I hear people talking about how to fit everything into the new space. I love that enthusiasm!
But can we back up a second? I missed the part where we talk about what we’re going to do in the new space.
If we know what we want to do then we can figure out what stuff we need to achieve those goals. Useless stuff could be sold to get more awesome stuff we’ll actually use. That would make it easier to then figure out how to arrange the stuff we keep.
So: what do you want to do at the new VHS?
Already thriving projects: 3D Printing, VHS ARC.
projects people tell me about: more woodworking.
I solder a home with a station just as good as any the hackspace has. To ME, VHS is socializing, brain-picking, heavy equipment I can’t have in my condo, and an emergency stash of components when I find I’m a transistor short at 3AM. So a combined wood/metal shop with folding tables for random electronics and workshops means more to me personally.
For me - it’s all about doing electronics/robotics/arduino programming/ etc. I like building stuff at the space with my own soldering kit when events/group buys are organized. I also like the brain picking/community aspect. On my own I’m likely to come in and use tools/the laser cutters/electronic bits/
I am not so likely to use sewing machines/crafty stuff.
Me - making stuff. Mainly electronics and working with wood, oh and drinking beer.
I like the idea of integrating electronics with wood/furniture but the tools there for wood are pretty poor. I would love to see decent drill press and table saw, jointer and planer. It would be nice to be able to take any sort of wood and mill it down to the size you want for whatever project you are working on.
I would even pay more a month if I had access to these.
The current drill press is garbage and the table saw doesn’t have a riving knife so it’s not really safe for ripping.
I want classroom space so we can run more smd soldering workshops and stuff like pcb design. really want a permanent project we can use to present stuff.
@TomKeddie - classes are great! I love classes. Respectfully, we’re not at the stage of talking about wanting things. things will help us achieve our goals, and I’d like to hear more about people’s goals first.
Pretty similar response to @miststlkr - I’m interested in VHS for heavy tools I cannot have in an apartment (mainly the metal working tools like mills and lathes), and socializing/drinking beer/community/knowledge sharing.
@davidcarne@miststlkr@rsim Let me repeat the question. The question isn’t “what tools do you want”. It’s “what do you want to do”. We’ve seen what happens when people want things and then don’t make full use of said things. I’m tired of hearing about how the powder printer and the CNC are useless. I don’t want to talk in this thread about what tools should stay and which should go. Please dig a little deeper. I know I’m gonna love whatever you come up with.
Here’s mine as an example: This year I want to keep hacking the vending machine. I really am trying to get it to take Bitcoin. I’d also love to recycle filament and teach more classes.
Dan - It’s not as simple as “what do you want to make.” For you perhaps, its about a concrete project. For me, the hackspace is about capabilities. I’m a member of the hackspace not because I have $X that I want to make, its because it gives me capabilities that I wouldn’t otherwise have.
I work on a ton of things, and what exactly I’ll be making a month, a year, from now isn’t known to me yet!
Examples of things I’ve worked on with the metalworking tools: custom fixtures for test jigs, parts for robotics.
I want to learn SMD soldering and more about electronics/arduino/LED stuff.
I want to use the laser cutter to make fun things for myself (as soon as I remember to get a design and supplies!)
I want to use the woodworking tools (drill press, band saw, table saw) to make stuff or to help others make stuff.
I want to learn how to use all the tools!!!
I want to provide assistance to people who are using the sewing machines.
I want to get assistance from others when my sewable neopixels don’t work and I have no idea what I did wrong!
Sometimes projects come around from what tools I have at my disposal. Some will be electronics based, some would be wood based but I would never turn up the chance to learn how to make stuff with techniques and tools I’ve never used before.
Most of my projects I can work on at home so if I could pick one thing it would be to learn from others and socialize, that’s when I get my ideas for new projects.
@davidcarne has a good answer. If all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail by necessity.
What projects am I personally interested in making? Mainly robotics (flying, legged, wheeled, tracked, …), and miniature engines. By robotics, I don’t mean using off-the-shelf parts; I’m talking about designing and building every single part myself - chassis, gears, gear boxes, drive shafts, wheels, track links, etc. The key with everything I do is that I am very, very obsessive about accuracy and precision - which is why I love tools like lathes and mills and loath tools like FDM 3D printers. I get a lot of satisfaction from making parts that fit absolutely perfectly together the first time and every time, and the engineering that goes into them. Metal being shiny doesn’t hurt either.
I’m not following what that has to do with anything that has been said here. What are you trying to accomplish with this thread which hadn’t already been beaten to death in the new space layout thread?
I think that’s being a little unexcellent Dan… There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to do high quality workmanship. I could build a desk out of two by fours screwed together with deck screws, or I could do it from hardwood with mortise and tenon joints. I know which one I want in my living room.
Suspending disbelief and imagining I might have any time to do VHS stuff this year…
I’d like to work on a couple small line follower designs, maybe build a CoreXY stage, attend some of Tom’s SMD classes/group builds, figure out how to thread one or the other of VHS’s sewing machines, laser cut random stuff in acrylic or paper.
I’d love to build a giant logic gate puzzle wall for VMMF, reminiscent of what the Ontario Science Centre used to have if anyone here is old and easterly enough to remember that. (Please steal this idea.)
I’d rather not do much of anything in wood, unless I can laser cut it. My wood projects tend to be ugly hacks for necessity’s sake, nothing fun or elegant. When I have a hammer, everything ends up with half-moons all over it.
