Hackspace Meeting--Sunday, August 24th at 10:30

[wbaltic.livejournal.com]

Some of you may already know this, but I wanted to extend the invitation to attend our next informational meeting to the rest of the community. Willoughby and Baltic is planning to expand. We will be clearing out our current space and adding some small tools (scrollsaw, sander, drillpress, etc.), workbenches and whatever else you'll need for your small projects. Next door, we are planning to house our hacker lounge (soldering irons, electronics), computer lab, and class space. In Union Square, we'll have our large woodshop (the big tools) and metalworking tools (welding, bending and cutting) for the bigger projects. There's a good amount of space there for large scale work.

Our goal is to give people the tools and community they need to make whatever they'd like.

For more information, stop by on Sunday at 10:30. I'm bringing the bagels, bring your own coffee.

Willoughby and Baltic
195g Elm Street
Somerville, MA 02144

Comments

[laryu.livejournal.com]

You know, I was just about to buy a drill press that I knew I would probably only use once. And it would be awesome to learn some welding and to play with a metal brake. I'm in.

[ron_newman]

Are you moving to Union Square or just opening a second shop there? Where in Union Square?

[wbaltic.livejournal.com]

The space in Union Square is in addition to the one in Davis. It is on Somerville Ave. near School Street and all of the tools are already there. This will help people who need larger fabrication space. I believe it is over 2000 square feet.

The space in Davis will be more of a hacker space, and have tools for people who don't need the industrial size machines, but need to get out of their apartments to do some work.

[ron_newman]

Thanks. Are you still planning to exhibit art and host performances?

[wbaltic.livejournal.com]

We may still do an occasional performance or exhibit, depending on how the space works out, but we've been given exhibition space at the Charles River Museum of Industry and Innovation in Waltham, so our larger exhibits will move there.

The next planned event is a "Ghosthunting" game at the CRMI where you use handheld devices to find ghosts in an interactive installation. This will happen during Halloween.

The DorkbotBoston group has grown to almost 200 members, and we are meeting new hackers and makers in the area every day. The changes at Willoughby and Baltic are coming about to support DorkbotBoston, as well as inspire collaboration between people and groups by giving them the tools and space they need for projects and as a general community resource.

[ron_newman]

It's so cool to have people like you in our neighborhood. I look forward to the Halloween event; please advertise it here even if you're having it in Waltham.

[mistresshellena.livejournal.com]

Yay Dorkbot! Been hanging with the dorks here in London. Will be in touch when we return to Somerville early next year. :)

[wbaltic.livejournal.com]

Excellent! We just got a new co-overlord from DorkbotAustin, so we're very excited. Drop me a line when you get back to town.

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

I just want to congratulate and thank you for doing this for the community. I've only been to one show in your Davis space, but it's just nice having you guys here.

[eredien]

Hey, is this free? Like, if I want to make something out of wood, can I just come and use a drillpress?

[wbaltic.livejournal.com]

We can't afford to do this for free, but have tried to make it reasonable. We've basically taken the cost of our overhead (space and utils) and have divided the cost by a guess of the number of members, so no one is making a profit off the group, and no one is being paid a salary.

It works out to about $3 per day, but to start we are asking for the monthly and yearly members to sign up as they are the people that use the space the most. Also, the administration and credit card processing costs us something, so we figured a month was the smallest block of time we would start with.

You'll be able to sign up for a month of membership, and pay the $3 per day, and have unlimited use of all three spaces and all the tools for the entire month.

[mihmo.livejournal.com]

So is it roughly $90 for a flat monthly fee? Or is it some monthly fee + $3/day for the days you actually use it? (if the latter, what is the monthly fee?)

[wbaltic.livejournal.com]

It's a $100 flat monthly fee, unless you pay for a year up front, and then it breaks down to $83.33 per month. If you pay a month at a time, you'll probably need to pay about $30-$35 for a one-time processing fee to get you an rfid type key, and it helps us pay for the extra credit card processing and accounting we have to do for monthly accounts.

So if you register for October, you pay the $135.00, then if you decide to skip November, and come back in December, it would be just the $100 flat fee for December. You only get charged the processing fee once per year. Yearly members do not pay a processing fee.

[amethystmoon.livejournal.com]

Wow! That's a whole lot of awesome, and a whole lot of growth! I most likely can't make it this Sunday, but I'll definitely be making use of the spaces in the future.

[makoshark.livejournal.com]

Cool. I really have been meaning to drop by. This sounds really awesome.

[jaypee.livejournal.com]

There is a page up full of information here:
http://www.willoughbyandbaltic.com/