Summer 2022 Edition
Welcome to Hackspace Manchester Members’ Newsletter - Summer 2022!
In this issue:
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Hello to our new board members
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Safety is everyone’s responsibility
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Hackspace Manchester went to EMF Camp 2022
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We’re improving the space
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Highlight Projects
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Get Involved
Hello to our new board members 
Following the recent election, we are pleased to welcome three new board members: Joe Christian, Frank Hall, and Jim Ratcliffe. These incoming directors join remaining board stalwart Ellan Pearce and will be focusing on the admin of the space, including finance, legal, and compliance issues. This allows the rest of the membership – through the workshop teams – to concentrate on making the space as good as it can be.
Thanks very much to outgoing members Ross, Jason, and Jo, who are taking a well-deserved break after guiding the space through the challenges of the past three years.
Joe Christian
I’ve been at Hacman since November. I’m a bit of a generalist, you’ll find me in most areas other than Weldy Grindy. One of my current projects is the new tool shadow board for Bikespace to keep all the cool tools that have been donated organised. I will also be taking responsibility for space admin and representing the board on the electronics and bike teams.
Frank Hall
I’m excited to be joining the board after being a member here for three years. I am focusing on the space’s finances, as well as representing the board on the wood team, where I’m already a trainer. I enjoy woodworking and am currently converting my van, using my CAD and engineering experience along the way!
Ellan Pearce
I’ve been on the board for several years now and helped guide the space through the difficulties of COVID. I also spent time writing risk assessments for all tools in the space to help with our health and safety goals. I look forward to continuing to be there for our members and continue to make the space a great place to be.
Jim Radcliffe
I have been a member of the space for four years, and have recently been working hard to improve our 50-year-old lathe in the metal workshop. I have experience in health and safety as well as engineering, so I’ll be looking to improve both our health and safety processes and continue to help the metalwork team as we add welding to that area.
Safety is everyone’s responsibility 
In the past few weeks, several tools have been broken, and there has been one accident requiring a member to go to A&E. This is a reminder that we are all responsible for safe use of the space. A few key pointers:
- Follow the procedures you have been shown in your training for a given tool.
- If you see anything you feel is unsafe, please report it via Telegram, the forum, or to a member of a workshop team or the board in person.
- If you see someone using a tool dangerously or without proper PPE, inform them of the risk. It could save them a trip to A&E.
- If you have an accident in the space, you must report this.
- If you break a tool, it is your obligation as a member to:
- Put it out of use by physically marking it as broken such as adding a label, and preventing its use such as cable tying the plug. Leaving it in the space for another member to use is dangerous to other members and could turn a quick fix into irreparable damage.
- Report this on Telegram or the Forum - this is not to blame but to understand, learn, and fix.
We are making some changes to our accident and safety procedures, big thanks to Ellan for writing up risk assessments. You can expect to see another email soon about this.
Hackspace Manchester at EMF Camp 2022
In June, many of our members attended EMF Camp.
This is a biennial event taking place in a field somewhere over a weekend (in this case the jubilee weekend). It brings together designers, hackers, engineers and many creative types to showcase what they have done or learned (with some socialising thrown in).
For a lot of people at the Hackspace it was their first time and EMF Camp didn’t disappoint. Some of the highlights included:
- Your own programmable badge
- The bar having its own API
- Walking mechanical spiders
- Someone dressed as a PC
- Amazing laser shows
- Mitch teaching soldering to our next inventors
- DJ live coding music
- Hanging out with the Hackspace Manchester members
- Fax machines
- Blacksmithing
Overall it gave us the boost to go back to our hackerspaces and make things, which is essentially what we are here for.
You can find more pics and video here, taken by Harvy, or have a look at his live Tweets from the event.
We’re improving the space
The workshop teams are making constant improvements to the space.
- In the wood workshop, we now have training for the table saw, bandsaws, mitre saws, and (within a week or so) the planer-thicknesser. We will soon be physically restricting access to these tools (some are already restricted), so please consider getting training if you would like to use them. There are now new workbenches, and a whole room dust extraction system being finished off - big thanks to Mark Dale for his efforts in this.
- The welding area is coming along slowly but surely after some issues around rising costs of materials. We recently acquired a new MIG welder and hope to be installing extraction soon.
- Mark H continues to work hard making the electronics area look great and remain organised. It’s probably our most consistently tidy and usable space, with a tonne of high-value tools and components – perfect for your next project. We have dedicated soldering stations, Raspberry Pi workstation and rework station.
- The Hackspace now has keypad entry - so if you left your fob at home or locked yourself out of the space, you can now get back in. Make sure you generate an access code on the membership system and keep it somewhere safe!
Project spotlight: Yigit
Yigit Tatlipinar has been working on some interesting and painstaking art work using the tools in the space to make it more unique.
A few examples include using the laser cutter to create the words for this amazing LotR piece. This took many attempts to get it right and was pushing the resolution of what the laser cutter could achieve.
Plus, after a year of hard work, Yigit was able to finish this piece, which has layers of epoxy on top. Yigit used the vacuum pump in the Hackspace to make sure no bubbles formed in the epoxy.
His latest projects include playing with different types of light and incorporating it into further paintings and displays.
You can find more on Yigit’s YouTube channel or follow him on Instagram — or even just say “Hi” to him in the space (he’s the one with the motorbike inside).
If you have projects to share in the newsletter please reach out to the Outreach Team on Telegram.
Get involved!
Hackspace Manchester is run for the members by the members. If there’s a particular change you’d like to see, ask how you can make it happen! The workshop teams and board are always looking for willing, capable volunteers to help move projects forward. You can join the conversation:
- On Telegram (fast-moving chat)
- On the forum (threaded discussion – works with your existing Hackspace username and password)
- In person (instant answers, and we won’t bite!)
A little easter egg
For making it so far, here’s our O RLY book cover of the month.
Happy making!