Lathe in action

Click more to see more pictures of the lathe in action, and the first mystery project

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Laser cutter fun.

During one snowy Hacklab open house there was some creative

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Book Scanning Machine

Over the past couple of months, Hacklab has been having conversations with the Toronto Public Library, especially people at the Toronto Reference Library and the Digital Design Studio. A lot of us LOVE the TPL, it’s one of the largest public library systems in North America, and I personally get a lot of use from it – probably a new book every 2 weeks or so, through their hold system, which wonderfully moves the book from whichever of the 98 branches it’s current at to your branch :-).

A few weeks ago, about a dozen employees of the library visited hacklab for a tour of our space. You can read their wonderful hacklab blog post where they talk about the visit. They peppered us with questions about our 3D printer, the workshops that we run, the philosophy and operation of the space, etc. A good time was had by all!

Sherlock Holmes Chess Set

More recently, they invited us to tour the Toronto Reference Library, one of the largest branches of the Toronto Public Library. You can see a few of the shots I took here: Toronto Reference Library Flickr Set. Sadly of course I don’t have any photos of the awesome view from the transparent elevators! We got to see a lot of the behind-the-scenes places in the library, including the printing room, the preservation and digitization area, and an archival area. We also saw some of their computer classroom areas, the really nifty TD Gallery, currently showing a Sherlock Holmes exhibit (including very cool Sherlock Holmes chess set!), and the all-glass study pods.

They are interested in having some kind of “makerspace” area in at least one of the branches, and so they are touring lots of related things in and around Toronto. Hacklab was pleased to help them out, and if you think this is something the Toronto Public Library should do, I’m sure they’d love to hear your support!

For the last few months, I’ve prepared free vegan food for Hacklab on Tuesdays: Eggplant bhartas, spring rolls, tofu in spicy peanut sauce, boc choy in garlic sauce, curries…

Thai Red Curry, Conconut Rice, and Regular Rice (Feb 12, 2013)

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Two weeks ago hacklab was able to host students from the Linden School, a local all-girls school.

Soldering blinkies

It was super awesome. They:

• designed 3D objects in class, which we 3D printed for them in advance
• soldered simple blinkies
• saw 3D printers in action
• saw hacklab’s different tools
• learned how to pick locks (some)
• used hacklab’s laser cutter (some)

Afterwards, some of the students described us as the best field trip they’ve ever gone on. More pictures follow!

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A while back in 2012 we had a guest drop in to the space on an open to the public night.
Let me remind all of our readers that every Tuesday evening approx at 6pm, the space
is open to the public to drop by, explore, create, collaborate, and geek out.
Our guest did just that. Utilizing one of our work spaces and a soldering station,
he got down to work and demonstrated a short time later his project.

Pulse of the lab.

Hacklab the movie Exclusive still preview.

Todays post was originally suppose to be a comic strip that ended upon a past internet Meme which has recently been gracing the lab, specifically the LED sign.                                                               The Meme in question is the video of Rick Astley – Never Gonna Give You Up.  The LED sign just cant handle the current video this internet favourite, but I have high hopes for the video/animation currently in use with some more tweaking and editing it could be fully working in no time.                                         So instead of my intended comic I am present everyone with a mashup between a make your own caption, and what I am calling Hacklab the movie.