about 5 years ago this week, a hackspace was born

I often get asked to answer questions for articles I never get to see or fill in surveys for research that’s never published. This week I’ve been asked some really good questions by Gareth Halfacre who in his website picture has a drill in his hand. You can also find his interesting tweets here!

Sugru Hackquarium – the last Nottinghack meetup before getting Hackspace 0.1

You describe yourself as a ‘freelance maker’ can you elaborate on that?

Recently I’ve stopped working a 9-5 and gone freelance. Through contacts I’ve made by being involved with Maker and Hackerspaces and the Maker Faires I’ve been able to find varied and interesting work from running workshops and events (like Maker Faires for instance) and through my laser cutter import business Just Add Sharks Ltd (justaddsharks.co.uk) as well as taking commissions for work making items.

What attracted you to the maker movement?

Maps. I love maps, aerial photography, satellite images and wanted to make my own aerial photography pictures (NO NOT WITH DRONES) with kite cameras (known as KAP) I’d been messing about with making and electronics for years on occasion. I went down a bit of a YouTube rabbit hole discovering Maker Faire, Arduino, Chris Anderson’s DIYDRONES, talks by Adam Savage and this new thing Hackerspaces all in the space of about 4 hours… I found out about London Hackspace and knew if I wanted something like that locally I’d have to organise it. Oh and  I like making things.

 

The cupboard we grandly called “The Studio” in Hackspace 1

You co-founded the Nottingham Hackspace back in 2010. Can you describe how it moved from a virtual meeting place to a physical location?

We had a site on meetup.com we always really met physically. It was always the plan to have “a space filled with tools and all the stuff we need to make things one day” I just don’t think I realised how quickly it’d all come together. We started meetings in a pub’s upper room about every 3rd Wednesday as I recall, we had to alternate with the LUG (Linux User Group) and the Skeptics Society. The bar keeper told me that the Skeptics were skeptical about everything, especially the pedigree of some of the fine ales on offer. We dreamed of getting a place we could start collecting tools together and leaving projects stored. London and Leeds already had places and we looked with envious eyes. One of the other founders had ties into an organisation with dilapidated property rented at a peppercorn rate. We struck a deal to rent a walk-in bathroom sized store cupboard in an old Police Station above a Tesco Metro literally a NERF dart shot from Nottingham Station. It opened out onto a shared room (breakout room as I called it) and on our first night it rained so hard the electrics started to trip and fizzle. It was awesome. The rent was to be £100 a month, we were terrified of the cost, though we thought between about 4 of us we could cover it if we couldn’t make it pay.

In Hackspace 1 “the workshop” was very small

What were the biggest challenges you faced during that time?

Apathy. I made it a point, whatever the weather, our Free Open Night would always be on, even if no one else turned up. One of the worst mistakes I see potential Hackspace founders make is cancelling open nights due to illness or whatnot. You have to create a reliable always on event that people will head to. Make sure you can take pictures to remove the mystery. It’s always been my mantra… get them through the door. That’s the one biggest challenge early on.

Nottingham Hackspace moved to larger facilities in May 2011; in your opinion, what drove its growth?

We had our hand forced. Our landlords lost their lease on the old Police Station just at a time we were really starting to grow, we had proper banking, internet connection and about 20 paying, key holding members. We had to find somewhere bigger and quickly. That was quite difficult. Our budget was £250 per month but we couldn’t find anything suitable for less than £400 a month. We didn’t know what to do. Somehow we decided the best idea was to go big or go home. I managed to negotiate 2 months rent free then a stepped rent on our current 4300 Sq Ft workshops. We put out an appeal to help us get the £2000 together for the deposit. We were featured on BoingBoing and mentioned on The Amp Hour podcast and suddenly our paypal account was very full of kindly donations.
I think having a goal and a time scale was very important for us. The rent on our new place would be £1000 per month plus bills. We had graphs of how much money we’d need to make from donations, membership and workshops and a target for numbers of members to get on board. We also wanted to be innovative. We had (and still do have) Pay-What-You-Like membership fees and the whole space is run on trust. The minute you become a member you have 24 hour unsupervised access. Everything about the space is transparent, you can find pictures online of the sort of thing that goes on and you can use the space for free every Wednesday night. Today we over 350 paying members and a lot of impressive tools that we’ve purchased over the last few years.

I was heavily into Blue Paper and SIlver Marker Pen at that time!

Have you ever had problems from the local council, or insurance brokers?

Our local Council, Nottingham City Council have always been helpful when we’ve interfaced with them. They’ve never really sought us out as such, though a few departments have such as “the Creative Quarter Company” which is a development group for the area of Nottingham we are in. We are also talking with a local gallery about partnering on the development of an old library into a Hackspace run in partnership which would involve the council. I suspect your question is something to do with Councils being a blockers. I don’t think they are generally, as long as you’re not a muppet. It’s true to say that people think Hackspaces are a counter culture but that’s really not true. It is true to say that Hackspace do attract people with mildly revolutionary and more often bonkers thinking and that I’ve always felt uneasiness from some members around trust in Government, corporation or anyone in a position of authority, but I tend to find that sort of thing immature and petty mostly.
Opinions and practice on insurance vary wildly. You can’t go on Compare the Market and choose “Hackspace” it just doesn’t exist, and I’ve been told if you ring a broker they freak out if you say “hackspace” hence the old Makerspace vs Hackerspace debate. Truth is it’s not easy to get insurance if you do anything out of the ordinary because they don’t have you mapped out in their systems and calculations and someone has to make a judgement. The Nottingham Hackspace has insurance as does the London Hackspace and Build Brighton. Many spaces probably don’t have insurance. You ask later about the UK Hackspace Foundation, I think a key task will be to arrange an opt in group insurance with some guidelines of safe working practice, how to do RA and how to generally be sensible about safety in your space. For me at Nottingham we have “Rule Zero DO NOT BE ON FIRE” sniggers all round right? No, we actually take safety very seriously and if you drill down into the rule you’ll see:
https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Do_Not_Be_On_Fire.
We don’t dick about with safety. A good way I use to illustrate this is – “If the fire alarm goes off in our shared building, we evacuate. Every time. No questions. We know that every time has been a false alarm, but we don’t dick about with safety.” People also tend to think of our tools as being dangerous. It is true at power tools need to be treated with respect but the things that are much more dangerous are every day things. Not keeping the place tidy, trip hazards, not knowing where the fire exit is. It frightened me when I asked one of our 20 founder members “what would you say if you had to call an ambulance?” he didn’t know the address and said “We need an ambulance at Hackspace” I told him they wouldn’t know what that was and he started to panic and make up an address. I put lots of posters with our address up after that. Bandsaws? Anyone can see that’s dangerous. Not knowing what to do in an accident could be fatal.

