tl;dr: next meetup 12/5 @ New City Brewery, podcast/article to discuss, home-made instruments @ Talk & Tinker on 12/12
Hi all!
Our next meetup will be at New City Brewery on Tuesday 12/5 from 6-9 pm. As before, this location doesn’t have workspace for us, but is a great place for conversations (and checking out small gadgets and such). As a direction for at least part of the discussion there, I’d like to suggest the most recent Make:Cast podcast - The Challenge of Running a Community Makerspace. It’s an interview with the treasurer of a 700+ member community makerspace in northern Virginia. While we’re far from that level right now, I feel like there’s definitely some valuable insight that may help us move in that direction. It’s about 23 minutes long and the whole transcript is at the link as well.
This past Talk & Tinker meetup saw a successful diagnosis of a second hand 3d printer (what was thought to be a motor controller failure turned out to be an incorrect power supply causing components to overheat), a valiant first attempt at sunglasses frame repair, and a discussion of the intricacies of buying used electric guitars. On the subject of instruments, we’re going to go ahead with the plan to have a home-made instrument theme for the next Talk & Tinker on 12/12 (but not at all restricted to just that). So if you have an instrument you made, modified, repaired, or repurposed, bring it along. Or come see what others have made, talk about something you want to make, or just hang out and chat.
Simple but handy tip inspired by the 3d printer we fixed this week: Any time you have a new piece of equipment with any sort of power brick, transformer, or other external power supply, mark the power supply with the device information, and mark the device with the power supply voltage. Power supplies are not always branded the same as the device, and not all devices have the power requirements marked clearly, and even if they have the same plug, they could provide drastically different voltages which can cause anything from unpredictable operation to permanent damage.
If you want to get in touch with other local makers, hackers, crafty people, and other just generally interesting people, join us on Discord at https://discord.gg/gKK2Vtxq. It’s a server set up by one of our members for all sorts of local topics: from bikes and native plants, to local events and community concerns. Plus repair, freecycle, tool exchange, and other "maker" topics as well. If you join, please make a quick post in introductions to help everyone get to know you.
Be well and keep making things!
Bill C.
MakeFixHack is a growing community of makers, tinkerers, hackers, crafters, and other like-minded people, sharing knowledge and working to create a community workshop/hackerspace here in Easthampton. MakeFixHack is an open and welcoming community and strives to be a safe space for all.
Be safe and keep making things!
- Bill C.
Where to find us:
MakeFixHack is a growing community of makers, tinkerers, hackers, crafters, and other like-minded people, sharing knowledge and working to create a community workshop/hackerspace here in Easthampton. MakeFixHack is an open and welcoming community and strives to be a safe space for all.