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  • Locked thread
cakesmith handyman
Jul 22, 2007

Pip-Pip old chap! Last one in is a rotten egg what what.

That's a shame, it takes administration but having tools signed out and back in gives ownership, if you sign a tool out and don't sign it back in again you pay for it.

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w00tazn
Dec 25, 2004
I don't say w00t in real life

SpartanIV posted:

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.

I've been debating checking out the Dallas makerspace for a little while now, but I was worried about the same issues you brought up. Has it been worth the membership fee so far? Or should I just continue working at home?

SpartanIvy
May 18, 2007
Hair Elf
It entirely depends on your home setup and what you want to do. If I owned a house with a garage I would not be there, as all I really need is a small welder, drill press, and a few other misc woodworking tools. All tools I could afford, but have no place to keep at the moment.

The people there are also by and large really weird. When it was raining the other day there was a guy walking around with one of those asian straw pyramid hats on. I'm fairly certain something like 60% of the members there have aspergers.

All in all it's worth checking out. They have a tour day on Thursday evenings. You can get a feel for the place yourself and see the people hanging around.

Corla Plankun
May 8, 2007

improve the lives of everyone

SpartanIV posted:

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.

I'm sorry you had a bad time but that pretty much sums up my entire experience with dallas as a whole.

Yeti Fiasco
Aug 19, 2010
Welcome to the problem of most hackspaces, we over at London hackspace are just starting to curb this by having people or groups "adopt" tools, providing the training and maintenance for them, this usually ends up being the people that use them most, it's a slow and involved process, but it means we now have a good supply of non-hosed wood handtools (and a semi-complete set of basic Stanley planes!).

Our makita combo drill/driver set went "missing" along with their boxes and chargers and the small makita grinder, which was a crying shame, as somehow they had both survived 2 years of the most barbaric, amateur use without a single complaint. :(

gently caress thieves. :negative:

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
I know you guys use RFID access control for fixed power tools - would it be possible to RFID tag hand tools so that if they were carried past the threshold an alarm would go off? Or to automatically monitor who is using them?

(I have no idea how RFID tagging works, but I know they can use it or something similar to lock shopping trolley wheels if they leave the car park, so...)

We at Oxford have thus far mostly avoided anything that matters going missing, but we have a very small membership at present that looks set to grow very soon (as we've finally been able to announce both that we're moving this year, and where to, which is great news!) so we need to get on top of these kinds of issues.

The impression I get at least partly is that cultivating the right culture and engagement with the user base is almost as important as techy solutions (HERESY!) - if people value the tools as they would their tools at home, they're a lot less likely to pinch them.

Yeti Fiasco
Aug 19, 2010

thespaceinvader posted:

I know you guys use RFID access control for fixed power tools - would it be possible to RFID tag hand tools so that if they were carried past the threshold an alarm would go off? Or to automatically monitor who is using them?

(I have no idea how RFID tagging works, but I know they can use it or something similar to lock shopping trolley wheels if they leave the car park, so...)

We at Oxford have thus far mostly avoided anything that matters going missing, but we have a very small membership at present that looks set to grow very soon (as we've finally been able to announce both that we're moving this year, and where to, which is great news!) so we need to get on top of these kinds of issues.

The impression I get at least partly is that cultivating the right culture and engagement with the user base is almost as important as techy solutions (HERESY!) - if people value the tools as they would their tools at home, they're a lot less likely to pinch them.

Not unless we made individual bins for them and/or tagged each tool and linked it to the internal battery, you'd be better off using those anti-theft things shops use, though it would still be pretty impossible to stop theft. The best thing to do really is just allocate a budget for theft replacements.

We're a very open hackspace by nature (anyone with :10bux: can join) so some theft is to be expected, other hackspaces where they vet membership like Dublin probably don't have such problems, but they are a much more closed hackspace (not that it's bad).