What is the UK Hackspace Foundation, and how does it help with organising hackspaces?

The UK Hackspace Foundation is an idea and unintentionally shadowy at that. It doesn’t hold true that the best person to ask to get something done is someone who’s already busy. Currently made up of a few old Hackspace lags like me, the foundation was originally setup as a parent company to London Hackspace with the notion of forming a body to facilitate the “movement” for want of a better word, and help set up other hackspaces around the country. Today anyone can set up and call themselves a Hackspace and use the logo and all that stuff. In the future there may be guidelines to what is or isn’t a Hackspace, help (including money) to get one started, tools to help people find each other if they are hoping to start and links to useful information on starting one (like your article maybe).

As co-producer of a hackspace-themed podcast, who has been your favourite guest and why?

Did you listen to them? I’ve not done one for 2 years or more. BUT it’s interesting you mentioned it, people pester me about it all the time. My co-host Kate doesn’t want to make the podcast anymore and I’ve struggled to find the right person to take over. It needs 2 because I’m so deadly dull. I may have found a new co-host and there is talk of reviving it soon.
Favourite guest has to be Charles Yarnold from London Hackspace.

Have you seen an increase in interest in maker culture over the last few years?

That’s hard to say. It’s a bit like when you learn a new word or discover a famous person you’d not been able to place, suddenly you see it everywhere and seek it out. I’ve seen more Hacker and Maker spaces pop up for sure. But I’ve also matured myself and started to travel more within the movement (including a trip to the USA last September and one to San Fran this May – SELF FUNDED). I now see making going mainstream, though in truth I don’t believe it to be anything new at all. We’ve been making stuff for all our history. It’s only natural that as tools like Arduino, Laser Cutters and 3D printers become affordable that they’ll start to get used by hobbyists. I hope that the maker culture isn’t a fad and that it’s just a natural part of how people will choose to live their lives. I mean, Victorian ladies had desktop sized letter presses.. .was it a culture or just fun?

For people who live in areas where there is no existing Hackspace or collaborative making facility, would you advise them to take the initiative and found one?

If you’d like the experience of setting up a Hackspace do the 3 following things:

1. Withdraw all the money you own in cash and then throw it out your window.
2. Find all the heaviest things you own. Pick them up and carry them upstairs a few days later pick the same things up and carry them all down stair. Repeat.
3. Have a party, buy booze and cakes and invite all the people you know and lots of people you don’t know. Sit and wait for no one to arrive. Hold the same part every week, eventually people will arrive. Let them criticise you for the type of cake you purchased and tell you what beer you ought to have brought them. You should know better, you organised a party after all.

All joking aside Yes, but I’d also ask them to look about and see if they exist already or if they can find one that started and stalled then inject new life into it. That can be hard and sometimes organising can be a thankless task, but in the end you might make something amazing.

If so, what advice would you give them to help them get started?

• Start with a community. I’ve seen Hackspaces stall because they couldn’t find a pub with WiFi to meet in or that the landlord wouldn’t let them use soldering irons. Non of that matters. People willing to meet up regularly and get involved is the key. Have a big group of people and you’ve got a Hackspace.
• Get a bank account. It can take a little while to sort one out, get one ASAP.
  Think carefully about how much work you want to put in. If you WANT a Hackspace you’re going to have to do it yourself, don’t imagine you can get it started and others will do all the work. That isn’t likely.
• Think carefully about what YOU want. If you want to run a Hackspace to make you a living, you’re going to have a bad time. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but that’s not really a Hackspace, you’ve made a FabLab.
• Your Hackspace will attract people with very strange ideas (I don’t mean cool ones), social problems, personal boundary issues, serious undiagnosed or untreated mental health issues and body odour (not necessarily all the same person) as well as what the internet calls “neck-beards”, lots of white middle class middle aged men too. I’ve strived to make sure the Nottingham Hackspace doesn’t become Middle Aged Men’s Robot Club with varied levels of success. Just try to make sure these people don’t put off anyone else who wants to use the space.
• Trust everyone until they give you reason not to. All members must be equal, just have reasonable checks and balances. For instance members at Nottingham MUST pay membership by standing order. They then get 24 hour unsupervised access. However we have a proper paper chain for who they are (unless they stole someone else’s banking set-up which seems like an elaborate way to nick a broken 3D printer).
• LOOK OUTWARDS… lots of people have done this before. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Visit other spaces be a part of the world wide community.
• Be friendly (grumpy founder is excluded from this guideline once 4 years in).

popping into london hackspace

This isn’t meant to be one of my full Hackspace visit posts so sorry for the lack of pictures and true detail. Whilst I was down in Hackney for the Dunwich Dynamo I popped into London Hackspace for about an hour. London Hackspace is just a few yards from London Fields, the start point for the cycle ride. I was delighted to be met by some of Britain’s Hack-istocracy and maker scene worthies including  Russ Garret, Jonty Wareing, Clare Greenhalgh, Tom Wyatt, Charles Yarnold and others all having a bit of a BBQ in the yard. Matt Little and I enjoyed an ice cold Club Mate from the Snackspace whilst I managed to make my tongue numb by eating Liquid Nitrogen frozen candy floss!

We were treated to a tour of the Hackspace by Jonty which included showing us a new robot arm in the basement which was mounted on a concrete plinth sunk into the floor (very impressive) and a brewing room. Despite resent drama over use of the back yard at the London Hackspace, they did have an impressive hut craned from the top of their building and left behind by Orange (the phone network not the Dutch Dynasty). I have to admit that use of outdoor space to have nice social BBQs (without a load of planning) is something that Nottingham Hackspace really lacks.

