Map of Nearby Useful Things¶

1. Hackspace entrance on Alfred Street South
2. Local takeaway and corner shop.
3. Bus stop on Carlton Road: City buses 24, 25, 26, 27, 100. Shoplink S10.
4. Bus stop on Robin Hood Street: City bus 39.

From the Hackspace, the National Ice Centre is located three minutes walk South West along Carlton Road. The City Centre is about twelve minutes walk West-North-West past Sneinton Market. Street parking is generally free on the roads around the space, though cars are quickly towed when parked on double yellows. The Aberdeen Street Car Park is pay and display, though the first hour is free. The single yellow line parking is free after 6pm until 8am, and all day Sunday.

There is a Nottingham ‘Makers Map’ which has many useful and interesting places highlighted. It is available here:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=zhOHsGt9wlR4.kdpQCFdye97s&msa=0

Please feel free to add any other useful resources.

The Hackspace Online¶

Hackspace Organisation¶

Nottingham Hackspace is registered as a non-profit limited company (Reg. No. 07766826). If there is any surplus after rent and other expenses have been paid, it is spent on tools and consumables.

There is a seven person board of trustees elected to oversee the hackspace, ensure financial sustainability and vote on critical issues. All of the board are volunteers. Members’ meetings are held publicly, in the hackspace at 20:00 on the first Wednesday of each month. These meetings are open to all Nottinghack members. Votes conducted at meetings are also open to all members.

Please find details of the board members here: http://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Board

Board elections take place each May, any member can stand for election. There’s more information available about our constitution on the wiki:

https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Constitution

Regular Events¶

Every Wednesday from 18:30 is the open hack night. The public are welcome to come and have a look around, talk to willing members about the space and use the tools and consumables.

We lead regular workshops on various subjects which are often member-led. Upcoming events are promoted on the google group, in the newsletter and on the HMS calendar: http://nottinghack.org.uk/?page_id=309. We’d love to hear from you if you’re interested in running a workshop too.

Many other regular events happen, which are all member-led. These include: Photography group, Retro Computing group, Bad Movie Night, Music Jam Sessions. Details of these events is usually given in the regular newsletter. Please also see the Google forum for more details about these events and when they are running.

Nottingham Hackspace Rules’s¶

Welcome to the Nottingham Hackspace Rules. This contains the rules to which every member and guest of the space is expected to follow.

Below is a summary of the rules, each has its own full description that can be accessed via the menu on the left.

1. Rule 0: Do Not Be On Fire

   It is essential you use the space safely as a responsible adult.

2. Membership of the Hackspace

   We ask that you gauge your membership by putting more back into the Hackspace than you take out in use. The hackspace costs an average of £4.34 per hour to run.

3. Guests & Visitors

   Guests & Visitors are welcome in the Hackspace, however whoever brings them into the space or lets them into the space is wholly responsible for them.

3. Be Excellent To One Another

   We ask that you respect others when using the Hackspace. Do this by cleaning up after yourself, abiding by our **safe spaces**[#]_ policy and **code of conduct**[#]_.

5. Respect the Hackspace

   We ask that you respect the Hackspace. Do this by cleaning up after yourself, by being careful not to damage infrastructure and by reporting both damaged/broken tools and infrastructure.

6. Do Not Hack

   Do Not Hack is an integral part of the Hackspace. <This doesnt not explain what DNH is>

7. Abiding by UK Law

   <need a brief here>

8. Storage in the Hackspace

   Remember that the Hackspace has limited storage space. We have designated storage space for consumables, resources and members’ storage.

9. Donating to the Hackspace

   Consider the benefit to the Hackspace when making a donation. Do this by posting your items and offers to the Google Group. Is there a general consensus from the members about its use or usefulness?

Health & Safety¶

Health & Safety is the responsibility of every member of Nottingham Hackspace.

The hackspace has a lot of potentially dangerous tools available to members, and rather than mess around with them, you should ask to be inducted on any machine or tool you haven’t used before. Generally, another member will be available and willing to do this; the best places to ask are the mailing list or at one of the open hack nights.

It is the duty of each member to make sure they are safe and not endangering the people around them.

Safety equipment, such as protective goggles, is readily available within the workshop. We also have hard hats, gloves and face masks.

