A look back on some of the great events that we’ve had at the lab in earlier this year.
IWD 2024, Weekend Open houses, Doors Open, Junk Independence Day.

Upcoming events:
In addition to our usual weekly open house on Tuesdays, we’re also excited to announce a series of introductory workshops showcasing the various domains and tools we have available at the lab. This presents an opportunity for anyone to learn, experiment and explore new skills and tools for future project plans.
Our first workshop will focus on Beginner 3D printing workshop – 2pm July 28th, 2024 (Sun)
It will cover basics on how to create your own 3D models and print them using a Prusa printer.
Also plans are being made to celebrate Hacklab’s 16th Anniversary in Aug details TBD.

Friday, March 8, 6pm-11pm

Open House days are opportunities for the public to come meet, get to know, and join our community. This is an International Women’s Day focused open house, and is open to all. A PWYC share of dinner will be available. Come out and show us your newest project, get help or advice from our friendly members, or just get a tour of the place. We can’t wait to see you!

Waayy back in in August 2008 a few kids with a dream decided to come together and create a space free from all the ills of the world. That failed, so they created Hacklab.to instead.

Come out on August 19th 2023 from 5-11PM and celebrate the anniversary of that fateful day. We’ll spend a few hours of eating and telling tales and history, and then another few hours of partying to some serious dance music.

No tickets, $10 pwyc donation recommended for dinner, BYOBB.

Feel free to RSVP at Eventbrite.

HackLab.TO is happy to be among the 150 sites for this years Doors Open Toronto!
Come visit our uniquely adorned space filled with members’ projects ranging from art to electronic exhibits and design projects.

Saturday May 27th, 10am – 5pm
Sunday May 28th, 10am – 5pm

Dear Past, Present, and Future HackLab.TO guests,

Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic effectively immediately until at least April 6th, 2020 Hacklab will suspend public events, including the open house.

This closure comes in recognition of:

• public schools being closed for an extended two weeks in addition to March break
• businesses being encouraged to have employees work remotely
• and social distancing being implemented in shared spaces in the effort to flatten the curve and halt the spread of COVID-19 virus both in our area and the province.

We are sad to close our doors to all of you during this time as the community has always been and will continue to be a key component of the HackLab.TO experience. Open houses usually held on Tuesday night provide an opportunity for us to connect with the local community, invite new members to join, as well as share knowledge and resources in general.

HackLab.TO is an inclusive maker space advocating for all, so please remember that COVID-19 is a virus and as such it is not specific to one race, nationality, or ethnicity.  Treat each other with kindness, care, and compassion in this trying and challenging time.

We hope to see you all soon and are looking forward to getting back to activities as usual.  Until then, please visit our website https://HackLab.TO for up-to-date information, or subscribe to our twitter feed @hacklabto or facebook.com/Hacklab.TO !

~From your local makerspace HackLab.TO

Oh wow, you folks really want to be back in the space! With the good weather we had a dozen members and 5 unprompted guests at the lab today, making this evening a soft-open! So while we’re still rough around the edges, we happily welcome folks back to our public open houses!

Hacklab’s current lease is ending, and our building is being reconstructed and repurposed. After almost 3 ½ months of looking for the perfect spot, we voted to move to 1677 St. Clair Ave. W. Moving is a lot of work, so please come and help out! Open house and other public events will continue at 1266 Queen St. W., until further notice.

Large Man Looking At Co-Worker With A Magnifying Glass — Image by © Images.com/Corbis

An introductory seminar on how to protect your privacy online.

Todd, a systems administrator for a security training firm and an advocate for digital privacy, will help you identify some common risks to your basic privacy, walk you through keeping your everyday communications secure, and show you some easy-to-use top-notch tools recommended by experts in the field.

From Facebook to iMessage, we could be exposing private data through the software we use every day and Todd will show you how it happens, and how you can optimize your devices, both laptop and mobile, to protect your privacy through PowerPoint visuals and in-class practical examples.

There will a Q & A after the presentation. Students are encouraged to bring laptops and mobile devices for optimization, however Todd will not be available for tech support of infected devices.

Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/internet-privacy-basics-tickets-43024247683

Facebook Event: https://www.facebook.com/events/163341417644579/

Our next Junk Independence Day at the Hacklab is Sunday April 9th from 2pm-8pm. Bring your e-waste or other electronics you want to get rid of, root around in other people e-waste, and walk home with new treasure. On previous Junk Independence Days people have gone home with wonderful treasures like a classic Macintosh, old but still good LCDs, Stereos and lots of random electronic bits for hacking on. Come with your e-waste and have some fun socializing with other hackers!

Maker Festival, after the great success of the component art workshop last year, is in particular looking for colourful old electronic components. If you’ve got pretty-looking capacitors, old vacuum tubes, awesome looking ICs, or any other small components that could be used as decorative pieces in a “component art” sculpture, please bring them out, and we will put them to good use. Note: they do not need to be functional, merely good looking!

Anything left at the end will be picked up on Monday April 10th and responsibly recycled by Revolution Recycling, who have been participating in our Junk Independence Days since the very first one. Thanks Revolution!

Once more unto the Junk! Our next Junk Independence Day at the Hacklab is this coming Sunday October 23rd from 2pm-7pm (or later). Bring your e-waste or other electronics you want to get rid of, root around in other people e-waste, and walk home with new treasure. On previous Junk Independence Days people have gone home with wonderful treasures like a classic Macintosh, old but still good LCDs, Stereos and lots of random electronic bits for hacking on. Come with your e-waste and have some fun socializing with other hackers!

Anything left at the end will be picked up on Monday October 24th and responsibly recycled by Revolution Recycling, who has been participating in our Junk Independence Days since the first one. Thanks Revolution