Jonty pretending to be grumpy. In the background a big tube of blue tarp filled with air and Tom W and a PVC pipe geodesic dome!

There was a good buzz about the space with people engaged in a real variety of activities. A lock-picking workshop was just being packed away and someone was busy in the workshop area making a leather bag. Charles was messing about with a 3rd person camera on the golf-buggy which has been procured for Electro Magnetic Field Camp which is coming up. Tom W was inside a big blue tarpaulin with air being pumped into the end and a massive uPVC dome has appear over an old Morris Minor in the car park.

I was pleased to see a new “quiet room” on the ground floor as well as a craft and textiles area of shelving which looked new. The main room on the ground floor seemed a lot less cluttered than on my last visit with lots of people being able to engage in activities of varied kinds in this universal shared space. I hope to return again soon and do a proper post!

Jonty and Russ have both hinted at doing “more with the UK Hackspace Foundation” after EMF camp though they did say that after the last camp as well… of course in fairness to them they have had a lot to deal with since then such as moving to Hackspace 3 and doing Electro Magnetic Wave, though I think it’s likely they’ll find themselves with more to do that will pull them away from looking at the Foundation again? London Hackspace have just passed 1000 members (though they need to do an ex-member audit to get the final figure).  A big discussion point relevant to all Hackspaces is “how do we scale?” with questions being asked about the future of London Hackspace and what it might be like at 2000 members. There is no question that procedures and rules-of-thumb written down or collectively remembered don’t always scale well with a large turnover of people. For instance Hackspace mailing lists that can be perceived of as intimidating, noisy and increasingly irrelevant most of the time work well with 50 people not so much with thousands. I hope to learn more about scaling Hackspaces and their future and share my findings with you here soon.

return to bristol hackspace

Me and Bristol Hackspace have history. I was a member until about spring 2013 when I finally cancelled my sub and returned my keys. I’d gone down to Bristol for work in the new year 2012 and lived down there on a boat for a bit. Knowing that Bristol had a sizable and venerable space was one of the things that made Bristol a palatable choice for a move in jobs. I’ve written about them before (here and here) also and was quite critical. When I said I was doing a blog post (not unreasonably) one of them joked “What will you call it? Doing it wrong?”

The Bristol Hackspace has certainly grown since my last visit. The setup needs a little explaining. BH have their HQ in the artists community called BV Studios on Philip Street in Bedminster (just south of the river) BV is a very well run cluster of about 30 artists room, each of which is divided into several artist’s studios using white lines a-la-Steptoe and Son. The Bristol Hackspace occupies 5/6th of one room and 2/3rds of another, these rooms are roughly divided into “clean” and “dirty” spaces. The clean space includes some parts and project storage and a number of communal worktables with power and an electronics and tool bench. The dirty room includes a large A2 Epilogue laser cutter (on load and usable for a small fee) various member owned metal working tools like a Myford lathe and a mini mill, as well as a number of wood working tools like a mitre saw, sanding disk and pillar drill.

I chatted with David Wyatt, old friend and treasurer of the Bristol Hackspace who filled me in on some of the statistics. He told me they currently had around 76 members, each of which pays around £10 per month for membership. Keys are issued and managed by BV Studios and these days there was an increase in the number of people working in the Hackspace outside of the very popular Open Night. every Thursday. He said they’d had a lesser focus on workshops and organised activity outside of the open night but had very much enjoyed and benefited from showing off the Hackspace at a recent “Open House” event run by their BV Studio landlords where a large number of the public where both surprised and delighted to find the facility available locally. On the Open Night that I attended there was a great mix of people including some new people looking around for the first time. This community really does enjoy it’s open night for problem solving and sharing as well as some collaboration. Some of members I spoke to admitted they mostly came to the space to bounce ideas and interact with like minded people and socialise (as good a reason as any of course) and that the tool though improved, where no real draw to them as many of the members had as good or better set-ups at home, especially for electronics.

I noted that many of the tools were labeled “induction only” and that they also had a QR code taking you to useful information on their Wiki about the tool. This seemed especially true of tools that were on loan from members rather than owned by the space itself. I was chatting away with David about his “3D Cake Printer”, a machine designed to extrude and layer cake mix and icing in novel ways that has been David’s enduring project for as long as I’ve known him which I am fairly certain has never produced a cake of any sort yet… “try jelly” I said. It occurred to me that the Bristolians are happy… happy with a space they can enjoy in their own way and not feel a driven urge to expand it much beyond the room and space it’s in. They are comfortable and for a moment I wondered what drove me to want to grow the Hackspace to which I belong? In 2012 filled with vim over Nottinghack’s move to a much larger space, I rather banged a BIGGER AND MORE gong at Bristol. It doesn’t really surprise me that they haven’t moved on yet. “…the artist (who rents the last 6th of their room) will be moving on soon…” I was cheerfully told. It seems that the sculpture who has the end part of the Hackspace is going to another unit.

Bristol Hackspace isn’t perhaps without it’s small problems. There was a considerable amount of “junk” that reportedly belonged to only one member taking up some of the desk space. Had all XX of the members have bought such storage demands to the space they’d have little room for anything but storage. This issue was pointed out to me as a problem they were facing so I have no doubt they’ll sort it out. I think it is likely that I’ll be spending a little bit more time in Bristol over the next 18 months or so as I’m planning to re-awaken the Bristol Mini Maker Faire and that is likely to lead to a number of meetings and engagements in the South West. Watch this space!