Just a note on protecting fixed tool access with RFID interlocks: It's awesome! We can directly use it to take tools out of service and log everyone who has been using them! No more people using half-bust tools "because they really need to get their university final finished because the deadlines tomorrow so they're going to use broken tools and break them further but that ok because rushed last-minute university finals are way more important than other peoples tools". It also helps curb very enthusiastic amateurs using tools very enthusiastic amateurs shouldn't be using (without training), like lathes.

Yeti Fiasco fucked around with this message at 13:57 on Jan 2, 2015

ante
Apr 9, 2005

SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS

Yeti Fiasco posted:

Just a note on protecting fixed tool access with RFID interlocks: It's awesome! We can directly use it to take tools out of service and log everyone who has been using them! No more people using half-bust tools "because they really need to get their university final finished because the deadlines tomorrow so they're going to use broken tools and break them further but that ok because rushed last-minute university finals are way more important than other peoples tools". It also helps curb very enthusiastic amateurs using tools very enthusiastic amateurs shouldn't be using (without training), like lathes.

I recently set up our door to do that and it is pretty great.


How do you handle it with your tools, hardware-wise?

What I really want is a sealed box that contains the CNC's power plug, a raspi, and a relay, and then a plug continues out the other side to always be in the wall.

I'd settle for a module that only contains a plug, socket, and relay in a convenient package without me having to hack one together every time.

Yeti Fiasco
Aug 19, 2010

ante posted:

I recently set up our door to do that and it is pretty great.


How do you handle it with your tools, hardware-wise?

What I really want is a sealed box that contains the CNC's power plug, a raspi, and a relay, and then a plug continues out the other side to always be in the wall.

I'd settle for a module that only contains a plug, socket, and relay in a convenient package without me having to hack one together every time.

Depends on the tool, usually its a networked box with an arduino-like board (I think we're using launchpads) that contacts a database and has a single push button for simple commands, this triggers a solid state relay that is inline with either the power to the machine, or is fixed to an interlock somewhere. Generally we bolt these to the machine somewhere sensible instead of having them on the plug end.

Yeti Fiasco
Aug 19, 2010
Sorry to double post but hahahahahHAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHAHAAhahaha laser cutter!
Yarnold for scale.



This thing is a monstrously large, sexy beast, it is easily 4-5 times faster than our old one and I love it, everyone should have an A0 Laser cutter.


In other news, we have an A3 laser cutter for sale, 1000 not very careful owners, slight fire damage.

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
Silvertail?

How is it? We're hopefully getting one too!

Yeti Fiasco
Aug 19, 2010

thespaceinvader posted:

Silvertail?

How is it? We're hopefully getting one too!

It is amazing, the build quality far outstrips our old HPC one, all the running gears are up above and easily accessible for maintenance and there's enough space under the machine to house a family.

The fastest we've got it to engrave is 1000mm/s, the fastest cut is 400mm/s, the thickest thing we've cut is 15mm burch (poo poo quality) ply, which it ate through with no charring at all.

Other nice bits are spring mirror mounts for easy adjustment, a lolchina 101W laser tube (it was supposed to come with an 80, had to turn down the power to 67% to get the 25mA the machines rated for) and an almost totally negligible kerf.

We bought it from Just Add Sharks, who I thoroughly recommend to anyone in the UK hacker scene, they're are a bunch of super solid guys and very easy to communicate with.

Yeti Fiasco fucked around with this message at 23:14 on Jan 3, 2015

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
15mm is more than it's rated for isn't it? Sounds great to me, being able to do half-inch ply in one go is a great thing. 40cm per second is a lot quicker than I was expecting it to go.

So looking forward to this.

devians
Sep 25, 2007
Atheism is a non-prophet organisation.
Two interesting things. One, we've been licking this whole RFID and tool interlock access problem at HSBNE.org for a while now, and this is what we have:

A custom board for deploying interlocks, ~$50AUD ea. Does doors, large tools via the emergency stop. POE onboard, all sorts of goodies. Custom firmware for it which is available on our github.

