Anyone been to their local hackerspace?

[bueller]

Just heard about a hackerspace in my town that meets every Monday so I'm going to go check it out tomorrow, hopefully I can get some help building some boards! Anyone had any experiences?

[CPTBadAss]

CommunistWitchDr was trying to get a St. Louis meet that would be at the St. Louis hackerspace called the Arch Reactor. Unfortunately, where I live, the closest one is 2 hours away and in order to work there, I'd need to take safety classes and show up a set amount of times a month. With my job being what it is, I can't commit to that so I haven't checked it out....yet.

[Findecanor]

Stockholm Makerspace is pretty new. Inner city location. It is interesting, but so far I have found it to be more convenient to make stuff at home. A cheap 3D-printer (RepRap I think..), laser cutter, soldering equipment and oscilloscopes seem to be up already, sewing machines, CNC lathe, CNC mill are coming, and possibly also a 3D-printer that can print steel.

[UniClown]

I found one within an hour from where I live. Are these esentially hobbyist handouts with collection of tools that can be shared and used for free by whoever wants?

[CPTBadAss]

It's pretty much a shop that you can use. You may have to pay dues and/or get trained.

[mkawa]

nubs and i will be hitting up socal hackerspaces probably starting in august; he's already done some of the legwork but hasn't found anything really compelling. socal peeps are welcome to join us in our search. long term, i'd like to form a geekhack socal hackerspace (i have a line on some people who'd be interested in sharing shop space).

[nubbinator]

Like mkawa said, I haven't been really impressed with the hackerspaces near me so far.  I went to 23b and they have a 3D printer and hot air station and a drill press and metal lathe, but not much else worthwhile.  They also has what appeared to be some sort of mechanical engraver.  Coupled with the fact that one of the keyholders thought it was appropriate to work with a metal lathe while drinking a 22oz bottle of ~11% ABV beer, I doubt I'll be back in the near future.

I also checked out Factory Enova which is more of a membership based place and only a pseudo hackerspace, but they're not really impressive yet.  All they have is a pretty mediocre 3D extrusion printer and three laser cutters that could only cut cardboard, paper, wood, or acrylic and supposedly could engrave metal.  They people who worked there didn't know how to set up the machines for the different materials though.  I don't really have high hopes for the place.

There's a third one in Irvine I want to check out that has PCB prototyping, laser cutters and engravers, and I believe a CNC machine.  It's pricey and membership based, but it might be worth it when I find work and have a bunch of project ideas lined up.

[__red__]

I'm the founder of my local hackerspace so yes, I've been :-)

[Leslieann]

While not local, I've been to Arch Reactor in St. Louis, it's why I recommended hosting the meet there. It's a nice place with some great people and quite a bit of equipment. I don't know exactly what or how much, but they seem quite well equipped.

Most places require payment for regular use, however they often have open nights where new people can come. The level of payment and trust dictates who has a key to the facility. Often this is handled through sponsors and voting.

Keep in mind, hackers paces aren't only about what they have in terms of equipment, it's also about the people. A place with minimal equipment, but brilliant people can still be a fantastic place to go. All the equipment in the world is useless without the talent to use it.

There is actually quite a lot of hackerspaces, check hackerspaced.org for locations and details. There is probably more around you than you think if you live near a decent size city.

[bueller]

Keep in mind, hackers paces aren't only about what they have in terms of equipment, it's also about the people. A place with minimal equipment, but brilliant people can still be a fantastic place to go. All the equipment in the world is useless without the talent to use it.

This is what I'm mainly going for. I can figure out anything when it comes to computers but when it comes to building things I'm absolutely useless, hoping to get some help designing and CNC'ing my keyboard cases in return for me helping some people with programming or PC related rubbish.

[mkawa]

I'm the founder of my local hackerspace so yes, I've been :-)

i will note, red, that you still need to send me my acrylic lambda

[damorgue]

Stockholm Makerspace is pretty new. Inner city location. It is interesting, but so far I have found it to be more convenient to make stuff at home. A cheap 3D-printer (RepRap I think..), laser cutter, soldering equipment and oscilloscopes seem to be up already, sewing machines, CNC lathe, CNC mill are coming, and possibly also a 3D-printer that can print steel.

Out of curiosity, what new 3D printer are you getting?

I have keept track of the hackerspace lists to see if any had opened up in the Gothenburg area and there still aren't any officially listed around here. The Stockholm site does however mention there being some in Gothenburg so I will have to search around a bit further.

[Findecanor]

Stockholm Makerspace ...

Out of curiosity, what new 3D printer are you getting?

The makerspace has a Wiki page in Swedish about it. There are lots of problems to solve before it can be operational: it needs to be moved from western Sweden to Stockholm, for one thing.

[loadstar81]

I'm moving to Chicago very shortly and having access to a hackerspace is one of the most exciting parts of the move for me. I realize they are not standardized in any way, but was wondering if you guys had any tips on unwritten rules or guidelines so as not to seem like a scrub when I show up.

[Hellmark]

I started to do stuff with Arch Reactor a while ago, but my schedule has been craptastic. I was forced to switch to night classes for my degree (old job said drop out of school or work elsewhere. I went to night classes, they then made up an excuse not too long afterwards to fire me. Having night classes made it easier to find a new job), so I've not been able to go back. I'm finishing up at the end of the month, so I hope I can start going again.

[pushcx]

I'm moving to Chicago very shortly and having access to a hackerspace is one of the most exciting parts of the move for me. I realize they are not standardized in any way, but was wondering if you guys had any tips on unwritten rules or guidelines so as not to seem like a scrub when I show up.

You're probably thinking of visiting Pumping Station One - there's also a free "Maker Lab" at the central library branch: http://www.chipublib.org/eventsprog/programs/innovation_lab.php

[metalliqaz]

I went to a local (actually two towns over) hacker space as a guest. They gave me the tour and tried to get me to join.  Honestly I wasn't impressed.  There wasn't much in the way of tools.  There also wasn't much expertise in the members.  Mostly they sat around and played with networking and video games.

Really it just wasn't big enough.  I figure that the big-city hackerspaces would be more useful

[CPTBadAss]

I'm going to this one sometime in the next week just to check it out. We'll see how it goes and I'll report back.

[damorgue]

The one in my town is also software oriented, and has recently restarted in a new facility so there are currently no tools, and there used to be only a few. The one in the other end of Sweden does however have a quite fancy 3D printer amongst other things.