 

 

a visit to makerspace, newcastle, now with added lasers

I recently embarked on a new exciting venture, Martin Raynsford and I setup up a small part-time business importing laser cutting equipment, in a geeky film reference taken too far we called it Just Add Sharks! When we started out at the beginning of the year I emailed ALL THE HACKSPACES… taking full advantage of my years of helping the UK Hackspace Foundation, doing dead-podcasts and generally making sure when I go to a place I visit it’s Hackspace and trading on my dubious status of founder of Nottinghack. Long story short, the excellent hackers and makers of Newcastle MakeSpace took the bait. An exciting pledge drive bust their £3k target in days… leaving them wanting a bigger laser cutter than we could supply them. Not wanting to lose this important sale Just Add Sharks decided to trial a bigger A2 laser cutter and a deal was made to ship one to the Geordies ASAP. Through a series of co-incidences the laser landed in the UK and was ready (following testing and checking) to ship to Newcastle, just in time for Just Add Sharks to commission it onsite during their visit to the Maker Faire UK! That’s another story though so I’ll not go into that here.

The Newcastle MakerSpace is well situated on New Bridge Street West just a stones throw from the shopping area of Newcastle city centre. It’s easily accessible by public transport and there is a large (though expensive) NCP car-park next door. The Makers occupy the ground floor shop front of what used to be (according to Google Street View) an estate agent’s office. The advantage of this is that they have a proper shop window. Better still they actually use it as a shop window showing projects that the members have used. Some wise soul has resisted the urge to blank the windows out meaning the general public (who pass in droves) get to see what the MakerSpace is.

The space has a strong RepRap and 3D printing contingent with a couple of properly working machines on display. A good selection of hand-tools and work benching as well as a “dirty” workshop with lathe and other larger tools. This area was in a bit of a state of flux when I saw it but plans were afoot to sort it out. If the rest of the workshop space is anything to go by it should end up reasonably tidy and sorted.

The MakerSpace also has a “comfy” room with sofa seating and a projection screen. It was also laid out in the corner with a knitting machine and textiles kit. This area lacked the natural light of the workshop room and felt a little directionless on my visit. I suspect it comes to life for social events. There was a “computer room” which I suspect is really just a place to hide from the constant glare of the public through the shop window. This room contained several computers and monitors and some desk space. Parts for making stuff were well labelled and organised on shelves down the workshop wall. Members use a box system for storing their projects too.

The MakerSpace crew made excellent hosts for the UK Maker Faire, which since 2009 has been held annually (excluding 2012) at the Centre for Life just up the road. The Makers offered emergency repair facilities to makers in need of a last minute tweak to projects and took us to a considerably better Indian buffet for the After-show meal than we went to last year (and half the price too).

The MakerSpace has around 40 members as of this post, their membership fee is monthly and can be as little as £10 a month with a small additional charge to access to some of their big ticket tools like their awesome Just Add Sharks Greyfin A2 Laser Cutter.  If you want to visit them try the following. they run a regular “Welcome Wednesday” from 6pm for visitors and prospective new members as well as a 3D Thursday for additive printing enthusiasts and many weekend-workshop events. I was delighted to find that I had my Hackers Passport on me and that they had a stamp and ink, that’s 2 for 2 including HackLab the week before. The only fair thing on Cambridge MakeSpace to say about Newcastle MakerSpace is that they too (Newcastle) have the MakerSpace domain (in one flavour of TLD) i.e. they aren’t Newcaslte-Upon-Tyne MakerSpace but MakerSpace one-of-one… I’ve ranted about this before…. look at the soothing laser pictures below and calm down…

a visit to hacklab, edinburgh

Edinburgh, It’s a trek to get to for us in Nottingham, but I decided this year to attend the Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire at Summerhall, just below Arthur’s Seat. I didn’t really realise before I arrived to set up that the Edinburgh HackLab is right there in the same building. Summerhall is a weird and very cool place. It used to be a veterinary college called the Royal Dick but the Dick moved away in 2011 and the local authority have turned the whole college into artists units and that sort of thing. During setup I found that I needed a 13a kettle lead and a 9v battery connector. I was pretty sure they’d have them over at the lab and having already had a tweeted invite I headed right over. I was greated by Peter and Grace who were working away on projects for the Faire (an Arduino sombrero and a Rubbin’s tube waterfall) Grace in particular seemed rather keen to get on with her project as it was not nearly finished and looked to have several more hours work on her project which included flexible 3D prints, lots of laser cut parts and water. They’d been apparently running their big laser cutter night and day and had resorted to putting an ice filled Club Mate bottle in the coolant to help drop the temperature (NOT RECOMMENDED). The space was roughly divided into 3 (possibly 4) rooms, a main “lab” like room with electronics, the kettle, fridge and quite cool shop. All the main projects and efforts seemed to be focused on this room. Storage space in this area whilst plentiful (looked like an old biology with the white Trespa type worktops and draws (very expensive stuff) there was stuff everywhere and every draw I saw was stuffed full. Every chair and work surface had gear on it and projects in progress. This might have been because of the Faire the next day perhaps. The “dirty” workshop room was quite small, no bigger than a domestic bathroom really. It had some cool tools though including pillar drill, CNC Mill (work in progress) and a larger than A3 laser cutter. Which is there pride and joy. Apart from that the workshop was really very messy indeed. I suspect they had a good tidy up before letting the public in the following day, as I understand it the HackLab was to be open to the public as part of the Faire. The third room was a sort of store room with abandoned projects, materials, donations and members boxes. There was a complicated looking QR code sticker system setup by the door but I didn’t ask about it or read the instructions. They had made some really awesome infrastructure projects. They had a touch panel for addressable lighting, heating and fan control. They have used the sites RFID system to setup door access to the lab which had a fancy conductive door handle ensuring that a keyless person can always get out but the keyless can’t get in if you are conductive and keyless you can open the door from the inside but not gain entry from the outside. Very cool. They also had an awesome looking Mindstorms, bluetooth controlled IP camera on a monorail going about on the ceiling. They had also hacked an tube hours counter for their laser cutter which looked pretty cool.   A member told me that they have about 40 paying members in total and the main challenge they face is the price of rented property in central Edinburgh (which is lovely by-the-way), he said they used to have a £40 a month fee but had been able to make that a lot more flexible recently. Open nights are twice a week on Tuesday and Thursdays from 7pm and I am sure they are looking for yet more new members to get involved. So if you are local but haven’t been already pop down, lots of people were interested in learning about laser cutting at the Mini Maker Faire and didn’t realise that a laser cutter was available right there at the Hacklab so I encouraged them to visit.