A project currently in the 'we need time to finish' limbo, which is essentially a large set of lockable cubby holes for tool storage that require rfid swipes to 'check out' tools. It's called the armoury and we're hoping it will help us really raise the accountability of tool use, either the theft or damage thereof by having a pretty solid usage log, or even just have the minor benefit of enforcing people to return a tool to its proper location. It's an upfront cost of an android tablet + master serial controller, and then it scales at about $30-$35 per box, most of which is material and the cost of the locking mechanism. We're trying to optimise the cost further but its a very slowly percolating project.

Our end goal, to some extent, is to make our own process solid and repeatable so we can sell it around the world to other hackerspaces and help them out.

We suffer from a bit of an entropy problem as well, we're currently attempting to spool up "causes" to help combat it (http://hsbne.org/admin/causes.html). I'll report back once we get some trip reports on that.

ante
Apr 9, 2005

SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS
$50 is pretty steep for a module.
I'm trying to price out bargain-basement prices on AliExpress for something like this:

So I need an outlet, power cable, 120VAC relay, lockable box, keypad/display, and some sort of control module.
That might be as simple as a 5V wall wart, PIC/ATmega, and SPI-ethernet module.

I'll post up the system here when it gets built.

That's funny that this is a common problem that a lot of hackspaces are trying to solve, though.


My hackspace's situation:

We have a membership management system that is closed source and pretty terrible. So we have a private github repo set up (sidenote: if you're a non-profit, go here https://github.com/nonprofit) and are slowly replacing all of the crap. Hopefully later in the year, we'll have replaced all parts of the system, and we'll be able to open source it.

So for our last location, we hacked a schlage keycode doorlock to work with this system. Members would swipe their RFID cards, it would associate with their accounts, let them in, and log it.

The plan has always been to extend that to our big tools, too.

We got evicted a couple months ago, though, and as of a few days ago, we're starting to move into the new place. It's a shared building and they use an intercom to get into the building. We're adapting our system to allow members to set a PIN up, and enter it into the keypad and automatically buzz people in. So our tool lock system will probably use keypads, but we'll support RFID authentication too for future use.


devians posted:

We suffer from a bit of an entropy problem as well, we're currently attempting to spool up "causes" to help combat it (http://hsbne.org/admin/causes.html). I'll report back once we get some trip reports on that.
This is brilliant.

Hillridge
Aug 3, 2004

WWheeeeeee!

ante posted:

$50 is pretty steep for a module.
I'm trying to price out bargain-basement prices on AliExpress for something like this:

So I need an outlet, power cable, 120VAC relay, lockable box, keypad/display, and some sort of control module.
That might be as simple as a 5V wall wart, PIC/ATmega, and SPI-ethernet module.

I'll post up the system here when it gets built.

That's funny that this is a common problem that a lot of hackspaces are trying to solve, though.


My hackspace's situation:

We have a membership management system that is closed source and pretty terrible. So we have a private github repo set up (sidenote: if you're a non-profit, go here https://github.com/nonprofit) and are slowly replacing all of the crap. Hopefully later in the year, we'll have replaced all parts of the system, and we'll be able to open source it.

So for our last location, we hacked a schlage keycode doorlock to work with this system. Members would swipe their RFID cards, it would associate with their accounts, let them in, and log it.

The plan has always been to extend that to our big tools, too.

We got evicted a couple months ago, though, and as of a few days ago, we're starting to move into the new place. It's a shared building and they use an intercom to get into the building. We're adapting our system to allow members to set a PIN up, and enter it into the keypad and automatically buzz people in. So our tool lock system will probably use keypads, but we'll support RFID authentication too for future use.

This is brilliant.

I think this is a common goal for pretty much every hackerspace, mine included. We're also working on something, which I hope to keep very cheap for the base unit and reasonable for modules that are sized to what they need to control, i.e. cheap relay for a door latch vs. large contactor for a 50A plasma cutter. Someone at our space has a design in the works, but he has failed to send it to me despite repeated requests for like 6 months now. Who wants to tag team this, put it on kickstarter and make life easier for all spaces? Ideally it would include an open source backend that handles all the authorization, logging, and even billing. I am 100% serious about this and would love a cross space collaboration, and more importantly, actually see it happen.

