Visit to hacker dojo in Sunnyvale

[calexanian]

Stopped by Hacker Dojo after going to the computer history museum. It is a nice large place in a good neighborhood. Kind of a commercial/industrial type place. Well lit and lots of empty space. A very large lounge area. I saw in the shop area, which was occupied so I just looked in, what appeared to be a 3D printer and I could not tell but what appeared to be an enclosed laser cutter. Not much hardware going on. A couple of people were working of some small wheeled robots. Mostly looked like a software group and I am a hardware guy so I really had nothing to offer to anybody. I could tell a few of the people were anti social. It felt a lot like a university dorm common area blown up to about 10,000 square feet perhaps. Lots of seating area and couches, and fooseball and such. I have yet to see a hacker space where I would really fit in. I think I have been a company man too long and have become too inflexible and jaded! Software gets thrown over the wall and such. One day I will start learning C if a software guy starts learning distributing capacitance, inductive kickback, RC time constants. Specing parts, overseeing design, testing, debugging, quality control, getting vendors to ship the right parts, dealing with board houses, wrangling the accounting department and the marketing department (Same guy at my company!!!! Double death!) takes up so much of my time I have little left to learn high level languages.  The world be passing me by when 14 year old kids can write better firmware than I can!

[mark03]

I find the "maker" movement quite curious.  On the one hand, it's wonderful to see a little corner of western culture celebrating the making/building of stuff, bombarded as we are by buying and consumption messages.  On the other hand, the hackerspaces / makerspaces in my area (Seattle) only cater to certain types of projects, the predictable arduino, robots, and geeky artistic expression (weird LED projects and wearable stuff).  I concluded there wasn't much reason to join.

What I *really* want to learn are metal-shop machinist skills.  You'd think that with Boeing in our back yard that would be easy, but no.  None of the 'spaces here support metalwork, beyond perhaps a drill press.  A liability problem I suppose. 

[Fluxed Matter]

I thought about going there but the membership of $100 a month is a bit outrageous.

[calexanian]

I find the "maker" movement quite curious.  On the one hand, it's wonderful to see a little corner of western culture celebrating the making/building of stuff, bombarded as we are by buying and consumption messages.  On the other hand, the hackerspaces / makerspaces in my area (Seattle) only cater to certain types of projects, the predictable arduino, robots, and geeky artistic expression (weird LED projects and wearable stuff).  I concluded there wasn't much reason to join.

What I *really* want to learn are metal-shop machinist skills.  You'd think that with Boeing in our back yard that would be easy, but no.  None of the 'spaces here support metalwork, beyond perhaps a drill press.  A liability problem I suppose. 

I agree. I had to cobble together funds here at our little company to buy some basic metal tools. A combo shear break (Budgeted by using it to cut PCB's) a harbor freight mill. the green one. and a mig welder i bought personally. Also angle grinders and a abrasive cutoff saw I got cheap. Also a benchtop lathe I got off craigslist. Self taught so to speak.

[free_electron]

forget the dojo. use that money to get a techshop subscription.
there they do have lasercuuters, 3d printers, waterjets, 3d milling machines, lathes, mills , powder caoting ovens , shopbot 3d mills and much more equipment.

and they teach you how to use it.

[linux-works]

where is this dojo?  I have not heard of it (I live in that area).

I did join tech shop which is also about $100/month but they have a LOT of machine tools to make it worth the price.  5 axis cns (at the san jose location), shop bots, laser cutters, vertical mills for metal and wood, lathes, car repair bays, bending jigs (pipe), squaring shears, sandblasting and power coating, even vinyl cutters and commercial sewing machines   plus good classes to get you started.

$100/mo (more, actually) is a lot of money but where else can regular people get access to so much stuff?  I am not associated with a college and never have access to this kind of tooling at my day job.

[calexanian]

Dojo is off of of 101 one exit south of shoreline, I think, ish..

[GiskardReventlov]

the predictable arduino, robots, and geeky artistic expression (weird LED projects and wearable stuff).