I was pleased to be able to stamp my Hacker Passport. I usually forget to take it when I visit or I forget to ask if I do. 

From the corrections dept!

1. It is a private investor rather than the local authority that has converted Summerhall

2. Yup, we have 3 rooms

3. No IP camera in the mono-rail at the moment unfortunaley

4. Member fee was previously £30

5. … and yes they had an EPIC tidy before MMF!

(thanks Peter)

 

 

a visit to makespace, cambridge

I got the opportunity to accompany Martin Raynsford to Makespace in Cambridge for their weekly Sunday morning “Family Makers” session where he was running a useless machine workshop and giving usa chance to show off our Blacknose A3 Laser Cutter good practice for Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire this weekend and the UK Maker Faire the weekend after.

Makespace is in some buildings which are part of the University and it’s just a couple of minutes walk from Kings College and the centre of the city. One of the founders, Steve, gave me a tour. He explained that Makespace could remain in the present location for another two years but after that they’d need to move out. I was told by a member (though it might have been speculation) that the current home for Makespace was very valuable development land. It being a non-listed building amongst some of the best architecture in Europe (in my opinion) it’s a prime spot to pop an office or a mall or even a more useful building for the university.

The setup is very clean and well organised compared to most Hackspaces, but then they purposely called themselves Makespace and certainly the people I spoke to had a “dirty” and “dark” perception of what a “Hackspace” is. Having said that they still have some similar problems to other Hackspaces with stuff all over the place and members needing project storage and wanting to fill the space with, well… useful things (crap).

Unlike most Hackerspaces I’ve visited they have a lot of very high end equipment and have had corporate sponsorship and donations to get them off the starting line. That’s not to diminish from the contributions of the 50 or so founders shown on the logo above. The company sponsors are also logo’d and linked at the top of their website. I was told they currently have about 200 members all paying around £40 month for 24 hours access and as usual it’s about a 20/80 % split of highly active and less active members. Also they don’t tend to have pledge drives for equipment, instead utilising their considerable monthly income (£8000 a month if their membership fee and number of members is an indicator) into getting good tools and keeping them running. Some of the founders I spoke to didn’t know who how much the rent was but described it as “peppercorn” which implied a token small rent. They do pay for the services they receive which I assume to be power, heating and internet as well as web domains and insurance and the like.

It being Cambridge I sort of assumed that there would be a load of Cambridge University undergraduates. No, said a member, students can’t afford £40 a month. Is £40 a month expensive? I can’t decided. I think access to all the good tools they have in the clean and (relatively) well organised environment of Makespace in central Cambridge IS worth that yes. “It’s the same as a high end phone contract.” said one member who preferred to avoid the “Gym Membership” analogy.

They have a good setup including a main working room with Makerbot Replicator 2, A1 sized CO2 laser cutter, small Rolland CNC mill, vacuum former, glass working kiln and electronics bench. Next door they have a dirty workshop with large CNC router, 3 axis mill, wood lathe, pillar drill, band saw, sanders, chop saw and many others smaller hand tools. They have a sizable “MEAT ROOM” or class room which is currently under debate to be changed though it seems well appointed for teaching. Additionally they had a quite big locked room for valuables and servers and the like. My understanding is that members don’t have access to this room. They had a room called “Cake Space” which was their kitchen and tuck-shop and another room they called the “cafe”. The natural light in the space is superb as they have a traditional saw tooth type factory roof.

I was made very welcome and am generally impressed by Cambridge Makespace. To me looking in from the outside, Makespace has always felt like a much more corporately minded “go-it-alone” type of Hackerspace (if you could describe it as such). When being told by members that the “leaders” are “very busy software types” with little time to interact with other Hackerspaces and the foundation in general and also seeing the locked room for the “valuables” and no-one seemingly knowing how much the rent is I had the fleeting idea that the “members” are sort of “other” from the organisers and maybe there isn’t the same level of buy in. Having said that it does make for a better run and seemingly more organised space with the right tools in the right places at the right time and not everything done on pennies from twine and sticky tape. I think the way that Makespace was resourced, founded and funded presents some very interesting learning opportunities for maker and hacker spaces (whatever you want to call them) to learn how to scale into something realistic safe and sustainable. I’d very much like to see some of the leaders/founders interacting more with the UK Hackspace Foundation rather than distancing themselves from it. I am certain we can learn a lot together. One thing that sits uncomfortably with me is that they used the name “Makespace” as a one off only us name. That is to say they aren’t “Cambridge” Makespace, one of many Makespaces but just “Makespace” the one the only. London Hackspace isn’t just “Hackspace” one of one… it is London Hackspace one of many.. do what we do they say. Makespace.org points to Makespace, Hackspace.org.uk points at the Foundation page of all space (including Makespace).

Another thought occurred to me, at 200+ members and with probably 5000 square feet of space available Makespace is probably the 2nd largest UK Hackspace after London (800+ members about 6000 square feet) though because they don’t really interact with the UK Hackspace Foundation or other Hackspaces as such they have never really been on my radar. Suddenly one day they appeared but didn’t brag in my face about it. I suppose it doesn’t matter.

Most amazingly for me was the “lost property shelf” in most hackspaces (or makerspaces) stuff is pervasive and everywhere. Put it this way, put a thing down on a table no one will move it unless they know that it shouldn’t be there. I felt that Cambridge Makespace had the advantage of keeping itself above mess rather than trying to pull itself out of it like most hackspaces. Their members box system is a hackspace organisers dream. All the boxes are strong, good quality, east to see and not over filled. Furthermore hardly anything shoved beside and on top of them. Use of brought in BIG DUG racking helps considerably.

My favorite room in the space was the “TROPHY ROOM” or store room. A room dedicated to junk and donations. An Aladdin’s cave that contains the stuff both being worked on and up for grabs. With good quality racking it was quite good fun to go in a poke about. An Aladdin’s cave of stuff is something I’ve wanted at Nottingham Hackspace for a couple of years now. I want to contain the junk in a tidy away area specifically for stuff, not stop it. Right now at Nottingham we’ve stuff all over the place, where ever you lay your stuff, that’s it’s home. It’s a tough challenge for a community space to face up to.