I can do hardware design, as that's what I'm most experienced in, and I can help with firmware, but someone more versed in network protocols would be better suited for that. I am not nearly experienced enough with the backend server stuff to handle that though.

PM/ email me (hillridge@gmail.com) if you're interested in hashing something out.

TasogareNoKagi
Jul 11, 2013

Hillridge posted:

I think this is a common goal for pretty much every hackerspace, mine included.

I think doing it from scratch might be a goal for every hackerspace as well.
My space developed Makerpass last year, but our deployment is on hold until we finish the move and build out in our new location. Currently everything that would need access controls is in storage.

ante
Apr 9, 2005

SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS

Hillridge posted:

I think this is a common goal for pretty much every hackerspace, mine included. We're also working on something, which I hope to keep very cheap for the base unit and reasonable for modules that are sized to what they need to control, i.e. cheap relay for a door latch vs. large contactor for a 50A plasma cutter. Someone at our space has a design in the works, but he has failed to send it to me despite repeated requests for like 6 months now. Who wants to tag team this, put it on kickstarter and make life easier for all spaces? Ideally it would include an open source backend that handles all the authorization, logging, and even billing. I am 100% serious about this and would love a cross space collaboration, and more importantly, actually see it happen.

I can do hardware design, as that's what I'm most experienced in, and I can help with firmware, but someone more versed in network protocols would be better suited for that. I am not nearly experienced enough with the backend server stuff to handle that though.

PM/ email me (hillridge@gmail.com) if you're interested in hashing something out.

I will keep this thread updated, but my hackspace has a shitload of people interested in this problem right now, so our personal solution is going to be solved in a few weeks after the Aliexpress order gets here. I'll post lots of pictures and code when we're done.

I really really wanted to roll my own hardware solution, but the unfortunate truth is that it's not practical from any angle any more.

The goals you have to hit are:
Easy to duplicate(for anyone, not just you) after the first prototype.
As dirt-cheap as humanly possible.
As hackable as possible.


So... Arduino it is :(
I avoid using them wherever possible

Here's what we're doing:
http://misc.ws/2013/11/08/touch-screen-shield-for-arduino-uno/ for $6 (cheaper than any other keypad/display we can come up with)
Arduino clone, $3
Ethernet->SPI module, $3
relay $2/free if you have a big box of them like we do
AC socket $2 at hardware store
IEC cable (IEC part cut off, just leaving male AC plug and cable)
sealable project box (no plan for this yet)


Unfortunately our membership system is proprietary, but hopefully that will change

General Tofu
Nov 20, 2014

by Lowtax
I wonder, is there a hackerspace in Suffolk County on Long Island? This sounds like a place I'd really fit in as far as sheer nerdiness goes. I do see there's one in Nassau, but I don't have a car and getting there would be tough.

General Tofu fucked around with this message at 18:35 on Jan 15, 2015

UberVexer
Jan 5, 2006

I like trains

General Tofu posted:

I wonder, is there a hackerspace in Suffolk County on Long Island? This sounds like a place I'd really fit in as far as sheer nerdiness goes. I do see there's one in Nassau, but I don't have a car and getting there would be tough.

I've seen a group in Farmingdale, but hackerspaces are scarce on the island, barring Brooklyn of course.

Yeti Fiasco
Aug 19, 2010
So English schools chuck out the best poo poo.

We have a (terrible) thing that has been happening in English schools for the last 10-20 years, all the woodwork/metalwork/machine shops are getting closed down and replaced by classrooms, mostly because practical skills don't seem to fit in with academian values (and you can't bullshit your way through teaching college to be a shop teacher).

The downside of this is that entire generations grow up without the ability to use a hammer, the upside is you can score some amazing deals and freebies if you know people.

