[Swansea Hackspace] What do you want from a hackspace?

[Gerrit Niezen]

I moved to Swansea about 5 months ago from the Netherlands, and was a bit surprised to see that there isn't a hackspace here yet. I think it's a great idea, and was actually discussing the possibilities of starting one up with my fiancé over the weekend. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that Justin set up a mailing list and website around the same time! :)

I'm an engineer, but haven't touched a soldering iron in ages. I recently started playing around with electronics again in my free time.  I bought the necessary tools and components from Farnell and Maplin, and started soldering a board I got for free a while ago. Unfortunately I realised halfway through the project that I was missing two SMT capacitors, and discovered it's seemingly impossible to buy SMT components in Swansea. Shipping from Farnell is not worthwhile if you're only looking for two tiny components, and I don't have the funds to buy reels just yet. That got me thinking that if I had access to a hackspace, we could share reels between us.

I would also love to build stuff with laser cutters and 3D printers. Previously I was doing a PhD in an Industrial Design department, where we had access to all these tools. Now, I wish I had made more use of them while I had the chance.

So yeah, I love the idea of a Swansea Hackspace, as I would be able to share my experience with wireless sensor nodes, wearable computing, gesture recognition, digital electronics etc. Given that I have a very limited set of tools available, it would be great to have access to more things to make cool stuff!

Cheers,
Gerrit

On 24 Jan 2013, at 10:41, Justin Mitchell <justin at discordia.org.uk> wrote:

> To stimulate some discussion, i will start by talking about my vision
> for a hackspace, and the features i would like to see.
> 
> 
> My wishes for a hack space is a place where i can go that i will have
> the space to work on my little electronics projects, somewhere i can
> leave my collection of tools, power supplies, programming devices,
> components etc so that others can get use and benefit from them instead
> of them gathering dust in a cupboard. Somewhere that i might get
> occasional access to a 3D printer, something which i cant justify just
> for myself. Somewhere i can meet up with other interested people to
> socialise, discuss ideas, and help share my experience of things like
> PIC microcontrollers, chainmail jewellery making, EL wire, and so on.
> 
> 
> I would love to hear what other people would like to use such a space
> for, and what kind of activities they might also like to see.
> 
> 
> 
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