They are doing other things very well too. They have a machine at the entrance that you can scan your RFID tag onto and it will print you a NAME STICKER so everyone can see you name. It’s a fun way to get people to actually share their names. I have a terrible memory and at Nottingham I know so many faces but forget the names… it might stop people calling me DOM (which I really don’t like) if my name badge said DOMINIC and we had a rule to use the name on the badge.

Makespace has a bi-weekly open “come and see the space” sessions you can book into here on their meetup pages. These open house events take place on Tuesdays. They also have other open house events like RPi programming you can catch it all from their meetup page or their website.

In conclusion I was impressed if not a little sad that this excellent community is a bit insular. It takes two to stop somewhere being insular though and I’d really like to learn a lot more about the model that Makespace has forged. I was made very welcome indeed and saw glimpses of the same problems that Hackspaces face (bikeshedding, doing everything on the cheap, wanting to hack every solution, the worry about webcams and anonymous identity stuff etc etc). I’d be very interested to hear comments or questions or corrections in the section below.

february 2014 nottingham hackspace members survey raw data

In February 2014 the Nottingham Hackpsace membership were offered the chance to complete a members survey. It was shared using the FREE Survey Monkey service. Of approximately 125 members at the start of February there were responses from 61 of those members. Some questions have no been shared below as they contain personal information or were general feedback on the survey.

There will be a presentation and discussion of the survey in the Blue Room at Nottingham Hackspace on (CHANGED) WEDNESDAY 26th March 2014. The survey was written and administered by me, Dominic Morrow  to act as an aid for future strategy making and direction for the Nottingham Hackspace. Specifically to inform choices and strategy for the next 18 months at Hackspace.

Thank you very much to everyone who took part. The feedback was very valuable. I’ve learned a lot about surveying from running this one and hope that I can run another survey in the summer. Kai Pays won the goody bag.

Q1. What is your most frequently used mode of travel to Nottingham Hackspace from your home or workplace?

Answer Choices–	Responses–
Car (own parked near by)	59.02% 36
Car (shared/drop-off)	0% 0
Bicycle	6.56% 4
Motorcycle	1.64% 1
Bus/Coach	16.39% 10
Train	4.92% 3
On foot	11.48% 7
Other	0% 0
Total	61

Q2. Speaking generally how frequently do you visit Nottingham Hackspace? Only choose one that best describes your visiting frequency based on the last 12 months or based on your anticipated usage in the next 12 months?

Answer Choices–	Responses–
Several times a week	21.31% 13
Once a week	18.03% 11
Several times a month	18.03% 11
About once a month	18.03% 11
Several times a quarter	3.28% 2
Once a quarter	11.48% 7
About once every six months	3.28% 2
Less than once every six months	1.64% 1
About once a year	3.28% 2
Almost never	1.64% 1
I do not attend Hackspace	0% 0
Total	61

Q3. What is the most likely reason for you to go to the Nottingham Hackspace? Please choose only one that is the most likely motivator for you to travel to the Nottingham Hackspace based on your most usual or most influential motivator on average. If you are frequently at Nottingham Hackspace, what motivated you the first few times you visited?

Answer Choices–	Responses–
To use a specific tool or tools	11.48% 7
To associate with like minded people	19.67% 12
To socialise	4.92% 3
To use the internet	0% 0
To make something specific	19.67% 12
To make something for fun	8.20% 5
For an organised event (workshop/talk/party etc)	16.39% 10
For Open Night/Open Day	4.92% 3
To share my skills	1.64% 1
To learn new skills	6.56% 4
To speak to experts	0% 0
Just to see what it is or what has changed	0% 0
Responses* Other (please be concise)	6.56% 4
Total	61

*Showing 4 responses

1. There are 2 Q’s here ! (1) Internet (2) To learn new skills

2. Associate with like minded, and maybe to share / learn new skills in future

3. Virtual online projects AND building hardware projects, same visit.

4. To check I’ve not broken gatekeeper when I update HMS

Q4. Which activity or activity area at the Nottingham Hackspace do you personally value as the most useful to you? Please try to pick one activity at the Nottingham Hackspace that you most strongly identify with or that you aspire to participate in.

Answer Choices–	Responses–
Woodwork	13.11% 8
Metalwork	9.84% 6
Bicycles (repair/build etc)	1.64% 1
Electronics (soldering/embedded etc)	18.03% 11
Laser cutting	16.39% 10
Spray painting	1.64% 1
Screen printing	0% 0
Crafts	1.64% 1
Textiles (sewing/knitting/clothes making)	3.28% 2
3D printers	1.64% 1
Programming	4.92% 3
Internet	1.64% 1
Cookery	0% 0
artistic work	0% 0
Co-working	1.64% 1
Photography	0% 0
Music	1.64% 1
Supply of parts/materials/junk	1.64% 1
Event or social night (bad movie/arduino night etc)	9.84% 6
Responses* Other (please specify)	11.48% 7
Total	61

*Showing 7 responses

1. Everything

2. workshop area in general

3. Invention of new concepts.

4. Internet Of Things (Electronics/Programming/Internet!)

5. Electronics *and* supply of junk – I can’t separate the two!

6. All of the above, sorry 🙂

7. Everything is of equal value (but if you forced me to pick I’d choose at least 5 options from the first two columns)

Q5. What making activity would you like there to be provision for at Nottingham Hackspace that we currently do not have equipment, space or a focus on? This can be any activity you would pursue or part-take in at the Nottingham Hackspace even if that activity would not or could not work at the Nottingham Hackspace today due to restrictions in suitable space etc.