One of our (London Hackspace) members works at a school who where dismantling their wood shop, they had 9 benches, a gob load of metal vices and a lovely small extractor going FREE to whoever could pick it up (the benches alone usually sell for £150+ on ebay), we where lacking transport and South London Makerspace was lacking manpower, a combined plan was devised to snag the lot (sans metal vices).

LHS is the proud owner of 3 (very much needed) new (old) work benches, complete with drawings of penises and "gently caress Abe" scrawled over all three. :shobon:




One of the guys from our woodworking group took the nicer of the three and resurfaced it, it will eventually have a ply cover over the top to stop it getting contaminated with metal shavings/oils/swarf/dickheads, which was a very annoying problem with the old bench.

EDIT: As another example of what English school will happily throw away, we where one day from getting this from a different school, having contacted them just after they had disassembled it and got someone to take it away for scrap value.

Yeti Fiasco fucked around with this message at 18:14 on Jan 18, 2015

Hillridge
Aug 3, 2004

WWheeeeeee!
We had our second official member ban last week (first was years ago when we found out someone lied about their last name to hide the fact that they were on the sex offender registry). I basically had a string of complaints about him from most of our regular members from the day he joined, so when his membership renewed for a second month we refunded it and shut off his access. He probably used 4x what he paid for the month in heating costs alone by cranking it to sub-tropic levels and working all night. This alone isn't ban-worthy, as we don't have a hard rule against it, but he repeatedly left messes and squirreled materials away (his membership level did not allow on site storage) despite multiple requests to please stop. So we're already losing money on him, he's not interested in contributing to the space, and he was making extra headaches for the board and pissing off cool members. :frogout:

While we prefer members that have an interest in the community as well as the equipment, we don't prevent people from signing up for a month or two just to bang out a project so long as they respect the space and the other members. Do you other spaces have any policies in place to discourage people from taking advantage of the space and not really giving anything back, or how do you deal with what I like to call hit and runs?

Yeti Fiasco
Aug 19, 2010

We have the same "problem" with a large portion of our membership, since we're cheap (min £5/mo), open to everyone and have no hierarchal membership system, we have many who just come along and "use" the space, this has its pros and cons, on the plus side we have enough income to have a massive space, on the downside the level of Hackspace entropy is astounding, we have to go to some lengths to make tools even last a quarter of their expected lifetime. The space is also constantly filthy, doubly so in the workshops, though I wouldn't place this entirely on the "users".

SpartanIvy
May 18, 2007
Hair Elf
This isn't specifically Hackerspace related but I ran a club in college for years and the best lesson I got out of that experience was to ban poison members like that as soon as possible. If you don't it leads to two things. First, cool members tend to leave in droves because they get tired of dealing with the poison members poo poo. Second, the poison member will attract other lovely people like their friends and family, which then exacerbates the first issue. If you try and work with them they will only take you for a ride. Give an inch and they'll take a mile kind of thing. Nip them in the bud and don't feel bad about it.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


This is totally unrelated to the topic at hand but man, leaving the local makerspace was the best thing I've ever done. It's a shame, I think it'd be great if there was a successful makerspace here, but that place just isn't gonna be it, ever. I mean it seriously has no chance. I don't think it's going to dissolve, but it's going no where and I feel so much better having disassociated myself from that mess. The first time I skipped the weekly for the express purpose of "I don't want to go, I don't think I'm going back at all, actually," it was actually kind of cathartic. I've gotten more done on my countless projects here at home in the last few months than I had in the entire two years prior, that place was just a drain.

Hillridge
Aug 3, 2004

WWheeeeeee!
*checks profile to make sure it isn't us* whew

We've had a few problem folk before that actually responded to requests to stop being dicks and have since turned into great contributing highly prolific members. Some people just don't get the concept/culture at first (especially those that come in with an "I am the customer" mentality) and it usually goes one of two ways:
1. They get it, adjust their behavior, and everyone benefits.
2. They leave on their own.

When we first opened we needed money way more than anything else, so we put up with a lot of wild west nonsense. Now that we're solvent we have the luxury of being firmer with people without having to worry about losing their membership revenue and it's been pretty great.

