Space Plan Wiki Post

The Hackspace Infastructure
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TheSpacePlan Hacman Manchester!

Introduction

This is a document to capture the plans for the space, in a concise and easy to understand way.

The purpose of this document is to allow those people who wish to offer their free time, a way to see which things they could help out with.

The best time to update this document would be following any agreed consensus made as a group either in person or via Telegram between members and/or the Committee of Maintainers for their area of concern, or whenever a task is completed (it can be moved to history for a number of months).

Just because a plan is recorded here, it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen and similarly, changes will continue to happen even if this document didn’t exist; people make change happen but this document should help improve the overall communication and transparency of the space.

The bullet point structure has been chosen since it can be sub-divided many times to allow for more or less granularity as required. Short term goals should be broken down into self-contained tasks that anyone could follow within reason. It’s appreciated that not everyone will complete a task to the same standard or in the same way.

Woody Dusty

Leads: Mark (@Marcus6275)

History

  • 2022-03 - Offcuts lived in 2 piles on the floor either side of the table saw, forming trip hazards and a safety concern.

    Frank made the first iteration of an offcut storage solution in the location where the lathe is planned to go.

Short term

  • 2022-07 - Drawers and cupboards are being made by Mark.
    These will have designations (labels) on the outside but won’t be compartmentalised internally - this will be a job for someone else.

  • Plan is to CNC text into the doors/drawer fronts.

  • Plan is to laser cut “labels” from 3mm laser ply.

    • Mark to decide on standard screw spacing.
      • Volunteer to replicate words on doors with laser cut versions.

  • Evolution Mitre saw requires lifting up slightly to be flush with main work surface.

  • T-rails have been bought to allow clamping of work to the main work surface. These will require 14x6mm slots to be routered in. 2022-08-16 Mark has fitted these either side of the Mitre saw.

  • Kickboards can be added to the cupboards.

  • Dust can fall behind the sanders. This could do with closing off.

  • To prevent dust ingress into cupboards, sealant or caulk could be applied to any gaps on the main work surfaces.

Medium term

  • Move offcut storage to near the door.

  • Move lathe to where the offcut storage is now.

  • Move the small CNC to where the lathe is now.

Long term

  • Add fob readers to certain tools to restrict access to only those that have been inducted. Equipment required:

    • Raspberry Pi would authenticate users.

    • Fob readers.

    • Relays.

  • Whole-room shut-off switch by the door.

    This would trigger a relay in the main consumer unit which would kill power to the whole room. Estimated ÂŁ600.

  • Could do with a revenue stream to pay for new blades and the general upkeep of the tools.

  • The pillar drill on the “faulty items” shelf near Electronics requires a new on/off switch. Once this has been repaired, the plan is to install it to the left of the router table.

Metal/Weldy/Grindy

Leads: Jim Ratcliffe (@Omniatus), Mike (@? Lemon Wipes) and Richard (@Garlicbread)

History

  • 2022-04 Weldy has seen walls laid, pointed and painted,

    a door fitted and the room wired.

Short term

  • Fire strip to be fitted to the door frame by the lift.

  • Extraction is planned to go through the wall that’s shared with Visual Arts, at a height of around 3m and travel across to the front wall of the building.

    • Some piping exists. More to be sourced.

    • Fan requires vibration isolation.

    • Fan to be mounted to the wall.

  • Oxygen detector is required to meet the H&S for storing inert gases (in case a bottle leaks, expelling the oxygen from the room and causing surprise asphyxiation).

    • Hard wired into the mains would be best.

    • Appropriate height needs to be considered (or get two oxygen monitors).

  • Training and induction plan needs finishing to include angle grinder and bandsaw training. (Mike H wrote this)

  • Welding bench to be sourced.

  • 4-axis CNC router requires testing and if successful, a suitable home.

    • Richard testing currently.

    • Water cooling for spindle and endstops for homing is all that’s left to get it functional

    • 4th axis works but is a bit wobbly due to the the grub screws attaching the stepper motor so that needs a little work.

  • Furnace requires a decision to keep or not. It requires a door and testing.

Medium term

Long term

Visual arts

Leads:

  • 3D printer - Ella (@smolfluffs) now lives in Sweden but remains the main contact for the 3D printers. a committee is being formed with training material

  • Laser cutter - Jason (J @klkl85), Connor (@coneconecone), Bob (@) and Greg (@gregmorris) are good contact points for the laser cutter.

History

  • The laser cutter uses a certain firmware that requires our current version of Visicut,

    which in turn requires a certain version of OS on the Mac. Please don’t update the Mac OS without consulting the laser maintainers.

  • Jason (J) provided the Mac that resides next to the laseprinters.

    Contact J to install software. Otherwise a restart of the computer wipes all user data.

  • The latest version of visicut now works with the laser cutter

Short Term

  • It needs to be much clearer which filaments are available for use with the 3D printers.

Medium Term

Long Term

  • Organise 3D printers into a 2x2 or possibly 3x2 grid to maximise the number available in the space currently occupied by the ones we have.

    • Filament storage and delivery to the extruder could be improved.

    • A filament drier could be a good investment. Currently ~ÂŁ50.

    • A vacuum desiccator could be a good investment. Approx ÂŁ500. Backing pump already exists in the space.

