Funvill (to be confirmed) is trying to get us early access to the cook street location so we can move in before jan 1.
If we don’t get access before jan 1, everything needs to be moved into storage for a while. That’s one move to storage and one move out of storage.
It may be cheaper to leave things in a couple of trucks over the new years night and move them into cook street in the morning. Nobody’s checked on the relative costs.
The new space is 200sqft smaller than the old space and the ceilings are lower (maybe 10’). We will have a literal stack overflow if we try to put all the pallets into the new space at once. It would be easier to move in all the benches, set them up, and then move in the pallets. That way we can unload the palettes onto the benches to make room for the next palette and so on.
tools for assembling/disassembling should be last out of the old space, first into the new space. If we have duplicates then they we can have them in both places at once.
The cook street paint color almost matches the vancouver.vanhack.ca menu bar. Happy coincidence?
The filing system for all the bins will have to be updated when we unpack. Either we put everything back on the same shelves they were on before OR we have to relabel some bins so they make sense.
I think it’s high time we stop using “solder kits”. They never really worked - parts were usually missing. One big bin for soldering irons and some smaller bins for each component (paste, wolder, cleaning mesh, helping hands, etc) would never be “broken” in this way.
I think it’s high time we stop using “solder kits”. They never really worked - parts were usually missing. One big bin for soldering irons and some smaller bins for each component (paste, wolder, cleaning mesh, helping hands, etc) would never be “broken” in this way.
I think it’s worth keeping each station in a separate bin - if they’re all dumped in together, untangling cables will be a pain. For the Hakkos, which have their own stands, they shhould be kept together.
I agree that collecting solder, wick, helping hands, etc. separately from the stations was working better.
I don’t think I ever heard anyone tell people how to find something by the ‘filing system’ labels - we could probably ignore them when we move in, and then if we miss them, re-label after the fact, once stuff’s organically found its way to working locations. (pave the cowpaths!)
Speaking as someone who’s packed up the Hackspace twice now, I’d like to politely advocate for a different system than organic growth.
The population of members has increased dramatically, but the systems in place to manage that growth appear to still be sized for a small group of about 20 people.
We’re also moving into a substantially smaller space from our current one.
One area where an organic growth process falls down is industrial chemicals, some of which are toxic and costly to dispose of. Suddenly they become a hot potato that no-one wants to deal with. What do we do with a container of 20% strength Lye wrapped in a garbage bag? Who brought it in, and for what purpose?
The other problem, in my opinion, is hoarding. It’s really great that folks out there are willing to donate so much stuff to the hackspace. There is always a chance that sometime in the future someone could put it to use. But ultimately, if we don’t monitor it, it ends up taking up space that could be used either for more versatile equipment or components, or for active member projects. Either way, in my view it’s a poor use of square feet in a city that’s infamous for expensive real estate.
Perhaps we can start thinking about the tools and materials in VHS from a life cycle perspective. That way we can answer questions like:
What’s free in the space for me to work with? Can I use this expensive/delicate piece of equipment?
Who does this item belong to? Is it part of a project in the space I can be involved in? How is it maintained?
If it is consumable, when will it be used? When is its expiration date?
Who is responsible for its disposal after its expiration date?
How will it be disposed of? Are their costs involved with that disposal?
@Andrew_Hendriks - I agree.
I was more meaning “organic” for where the small tools live within the space, not so much what tools, and so on. Screwdrivers, soldering irons, helping hands etc. I don’t think we want to have to worry about tracking stuff this small.
An example from the bunker would be small screwdrivers - originally in the shop for sets, individual ones living in shelving by the washroom, they migrated to the soldering station side, which seemed more convenient. (I didn’t do this - and don’t know who did - but it was convenient).
Further to @wander comment on hording - Using the blade servers as an example, while I think they are cool they are of no use to us as a group if they just take up space. Rather than show a prospective new member the blade servers and say “these were used to make District 9, but they don’t work now”, it would be better to show them a table with a working sewing machine & serger on it (or other working tool/equipment) and say “if you become a member you can use these things” Space is limited and we need to use it wisely.
I implemented the addressing system in the hastings space and it made finding things easier for everyone.
Even if I was the only person cleaning I consistently cleaned it the same way because I knew where to put things back. That meant everyone intuitively learned where to find stuff they used often. Between May 2013 and June 2014 I didn’t update the addresses to match their new homes and I tried to monitor how much trouble people had finding things. What I find is that addressing things works better than not. I suspect addressing things left-to-right on each shelf would work better than addressing per-shelf as there is still a small moment of confusion.
If you don’t like where something is located - move it! As long as you change the address I’m happy.
If we don’t get access to Cook before January would it not be possible to leave all the stuff in the current location for however long it takes to get the new space.
This would save us a ton of “moving” energy and possibly our current landlords would not charge us thus saving storage cost and trunk rental costs.