Building A Moat For Your Hackerspace; Alligators, Piranhas Not Included

July 4, 2012 by Brian Benchoff 11 Comments

There has to be something tainting the water supply over at the Louisville Hackerspace LVL1. They’re building a freaking moat in front of their building, ostensibly to keep the black knight and zombies at bay.

After digging a 14-foot deep trench in front of their building – a hazard mitigated by a few steel plates and orange cones generously donated by the Louisville city workers – the members of LVL1 started moving pipes around in preparation for their moat.

Officially, the Louisville city council thinks this project will be a fountain and reflecting pool. City hall seems very friendly; the Louisville chamber of commerce asked about including LVL1 in next year’s Derby tour.

The barely-zombie proof moat build is the latest in a series of builds to improve the security of LVL1. Previous builds included a robotic overlord guarding the building and a robotic arm to cajole members into doing its bidding. Like we said, there’s probably something in the water supply.

MakerFaire K.C. Kansas City Hackerspace Delivers

June 26, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 4 Comments

The Kansas City Hammerspace crowd really brought an amazing amount of stuff this year. Some stuff you’ve already seen, some stuff that is totally new. I’ll be sharing details on some of them individually as they really deserve the attention. Their booth, or booths were huge, taking up roughly 1/3 of the main hall. It was packed with a plethora of individual projects that really were all over the place. There were enthusiastic people at every turn happy to show off what they had built.Their presence really boosted the awesome level of the MakerFaire through the stratosphere.

Not only did they bring tons of awesome to the MakerFaire, they were gracious enough to invite people back to the hackerspace after the show for an after party. They stuffed food in my entire family and made us feel at home. It was really cool seeing everyone gathered discussing various projects. The ArcAttack crew was even troubleshooting a small tesla coil cit that wasn’t working right.

Watch the Hackerspace tour and check out some pictures after the break. Posts highlighting some of the individual projects will be coming soon.

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Hackerspace Intro: Hacker Consortium In Nashville TN

June 7, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 10 Comments

The last stop on my trip this summer was the Hacker Consortium in Nashville TN. The Hacker Consortium has been around since late 2007 after acquiring a building that had been abandoned for several years. They had quite the task ahead of them, since parts of the roof had caved in and the building was in a general state of disrepair. The price was right though, so they set out to make it habitable. They did a great job too. We found the space to be pretty cool. They’ve got tools for wood working, metal working, collaboration, etc. They also have a nice little kitchen area, a classroom, and a laser cutter. Unlike the other spaces we visited where anyone willing to pay the monthly fee can be a member, these guys tend to be a little more concerned with how you can contribute to the group. You don’t necessarily have to bring a new skill to the table, but you have to be an active part of the team somehow.

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Hackerspace Intro: Chatt*Lab In Chattanooga TN

June 6, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 6 Comments

During our trip through Tennessee, we were able to get a sneak peak into a hackerspace that hasn’t quite opened its doors yet. Chatt*Lab in Chattanooga has just acquired a space and begun putting equipment in. Chattanooga, once called “the dynamo of the south” due to the amazing amount of industry located there, has been in need of a gathering place for like minded hackers for a while. They’ve been conversing through various means on the web for some time, but have finally found a space that suits their needs.

[Tim Youngblood] gave us a tour of what they currently have and shared a little bit of their plans for the future. As you can see in the video, there’s not a whole lot of stuff there yet. There are a handful of nice tools and a very nice looking and rather large CNC machine. However, they have solid plans and determined people, so we expect this to expand soon. On the subject of expansion, this space may seem tiny but that’s only because we shared the active space. The rest of the facility is vacant and available for them to expand into as they grow!

Let this act as a reminder, we don’t care how big or small your hackerspace is, send us a tour and we’ll publish a story on it. On almost every single hackerspace intro, we’ve seen comments where people had no idea there was a hackerspace in their immediate vicinity.

Hackerspace Intro: Foothills Community Workshop In Granite Falls NC

June 3, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 24 Comments

[Rich Goldner] sent in this walkthrough of the Foothills Community Workshop in Granite Falls N.C. Taken during their open house, [Rich] gives us the grand tour showing off the different areas including the HAM station, electronics station, collective work areas, the machine shop, and wood shop.

Though you can see some of the areas are still being put together, their space looks really cool. They have about 3,500 square feet in an old mill. They started with four very enthusiastic individuals who rented the space and set out to build a workshop. Since then, they’ve added 17 more people. Not too bad considering the town population there is only about 5,000.
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Hackerspace Introduction: 7hills Makerspace In Rome Georgia

May 30, 2012 by Caleb Kraft 12 Comments

This place served as a very strong reminder that not all hackerspaces are the same. Housed in a masonic temple, 7hills makerspace is quite different. They are fairly new, having just built out the location in January. I didn’t have a visit planned, and just happened to get lucky enough to catch [John Grout] there doing some screen printing. He agreed to give us a tour on the spot, and I think he did a fantastic job.

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Hackerspace Intro: STGO Makerspace In Santiago, Chile

May 21, 2012 by Brian Benchoff 13 Comments

[Roy MacDonald] sent in a few links to all the cool stuff his home base – the StgoMakerSpace (Google translation) in Santiago, Chile – is putting together. They’re a new hackerspace that’s only been open for two months or so, but already they’re put together a great assemblage of tools, hosted a few awesome workshops, and even gotten a good bit of local media exposure.

The StgoMakerSpace found its first bit of fame with a very in-depth article in Qué Pasa, a Chilean magazine (Google Translate). There’s a lot of very, very talented people at StgoMakerSpace that includes [macapola], an industrial designer who spent a year in China learning all about modern, global manufacturing processes.

StgoMakerSpace has a few workshops coming up, including a Kinect hacking workshop, and Arduino workshop, and a welding workshop. If you’re around Santiago, it’s worth checking out. In addition to very, very smart people and a whole bunch of tools, StgoMakerSpace also has a retro video game museum and FREE BEER brewed in-house.

As a small aside, [Roy] tells us the word ‘hacker’ has a negative connotation in Spanish, and it immediately associated with cybercrime; that’s the reason it’s the Santiago Makerspace. In our experience, the same connotation sometimes applies in English, something that hasn’t stopped all the Hackerspaces around the US.