  • Acquire a second laser cutter.

    This would allow our current laser cutter to be upgraded without fear of breaking the only laser cutter (which sees strong usage currently) and without the time pressure of having the only laser cutter out of action.

    • Where would the second laser cutter live?

    • What size or type would compliment our current one best?

    • How much money has the current laser cutter put into the pot and what does this mean for the budget for the second one?

SnackSpace / PlantSpace

Lead: Plant watering and lighting - Connor (@coneconecone)

A relaxing, quiet place to sit.

History

  • 2022-05 Grayson kindly painted the mural adjacent to the plants.

  • 2022-06 Dish washer is temporarily located by the sink at the back of Large Projects.

  • Date? Conor installed the automatic watering system.

  • Date? We used to have a barcode reader, fob reader and monitor set up (ie a till) to make purchases and track stock.

  • 2022-05 Frank created a spreadsheet with VBA to keep track of SnackSpace stock. The sheet tracks historical data for each item so we know the rate at which items are being consumed. This allows for more intelligent decisions to be made about what stock to order in. Stock takes of individual items can be done on a phone but a PC is required to run the VBA afterwards. The spreadsheet requires a certain level of training/understanding to be used/updated successfully.

Short Term

  • Looking for volunteers to take over the stock management side of SnackSpace. Any volunteers, please contact Frank (fnhalluk). Experience with Excel would be helpful, but training can be given.

Medium Term

  • If the systems are still in place, we could think about bringing back the till.

Long Term

  • Ideally we’d have a kitchenette to house some crockery and cutlery for communal use, the dishwasher, kettle, electric oven/hob, etc.

    • Frank has suggested building a cupboard above the sink that doubles as a drying rack. Thus solving 2 problems with 1 solution, allowing a plate to be washed and put away in the same action. Otherwise we could face an endless battle of trying to enforce dried items to be moved off the drying rack and into cupboards.

    • The drain in SnackSpace is located behind one of the sofas (2nd alcove away from the external door). For this reason, the alcove between this sofa and the emergency exit door might be the best location for the kitchenette. If anyone has the time, please feel free to propose sketches/drawings of what this kitchen area could look like.

Lab

Lead: Alex (@)

History

  • The lab doesn’t have a waste water drain and for this reason it can’t have a mains water feed.

    Instead the lab uses a water fountain for immediate access to water or the sink at the back of large projects is nearby.

Short Term

  • Safety items such as gloves should be considered if they should be added to the list of consumables.

Medium Term

Long Term

Electronics

Leads: Mark Heywood (@bluetin )

We are recruiting
This area should be a clean and tidy place for people to work in with a clear and clean-as-you-go policy. All too often the workstations are left untidy and equipment not put back. If you can help control, train and maintain in this area, join the electronics team by contacting the lead above or the board.

History

Electronics has always been part of the hackspace and the current hackspace home has allowed the Electronics area to expand and become more organised.

Short Term

Some of the jobs we are looking to do as soon as possible:

  • Reinstate the Raspberry Pi workstation with tamperproof cabling and hardware set-up. A tamperproof setup would prevent cables and adaptors from being unplugged and going missing.

  • Clampdown equipment cables to prevent cables from being removed from the area and the hackspace. These cables include USB and special HDMI cables for small board computers like the Rasberry PI.

  • Get a new soldering station with temperature control.

  • Fit a dimmable ring light on the inspection scope.

  • Get the component draws better organised.

  • Electronics Area or Electronics could instead be called The Electronics Lab. Any suggestions?

Medium Term

An SMD Pick and Place machine is being put together and there will be a lot of effort to get it operational by the end of summer 2023.

Long Term

We are looking to improve solder fume extraction. System design is still being considered but this project is not a priority at present.

General

Leads: No specific, contacting board members is a good start

Things that affect the whole space or don’t fall under a specific area.

History

  • VAT - We are not VAT registered (companies with turnover greater than ÂŁ85k must register).

    We don’t pay VAT specifically to HMRC, neither do we claim it back.

  • 2022-05 Richard & co painted the ceilings in the main area - these were heavily flaking before

  • Bins - 152cm circumference x 56cm tall, 100l. This should help us buy the correct bin bags in future.

Short Term

  • 2022-07-07 The shelves in Members Storage have been found to have dangerously sharp edges. The edges had protective strip fitted to them all.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Yesland-Universal-Protector-Windows-Protection/dp/B084X4XFCY/

  • Front door access - Mark (Lemon) and Cone are implementing improvements to the system.

    • Crash bars will be added to the doors to aid in an emergency exit.

    • Fob reader will be moved off the door and onto the wall, thereby removing the trailing cables on the inside.

  • Cleaning ‘shadow boards’ to be made for each area of the space - speak to Joe Christian, JC on telegram.

  • PPE ‘shadow boards’ to be made for each area of the space - speak to Joe Christian, JC on telegram.

Medium Term

  • Second set of double doors - implement 2nd stage authorised access to remove the single point failure of the front door accidentally being left open.

    • Add fob reader access.

    • Add keypad access (for those using the loo and forgetting their fob)

      • Suggested codes include 766766 (poopoo), 2727 (crap).

Long Term

  • Set up projector and screen. This could be used for Members Meetings, movie nights, etc.
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