Well said, I asked a local maker thing if they had a table saw. I got a *round eyed stare*. I said you know for cutting wood mostly but plastic and aluminum? Nope. I almost asked if they had a soldering iron.

None of the 'spaces here support metalwork, beyond perhaps a drill press.  A liability problem I suppose.

I don't think it's a liability problem, I think it's something else. Mostly lack of exposure to metal and/or woodworking tools.  They don't teach metalshop/woodshop in most places in CA now. I'm sure that's true for most of U.S.

I'd like to be able to do some mold making with sand and pouring molten metal from a crucible.

[GiskardReventlov]

forget the dojo. use that money to get a techshop subscription.
there they do have lasercuuters, 3d printers, waterjets, 3d milling machines, lathes, mills , powder caoting ovens , shopbot 3d mills and much more equipment.

and they teach you how to use it.

Now this sounds real and useful!  How big are the powder coating ovens?  That sounds like a great place. I'd spend the 1st month just watching all that in action.

[zapta]

forget the dojo. use that money to get a techshop subscription.

What's that?

[free_electron]

forget the dojo. use that money to get a techshop subscription.
there they do have lasercuuters, 3d printers, waterjets, 3d milling machines, lathes, mills , powder caoting ovens , shopbot 3d mills and much more equipment.

and they teach you how to use it.

Now this sounds real and useful!  How big are the powder coating ovens?  That sounds like a great place. I'd spend the 1st month just watching all that in action.

large enough to put a bike or motorcycle frame in em.

[free_electron]

Dojo is off of of 101 one exit south of shoreline, I think, ish..

jep. its opposite 101 from the NASA water tower at moffet field. Fairchild road or something

[linux-works]

forget the dojo. use that money to get a techshop subscription.

What's that?

I already described what tech shop was.  I guess you didn't see my post, just a few up from here?

techshop.ws is their site.  you can see what they offer.  its amazing.  not cheap but amazing and can't find that equipment easily unless you work for a fabrication company or a college, maybe.

[free_electron]

wait intul christmas for the special. 800$ gets you a whole year

[calexanian]

I just learned one of friends had something to do with techshop. He is a scary good programmer. Most of what he says is way over my head! Fortunately I can stay on my hardware side of the wall!!

[linux-works]

wait intul christmas for the special. 800$ gets you a whole year

does that include any free classes?

the typical every day special is $300 for 3 months and 3 free classes.  I think that's only good for your first sign-up, though.

classes tend to be $100 or so (for 2 or 3 hours).  its not cheap, but they make you take them so that you know how to use the gear safely (and the instructors generally do know their stuff). 

[free_electron]

some packages include 2 or 3 classes

you are allowed 3 free individual sessions for a simple machine

[Harvs]

classes tend to be $100 or so (for 2 or 3 hours).  its not cheap,

In Aus, $100 for someone to teach you something technical (even as part of a group training) would be considered very cheap.  Okay I understand from a hobby perspective it may sound like a lot, but you'll probably find the person has to be qualified, legally covered etc, their costs in providing the training would add up.

[GiskardReventlov]

large enough to put a bike or motorcycle frame in em.

That is really a great thing.  I just looked at their site. I'm concerned that it's a little too corporate for me but it's a great idea.  They have have indoor automotive garage to work on the car. Lot of amazing tools. Even sewing machines.  I wonder how long before they have pick-n-place machines and other PCB stuff.

I have a steel drawer electrician's part cabinet and I called around to get it powder coated, it's not cheap.

[zapta]

I already described what tech shop was.  I guess you didn't see my post, just a few up from here?

techshop.ws is their site.  you can see what they offer.  its amazing.  not cheap but amazing and can't find that equipment easily unless you work for a fabrication company or a college, maybe.

Very interesting, thanks. The list of machines is impressive.  I think I will pay a visit to the San Jose's one.

I see that they are charging additional for certification classes. Yak.

[Yago]

This sounds awesome!
Is there something like this in the UK?