maybe I'll add a comment field or something, so we can put more info in there, like what you would use the machine to do.
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Jul 25, 2011 16:42
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Twerpling posted:People are free to drop in on Wednesdays at 7PM, as well as whenever we have a class or special event. I live in Bel Air and it is about a 20-30 minute drive at most. Real easy to get to, just down 95, get on 695 then get on Bel Air road south. Sounds great, one more question. How is the parking situation there?
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Jul 26, 2011 03:53
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For any of you who belong to hackerspaces that offer paid classes: how do you handle paying the instructors?
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Jul 26, 2011 18:46
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Hillridge posted:For any of you who belong to hackerspaces that offer paid classes: how do you handle paying the instructors? All of our instructors have been volunteers, paid in gratitude and (occasionally) beer.
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Jul 26, 2011 18:52
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Site 3 just got a two-ton 3-axis CNC mill, woo!
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Jul 26, 2011 20:07
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The junk collector posted:Sounds great, one more question. How is the parking situation there? Alright, it's street parking.
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Jul 27, 2011 03:57
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Zuph posted:I would also like to say, buying a digital camera outfitted with an EyeFi card has been the best thing to happen to the space. Now, anyone can just grab the camera, snap some photos, and they automatically appear on Flickr, tagged in our flickr pool, and are tweeted to the world. Project documentation has gone up a million percent: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lvl1/ Holy crap, these are amazing!
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Jul 27, 2011 18:46
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| # ? May 8, 2024 21:07 |
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Welp, packing up and heading to Makerfaire Detroit tomorrow. I'll be hanging out at the White Star Balloon booth most of the time; We'll have a payload dropping ballast and floating between the floor and the ceiling somewhere inside the museum. The LVL1 booth will be full of fire and other misc. mayhem (as seen on the flickr link).
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Jul 29, 2011 03:40
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