Hacklab is proud to be hosting the official launch party for the new Toronto Studio Commons!

“Toronto Studio Commons is a diverse group of independent artist studios, workshops and collaborative spaces, sharing a common goal in promoting artistic and creative expression in our city. Founded by a new generation of artists and entrepreneurs, TSC represents a wide range of operating structures, such as open studios, galleries and/or shared spaces.
Acting as an inclusive platform and forum that supports creativity in any medium, TSC seeks to empower artists and creatives through mentorship and education, providing the right tools, experience and environments for success. With our varied spaces and expertise, we promote collaboration among artists and studios across any form of media to open new avenues of creative expression.”

The launch party will be at hacklab, 1266 Queen Street West #6, on Friday November 20th, from 8-11pm. There will be snacks and reps from each of the various spaces on hand to talk about what they do. VR demo and soldering from hacklab :-)

Back by popular demand, hacklab will be having an open house this Saturday (Sept 12th), noon-6pm. Come get a tour, socialize with our members, work on your project, see our new milling machine, just as you would on a Tuesday evening, but on Saturday afternoon instead!

Hacklab member Daria demonstrates the radiating power of our 100W 80m-band transmissions on the Hacklab’s new amateur radio antenna.

Hacklab has been slowly been building a HAM set-up for a while now.
It started as a discussion and when equipment started being installed it quickly built up to a full installation. Note if you are part of another hacker space or an individual in North America or in the GTA with their own HAM set-up, Tuesday night is our open house and it’s likely the best time to reach us.

Hacklab.TO and Hackaday are hosting a Bring A Hack meetup on April 15th! Doors 7pm, talks start 8pm.  Party till late.  Please RSVP on eventbrite: Bring a Hack, this will let us buy the right amount of beer and pizza :-)

We’ll have drinks, snacks, hacks and swag. It’s a Bring A Hack style meetup, where you bring the project you’re working on and show it off to enthusiastic supporters.

There will also be lightening talks, which are short talks about projects or ideas you’re working on.

Sophi from Hackaday will be in town to talk about the Hackaday Prize, the engineering competition that sends you to Space (SERIOUSLY).  http://hackaday.io/

In fact, Hacklab entered the competition last year and will talk about their project, Retro Populator. Want to get on the talks list? Let us know! (contact sophikravitz at hackaday dot com)

UPDATE: just to be clear, you can totally just come to see the talks and hacks, you don’t need to bring your own, and nor do you need to be a hacklab member.  Just RSVP and come have some fun!

Hacklab is excited to host Repair Café Toronto this February!

The Repair Café is a monthly gathering where there will be volunteer fixers available for computers, electronics, small appliances, clothes, books, among others. For whatever you need fixed, bring it on! You can learn how to fix it while enjoying a cup of coffee or tea, or see what’s possible with the 3D printer or laser cutter on site. To avoid lineups, please arrive early. It would be best to arrive before 3 p.m. so that there is enough time for the fixer to examine your item.

When: Saturday, February 21, 2015 – 12 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Where: HackLab.TO, 1266 Queen Street West, 2nd Floor (buzz Unit #12)
Cost: Free (Donations are welcome!)

Lockpicking is a fun and unusual skill, and can help people get a better grasp of their physical security situation.  Come to one of Hacklab’s two lockpicking workshops and learn a skill which is applicable for physical/digital security experts, security-minded home-owners, and anyone who wants to survive the zombie apocalypse!

Hacklab is running two Lockpicking workshops on February 14, the first running from noon until 2pm and the second running from 3pm until 5pm.  This event is open to all ages and all interested parties.  Free signup at EventBrite is mandatory — there are only 5 spots available at each workshop.  This event is Pay-What-You-Can, with a suggested donation of $10 or more to help us keep the lights on.  Nobody will be turned away for lack of funds.

If you don’t get a ticket, don’t worry: we’ll be running this workshop again soon!

Signup for Lockpicking at EventBrite

Hacklab will be hosting a weekend Open-House on Saturday December 20th, starting at 2pm and going until at least 6pm (but likely later). Come bring your curiosity, neat projects, your weird and crazy ideas and your awesome selves.  As always, our open-house is at 1266 Queen Street West, Unit 6.  Buzz our unit number at the door to be let in.

Any questions about this event can be directed to us via the Contact page.

Hope to see you there.  Happy hacking!

Hey everyone!

We get asked every now and again if we could host weekend open-houses for those of you who can’t make it out to our Tuesday Open-House nights. Well, your dreams have come true!

Hacklab will be hosting a weekend Open-House on Saturday December 6, starting at 2pm and going until at least 6pm (but likely later). Come bring your curiosity, neat projects, your weird and crazy ideas and your awesome selves.  As always, our open-house is at 1266 Queen Street West, Unit 6.  Buzz our unit number at the door to be let in.

Also, there will be free vegan food! Show up for some noms, stay for the blinking LED’s!

Any questions about this event can be directed to us via the Contact page.

Hope to see you there.  Happy hacking!

After countless design revisions, we’ve finished our Hacklab Indiegogo Plaque! See complete gallery on flickr. Thanks to everyone who supported our campaign, we raised over $7000 towards moving expenses, and everyone got some awesome swag! The plaque consists of 3 layers: a laser etched wooden base (wood cut and finished by our friends at Ultimate Workshop), a laser-etched acrylic map of the space, and a third acrylic layer highlighting the awesome skylights and treehouse areas in the space. Hex spacers provide the distance between layers. The vertical parts of the plaque also create this super cool shadow effect when you move lights around! Thanks to Khuyen Forsythe for the design work, MakeWorks for use of their laser cutter (which is super fast at etching), and Martin Tomsky for the idea of laser-cut layering.