Your actions in the hackspace are not the liability of Nottingham Hackspace Ltd or anyone else within it. This is simply not true, unfortunately.

https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Safety_Team

“Before we use any power tools, let’s take a moment to talk about shop safety. Be sure to read, understand, and follow all the safety rules that come with your power tools. Knowing how to use your power tools properly will greatly reduce the risk of personal injury. And remember this: there is no more important safety rule than to wear these — safety glasses.”

*safety rep*

*Michael to look at. *

Children¶

The Hackspace welcomes children, but please be aware that it is primarily an adult environment. While of course we won’t be screening porn or having strippers in the space, outside of workshops specifically aimed at kids, members might not be watching their language. Additionally, the space has some very dangerous tools and potentially dangerous chemicals around. Under 18s must be accompanied by an adult and are generally expected to be engaged with the space in some way, i.e. working on a project of some kind while they’re here.

Young adults aged between 16 and 18 can join, but one of their parents or guardians will need to meet with a trustee at the Hackspace to understand the risks involved.

Periodically, we do have events specifically for children of all ages.

Resources¶

In the hackspace you’ll see stores of things like wood, metal and electronics components. There are also boxes full of general hardware, enclosures, etc and craft resources such as fabrics, buttons, threads and zips.

All of these resources are free for members to use.

Please don’t take too much. “Too much” is down to your judgment.

Tools¶

We have a lot of tools here that are there for members to use, but some of them are dangerous power tools and some of them are on long-term loan rather than belonging to the space.

If in doubt, or if you’ve never used a particular tool before, ask someone how to use it safely. It’s very important to your personal safety and the ongoing use of the hackspace that you don’t mess with dangerous equipment if you’re not trained to use it.

When using equipment, warn the people around you and brief them to act safely if you feel it necessary.

Look after the tools, don’t circumvent safety features and please put everything back after you’ve finished using it.

Tools - Maintenance and Inductions

Donations¶

No one is obliged to make any donations above the membership fee they choose, but people often do.

Pledge Drives¶

From time to time, you may see pledge drives on the hackspace mailing list. You can ignore these if you want, they exist simply to serve members interests. The tools wishlist is always much bigger than the hackspace can afford, but pledges allow the space to acquire things it might not under other circumstances. Facilities at the space are directed by the interests of members, especially where large, obscure things or expensive specialist tools are concerned. For instance, in the past we’ve had pledge drives for a vending machine, an Xbox Kinect camera, a DIY CNC machine, donations to help Leeds Hackspace, bike parking, a lathe, and replacement parts for a knitting machine.

Storage¶

Any member paying £10 or more in membership per month is entitled to keep a 35 litre box at the space in the storage area. A box costs £5, becomes your property, & stacks with all of the other member’s boxes at the space. If you’re paying over £20, then you’re welcome to keep two boxes if you need them. The best way to get one is to pay in cash at an open hack night, or when you’re in the space with a board member. If you have a box, we ask that you put your real name and some contact details on it. Some members also put their Twitter names on their boxes too.

The Large Project Shelves (abbreviated to LPS) work on a three to six monthly cycle. Once every three months, the shelves are audited. Any project not adequately labelled (see Do No Hack section) is marked as such. If it remains on the shelves in three months time, still inadequately labelled, it will be removed from the Hackspace.

Projects are welcome on the shelves for as long as is required - as long as they are adequately labelled and worked on every three months. Projects that remain on the shelves for six months without being worked on will be removed from the Hackspace.

Do Not Hack¶

If possible please take any projects home with you after working on them. This helps to reduce clutter and make sure work space is available to everyone

If you really do need to store a project outside of your 35l box, please only do this on the large storage shelves within the studio area.

All projects should be recently worked upon as we do not want lots of half-finished projects taking up space. If your project has not been worked on for more than three months then it may be removed from the hackspace.

To ensure this make sure to securely attach a “do not hack” sign, along with your name, contact details & the date.

“Do Not Hack” signs *MUST* have a *name, contact details* and *date* on them to be valid.

You must also fill in the list on the end of the shelves along with the last date the project was worked upon.

Comfy Area¶

The first room you enter at Nottingham Hackspace is the comfy area, where people tend to congregate and socialise.