Showing 40 responses

1. 3D printing. I would really like to see this fully working and inductions offered in the same way as the laser cutter is organised/charged for. the laser cutter system is very well organised and efficient. An easy way to charge for 3d printer use would be so many pence per centimeter of spool filament used. i.e. if a 1.75 mm filament length for 1 kg spool is roughly equal to 330 meters and costs £50, then this is approx. 15p per meter. if we charged 20p per meter of filament, that is a profit of £16.50 per spool which would be put to one side to maintain the device/buy more/better 3D printers in the future. we could also charge 30p/meter as a corporate activity for items non-hackspace members want printing and advertise online. Photography group/dslr camera loans a good dslr can be bought for <£400 and could be rented out to members who want to take it out of the space on loan for few days. A good quality 6×4 picture document feeder scanner for digitalising photos. i bet every member would have photos that they would appreciate scanning. we could pledge/buy the scanner and then rent use of it to non-hackspace members to cover the purchase price. SKYTV could we get a sky+2TB box and connect it to the projector. anyone can record programs, and it would be set to delete automatically when the harddrive fills – no one can keep programs. just the very basic package. i have bt broadband which means we could get BT sport for free to watch england rugby/football with all members. General Improvements: sink waste disposal unit in case anyone doesn’t know what it is – it is like a blender which sits beneath the kitchen sink and chops up food, bones, teabags etc and they then go down the drain. at the sewage plant they are broken down with all the other waste and made into compost/methane. it would mean that the kitchen bins would need emptying much less often and there would only be dry waste in the kitchen bin (think smells, unpleasantness of emptying as well as eco credentials). A lift if you get new premises, can we choose somewhere either on the ground floor or with a lift!

2. Vehicle maintenance facilities

3. Some more outdoor crafts – charcoal making, clay/brick oven, woodwork, bushcraft, etc.

4. Bio hacking and maybe bio energy stuff like making bio diesel.

5. The only thing I can think of, is a decent printer. A professional, large format printer, for posters, etc perhaps. Or some letterpress. Having said that, I don’t know how often I would use them. So not sure why I suggested.

6. I love Mod Rock and Clay.

7. I’d like to make a Hovercraft, or a starship :), an android, a music video

8. Engine – eering (steam, IC, petrol, diesel) Vehicle works Large scale welding Ceramic kiln automated or semi-automated knitting (e.g. knitting machine) Book-binding

9. Welding. I think we can do it now, but it’s not clear how

10. I’d like to be able to make vacu-form molds, but I don’t think there’s a device available to do this yet.

11. Welding. I would like to learn how to weld and be given instruction on the tools that are there.

12. More workshops to teach groups metalwork

13. I really miss the CNC router. It wasn’t the best, but was incredibly useful and great to learn on. The other thing would be proper blacksmith/forge area. Obviously the space isn’t suitable at the moment, but for hackspace 3 i would love it.

14. Metal casting.

15. Car maintenance

16. Vehicular builds.

17. Right now – bending aluminium to make a box. But the answer might be different next week.

18. Sheet Metal Work (Cutting / folding) Precision brazing / Silver soldering. CNC milling / machining (wood / plastic / metal) CNC PCB drilling

19. – Large CNC milling machine or router – Vinyl cutter – Cleaning area for bikes or other large things with hose and drainage facilities

20. Time-Travel – I don’t have enough time with a family & full-time (often away from home) job. Am hoping to get my kids more involved as they get older – my daughter came to the shrink plastic jewelry workshop & she enjoyed it.

21. I’d like the plans for the kitchen to advance, to allow a better quality and variety of food to be cooked.

22. Fine woodworking – especially furniture making

23. TIG/MIG welding (AFAIK, we don’t yet have a working set up including gas and all the stuff we need).

24. Metal milling.

25. Usable lathe and CNC mill/lathe would be really awesome. Currently these seem to be in limbo.

26. Group instruction events/courses for: a) laser cutter b) lathe c) milling machine – because it feels too much like relying on good-will to organise individual tuition.

27. Labs for amateur science (biology/chemistry/physics).

28. CNC machine

29. Regular craft workshops and events.

30. A wet room for dyeing, painting, pottery and the like. Plus an outdoors area for gardening and rockets. And a better kitchen.

31. Would like to see an improved “crafts area” (or at least have the table moved two feet further from the wall and resurfaced so nsnag free – helps a lot with textile work). Not impressed with the clutter that’s accumulated underneath it – this could really be better used for craft storage, for example.

32. Rapid prototyping: plug and play 3D printer, CNC, etc.

33. Access to a kiln for ceramics.

34. Metal turning

35. Motorcycle maintenance – although that might be a better job for an actual garage/workshop than the space.

36. CNC milling.

37. Pottery

38. Model Rocketry, BBQs, Baloons, Foundry work

39. I would like to be able to have outdoor social events, maybe grow a few vegetables and do out door work. I would like to see a higher standard of kitchen (close to pro-level) for learning catering or experimenting with food. I would like the space to be as warm and comfortable in winter as it is cool and comfortable in summer and be appropriate for running more taught workshops and talks.

40. A bigger Laser please

Q7. Please choose the closest response to your personal opinion to these statements about Nottingham Hackspace. Please take these statements at face value and give your gut response. Response statistics will be used for informing further discussion and are only an indicator of your general view rather than a vote for or against each statement and these results will not result in any official decisions without further consultation and discussion probably at an AGM.

Nottingham Hackspace should…

–	agree–	don’t know–	disagree–	no opinion–	Total–
continuously seek new members to join	79.66% 47	13.56% 8	6.78% 4	0% 0	59
seek a larger venue	70.49% 43	19.67% 12	1.64% 1	8.20% 5	61
be no more than 10/15 minutes walk from Nottingham city centre	55.93% 33	15.25% 9	6.78% 4	22.03% 13	59
have free nearby parking	68.85% 42	6.56% 4	0% 0	24.59% 15	61
have outdoor space	52.46% 32	18.03% 11	3.28% 2	26.23% 16	61
aim to grow larger	73.77% 45	14.75% 9	1.64% 1	9.84% 6	61
stay the way it is now	5% 3	28.33% 17	51.67% 31	15% 9	60
improve the quality of tools/infrastructure	88.33% 53	6.67% 4	5% 3	0% 0	60
seek funding from Government initiatives	44.26% 27	24.59% 15	22.95% 14	8.20% 5	61
allow corporate sponsorships	27.87% 17	18.03% 11	49.18% 30	4.92% 3	61
engage in crowd-funding ventures	62.30% 38	27.87% 17	8.20% 5	1.64% 1	61
engage in commercial activity	22.95% 14	29.51% 18	39.34% 24	8.20% 5	61
employ staff for key tasks	30% 18	31.67% 19	28.33% 17	10% 6	60
engage contractors for key tasks	47.54% 29	31.15% 19	13.11% 8	8.20% 5	61
fund youth residencies or apprenticeships	19.67% 12	36.07% 22	32.79% 20	11.48% 7	61
provide private rent-able work-spaces	26.23% 16	19.67% 12	44.26% 27	9.84% 6	61