Hillridge
Aug 3, 2004

WWheeeeeee!
Just a heads up:
If any of you are on the fence about applying for 501c3 status, the IRS created a 1023EZ form about 6 months ago. It is literally a 2 page form that is mostly check boxes and costs less than half what the 1023 did to file. You could get your exemption approval back in under 2 weeks as opposed to the 9 months it used to take!

I submitted a couple weeks ago, but ours got randomly pulled for supervisor review (review of their underling's work, not review of our organization), so it's taking a few weeks longer.

Hillridge
Aug 3, 2004

WWheeeeeee!
501(c)(3) approved! Much faster than the old method.

We're thinking of restructuring some things. What do you other spaces charge for membership, and what does that get you?

Zuph
Jul 24, 2003
Zupht0r 6000 Turbo Type-R

Hillridge posted:

501(c)(3) approved! Much faster than the old method.

We're thinking of restructuring some things. What do you other spaces charge for membership, and what does that get you?

Thank Christ. It took us over a year to get our 501(c)3 approved.

We charge $50 a month, and that gets you 24/7 access, the ability to vote, the ability to decide what we buy, and a 2'x3' shelf space (plus the ability to use excess storage space "as needed." That's been a good rate for us to keep membership numbers up, and keep the rent paid.

ante
Apr 9, 2005

SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS
$30 for basic membership that gets you in whenever we're "open", a vote, and a locker if there are any left.

$60 gets you a key and discretion to open or close the space as you see fit.


We definitely have traction to start charging for lockers as soon as we have the tech to do it. Also possibly some sort of charging schedule for excessive use of the laser cutter. Currently it is totally free, all the time, and a couple people have abused that with production runs.

Hillridge
Aug 3, 2004

WWheeeeeee!
We have 2 levels, $40 and $75. The lower level is supposed to have set hours, but it's not enforced.
The main differences now are that the $75 level gets shelf space, the ability to rent larger plots, big discounts on classes, and free/cheap tool training.

We're in the exploration and planning stages of a move to a new facility. The city bought a property with the intent of using most of it for a new commuter rail station and parking, but the building near the road can be spared and they've offered it to us for an amazing lease deal. It's over 3x the size of our current location and we'd be on a gradually increasing rent scale that doesn't go past what we pay now until the 5th year of the lease.

The biggest hurdle is that it needs a lot of upfront work due to goddamn copper thieves, and while we have $8-10k in the bank, we're looking at 3-5x that cost to repair and build out. We're hoping to use the move as a way to make some culture and policy adjustments, and a possible membership cost increase is in there. It looks like we're higher than you two, but we're as cheap or cheaper than others nearby and have more to offer than most (Artisan's Asylum has waaay more than us, but it also costs a lot more and serves a totally different population).

Right now my main focus is fundraising for the upfront cash needed. Courting corporate sponsors is on the list of ideas, have any of you had luck with that? We're also going to offer a very limited number of $5000 lifetime memberships, and I know of at least a couple members that would buy them. Our goal is to raise $30k by lease signing (Spring-ish) or else we pull the plug on the deal.

Zuph
Jul 24, 2003
Zupht0r 6000 Turbo Type-R

Hillridge posted:

Right now my main focus is fundraising for the upfront cash needed. Courting corporate sponsors is on the list of ideas, have any of you had luck with that? We're also going to offer a very limited number of $5000 lifetime memberships, and I know of at least a couple members that would buy them. Our goal is to raise $30k by lease signing (Spring-ish) or else we pull the plug on the deal.

We haven't had any luck with corporate sponsorship except for very small items: Some computers and projectors, prizes for an event, whatever. We've had a lot of luck engaging with the local Community Foundation. They've managed to plug us into the traditional 501(c)3 non-profit funders in town, and they've all been extremely open and inviting. Last year, we raised $9,001 in a short amount of time to fund a move, largely thanks to the community foundation. We've got enough contacts now that if we had a nice, well-scoped big-ticket project, I'm pretty confident we could pound pavement until we found something.