This is a comfortable area with a sound system, cinema and the museum of cool looking stuff that we like to have around but don’t really want to hack.

The Studio¶

In the Studio there are many tables to work at, where people work on projects that don’t require the heavier facilities. At the back of the studio is a large cutting table positioned in front of the Craft Room. On the far wall, there is also a list of benefactors that made it possible for us to move into such a large space.

On this wall you can also find the hackspace camera - please use this to take pictures of your project. This automatically uploads to the public hackspace Flickr account, so no rude pictures please!

Craft Room¶

The craft room contains consumables for you to use. This ranges from basics such as needles, threads and fabrics to kits such as lace making, candle making or mosaic tiles.

You are welcome to use any of the goods in the craft room, but we ask you keep the area free of projects and do not leave clutter in the space, as the room is small.

We are always happy to take suggestions of kits or improvements you’d like to see to the contents of the Craft Room.

The Wrokshop¶

The heart of Nottingham Hackspace is the workshop, where you’ll find most tools along with various consumables. Facilities in the workshop include workbenches, an electronics bench complete with oscilloscopes and PCB etching equipment, bike parking and repair facilities, a laser cutter, hand and power tools for joinery, a large sink plus screen printing equipment and a metalworking area with metal lathe, milling machine and welding equipment. Some of the tools and facilities in here are on loan from other members.

*Please respect things and put them back where you found them.*

Ask about anything if you’re not sure.

The Kitchen¶

The kitchen is equipped with storage, tea making facilities, a microwave, a dishwasher, a fridge and a freezer. Tea and coffee are always free to members and there is a donations jar in the kitchen for any contributions towards fresh milk and replacement stocksk. Mugs are in the cupboard above the fridge on that side of the room is also for members to store things such as drinks or lunch. Please label and use everything you keep in there, or dispose of it before it goes off.

Please recycle! In the kitchen you will find labelled recycling bins for cardboard, cans, plastic bottles, etc.

The Blue room¶

The blue room is a members-only area of the space. Inside it are several desks, the Nottinghack library, a large co-working table, several printers, a dual screen PC, a drawing table and a large on-wall monitor. It’s provided as a peaceful area where members can work if there is a large event going on in the main space. In winter, it’s also one of the smaller areas of the hackspace that can be heated economically.

Snackspace¶

There is a vending machine for snacks (and electronic kits!), you can pay for these either with cash or using your members RFID card.

If you buy items on your members RFID card then you will be invoiced via an email at the end of every month. Please pay this off using the note machine in the members storage room.

If there’s something you’d like to see in snackspace, you can email us at snackspace@nottinghack.org.uk. We currently restock weekly, on a Wednesday.

Cleaning and Improving the Space¶

The hackspace is run, cleaned, organised, maintained by YOU - thats every hackspace member.

One of the best things to do as a member is to clear-up just a little bit more, that way the space is more usable for everyone.

Work-surfaces that are regularly used, such as the benches in the workshop & the large table in the blue room, are designated as clear zones. Please make sure to clear these areas after working on them.

We ask everyone to do their bit to keeping the places clean and tidy and ensuring worksurfaces are free for everyone to use.

To help this happen we organise semi-regular clean-the-space evenings and hack-the-space days where we work together to keep the place nice. There is sometimes free pizza.

Guests¶

Outside of open hack nights, guests are welcome at Nottingham Hackspace if accompanied by a member. It’s expected that if they’re using the space & any consumables or facilities within it, they or the member that invited them makes an appropriate donation. Please do not give out the wifi password or door codes to people who are not hackspace members.

Guest wifi is available. You can find the password on notices in the Studio.

Questions¶

If you have any questions or requests, the best places to ask are the public group forum (unless your question involves confidential stuff), the IRC channel, or in person at the Open Hack night, which is every Wednesday from 18:30.

Membership enquiries and handled through the membership team: membership@nottinghack.org.uk. If there’s anything you can’t get answered on the public google group, just get in touch.

If you need to discuss something in private, or have a complaint, please contact the trustees at trustees@nottinghack.org.uk.

We’d like to emphasise that the hackspace is your space as much as it’s everyone else’s. Just like every other member, you’re paying a share of the running costs. We strongly encourage you to get to know other members, ask questions & talk a bit about your own projects. We look forward to seeing you at the space more!