This data is free to use in the public domain but I ask anyone using it link to http://nottinghack.org.uk and this blog.

now we are four! – nottinghack’s forth birthday

What’s the difference between Nottingham Hackspace and Nottinghack? Well the way I’ve always thought of it is that Nottingham Hackspace is the place (depending on how you recon it we’ve had 2 and half hackspaces so far) and Nottinghack is the people! Nottinghack Hackspace could cease to exist but the group of people (dare I say friends?) would continue somewhere, right?

The dates are vague but about four years ago the group that became Nottingham Hackspace was started and you might of wondered how it got started? I created a meetup.com group called Nottinghack for Hackers and Makers in Nottingham. The first meet-up was at the Olde Salutation pub on Wednesday 10th of March 2010 (I managed to pull the date from twitter records for @nottinghack also I rememebr it because the weekend after was the 2nd UK Maker Faire and I went to it with JP who I’d only just met).

The four who went to that first open meet-up are in the picture above which was taken on 28th May 2011 in the kitchen at Nottingham Hackspace 2.0, during the open day (just a few days after we’d moved into the Hackspace’s current venue at Roden House). If you look carefully we’re yet to fill it up with stuff… From right to left in the picture are me (Dominic Morrow), Matt Little, David Hayward and JP Hastings. Matt Lloyd who was involved very early in Nottinghack didn’t make that very first meeting so isn’t in this picture (sorry Matt). JP is ridding a bike to power the blender that looks like it’s attached to David’s crotch. It’s a pedal powered smoothy maker made by Matt Little.

The 2nd May 2014 will mark 3 years at Roden House and (hopefully IMO) the start of our last year at Hackspace 2.0 before pushing onto the bright sunlit uplands of Hackspace 3.0. But that’s a different story that’s yet to be written. When we had that pint in that noisy pub 4 years ago I honestly never really imagined that we’d be buying an A0 size laser cutter to put in our 4000sq ft workshop. My life has changed completely since then and a lot of that is because of the Hackspace. To be honest, I still love it.

By the way if you’d like a bit of a laugh at my expense look at some of the rubbish I wrote in 2010 about Nottinghack (my writing style probably hasn’t improved much and I’ve left all the errors in sorry some of the pictures have fallen off). The fatured image (if you can see it which if you are reading on Nottinghack Planet you can’t) is a picture taken of a hard hat I decorated as a meeting marker. The picture was taken in the pub actually on the 1st meetup night by David Hayward.

Happy Birthday Nottinghack!

feeling guilty about light-night

This should be a post about the amazing, Make Magazine and Hack-a-day worthy project I concocted for Nottingham City’s “Light Night” on the last night of February (and the last of winter) 2014. It’s not, it’s a promise to do SOMETHING next year… the true horror of it is I said the exact same thing last year. In 2013 I put a bit board of light sensitive paint on my back and had kids “draw” on it with a laser pointer. This was really boring as I had to stand facing away from people for long periods of time… weirdly everyone else thought it was great.

Light night is superb. It’s one night you can head into the city and the drunken stage and hen do’s are out numbered by families enjoying the spectacle. This year for a quite reasonable £4 (with advance ticket) the main trust of the city council’s effort was contained in the castle ground (previous years it’s been in the market square) but there was plenty of fringe activity with local businesses getting in on the festival spirit.

The streets were thronging with carnival like activity. Sneinton Market had the wonderful dancing fountains running full tilt, a food market, live music, costumed folk and a roller skating rink. All the way up Hockley there were little activities going on, a projectionist-artist, a drumming circle and loads of other little things.

Our party included Michelle who had decorated herself and bike with Electro Luminescent wire (EL Wire) which draw many appreciative comments including one kid who said it was “Awesome!” After a good look about we ducked into the mulled cider bar for a warming beverage. Next year I’ll do something awesome… probably.

a visit to leicester hackspace

Quite a lot of the Nottingham Hackspace members are actually from other cities and occasionally a critical mass of people from elsewhere get organised and make a new Hackspace or group somewhere else. One of the most recent of these is Leicester Hackspace, who have formed and gotten a space in the last couple of months.

The fledgling group are renting space in the “Makers Yard” in the Cultural Quarter of Leicester city centre near to the Curve Theater on Rutland Street. Makers yard is very well setup with good security and clean post-industrial look to it. Most of the units are being rented by artists and designers and that sort of Maker. The Leicester Hackspace are really only just getting started and don’t yet have very much to offer in terms of tools. This could be a problem generally as they sort of want “ALL” the tools, some members have been vocal about wanting heavy engineering tools like mills and lathes and things like that. In truth they don’t really have the space or setup for that OR they would have to have that and not other things.

I hope they find the right balance and I would say their space is well suited to smaller rapid prototyping stuff like electronics, 3D printing, small format CNC, laser cutting and programming. The space is well lit and well insulated with a proper central heating system. As it’s a very comfortable space, a co-working type feel with good resources for small scale design would work very well. Their emailing list (Google Group) is near chaos with lots of enthusiastic people pulling in different directions. It will be interesting to see how thing pan out. I think with out some sensible vision and planning it could end up being a “storage unit” for people hoarded stuff with a few low end tools in it. Lets hope that doesn’t happen.

If you live locally and want to check them out, their open night is on a Tuesday and they welcome all comers. They are also having an official opening day on 1st March 2014 so if you want to find out more pop along.