So, do what you can to get involved with the "traditional" 501(c)3 scene. You'll be a novelty to them, and it's super useful to find out how your dysfunctional group of miscreants stacks up to "legit" non-profits.

Mark Kidd
Feb 15, 2006
I work professionally with community-based nonprofits on fundraising -- generally with public and private grants, but sometimes with other types of fundraising. Hackerspaces that have a member-driven leadership structure and a vision for what shared space means in a community should not feel second-rate to other parts of the nonprofit ecosystem, or at a disadvantage for seeking grants at these scales. Community foundations are definitely a good idea for starting to build relationships with grant funders.

Hillridge
Aug 3, 2004

WWheeeeeee!
IndieGoGo fundraiser is up!

If you prefer not to click links to crowdfunding sites, you should at least watch this part of our video for our awesome drone segment.

Also, were having a Pi day party tomorrow night. Anyone else having one and want to set up a portal?

Hillridge fucked around with this message at 00:28 on Mar 14, 2015

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Hillridge posted:

Also, were having a Pi day party tomorrow night.

It's worth pointing out that, as long as you're willing to accept the 12-hour clock, the correct time to have your pi party is 9:26:53.5. Such an opportunity to embrace this many digits of pi won't present itself for another hundred years. If you prefer the 24-hour clock, you'll have to do it a little before 10AM.

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
I doubt anyone on the UK scene won't have come across this somehow by now, but I've been meaning to post it so anyway: OxHack is hiring a technician.

As you know if you've been following the saga of our proposed partnership with Science Oxford, one of the terms of the proposal is that we employ a technician who helps service the machinery in conjunction with our volunteer expert groups. That's to make sure we have very good tool uptime in the new place, and the person will also help product prototypers who need assistance with running the tools, or run them him- or herself to create the desired products.

This role could go to either one or two people--Science Oxford like the idea of one, I believe, and we like the idea of two in a job share, but what happens will depend upon who applies.

With no further ado, here is the job description we've been working on, that was published earlier today on the Science Oxford website:

http://scienceoxford.com/jobs

Please disseminate this far and wide to your contacts, especially to those who might understand the culture and the heart of hackspaces.

If you're a good goon hackspace type who want to be paid to run a hackspace and you have an engineering degree or similar professional experience, and can keep a reasonably high-end shop running, put in an application!

ante
Apr 9, 2005

SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS
Can you go into more details about how that works and how you managed to swing it?

Reading your post history in this thread it looks like you went from a basement room to a 3000sf place with tools and an employee in two years and I'm all :aaa:

thespaceinvader
Mar 30, 2011

The slightest touch from a Gol-Shogeg will result in Instant Death!
Pretty much, yeah. Long and the short of it is we hooked up with a local science/tech/entrepreneurship hothouse type organisation originally funded by the University of Oxford, who were looking to start up what amounts to a FabLab type space, and we entered (well, strictly, are in the process of entering) into a partnership with them; they get their FabLab style thing, and our expertise, we get a good space. It's all a bit nascent at the moment thought, so keep your fingers firmly crossed for us.

We got lucky, in part, but we (and by we I mean our co-ordinator mostly) put in a staggering amount of work to get lucky, and will continue to do so. I can't wait, but it's gonna be crazy.

moron izzard
Nov 17, 2006

Grimey Drawer
I probably should have mentioned this waaaaaaay earlier, but if you're in central KY, Kre8now Makerspace is having their grand opening tomorrow.

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Mr. Bill
Jan 18, 2007
Bourgeoisie Pig
Boy, speaking of 2-week-old Grand Openings, us down in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada are having a Grand Opening of our own this weekend!

ENTS is in Edmonton, and in January we moved to a new space that is less central, but no less good for transit. Please come on by if you're in the area!

Here's an imgur gallery of our space as it stands:

http://imgur.com/a/U4d8x

Six months is not enough time to build out an empty warehouse into a workshop. But people can use it now!

Anyhow check out https://www.ents.ca if you wanna come on by.

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