Main Page
Welcome to the rLab Wiki
About rLab
<<< Attention required from Gavin for this entire section? >>>
History
Management
Rules & Policies
rLab Rules
- Only use equipment that you have been trained on and are confident you can use safely. No solo use of high risk tools.
- Members must be over 18 years old. Anyone visiting who is under this age must be accompanied and supervised by a member at all times, supervising someone else is incompatible with working on your own projects.
- Potentially dangerous or precious equipment should be labelled and members should seek induction before use.
- Dangerous chemicals should be labelled with contents and hazard information.
- Performance of high risk activities should be communicated to other members and guests present if they might be effected. Other members may raise any concerns at that time and the activity cannot continue until those concerns have been addressed.
- No hazardous chemicals in the kitchen. It is a food preparation area and must be treated as such.
- Clean up after using the space, leave your work area AT LEAST as clean as when you arrived if not better
- Anything that is prohibited by our lease or insurance is really actually prohibited (No sleeping, no fissionable materials, etc.)
rLab policies
Information for new members
How to sign up
Come along on a Wednesday open evening! We have open evenings every Wednesday from 8pm onward so please feel free to come on down to the Hackspace and have a look around, we have tours running frequently throughout the evening and you can chat with some of the current members, see what we're working on and take a look at the facilities we have available.
If you decide to join up then you'll be able to get your Hackspace induction, get signed up on our membership database, sort out your membership donation and be issued with a access card for the building. You may also want to sign up to our mailing list, it's not compulsory but you'll miss out on a lot of what goes on at the space if you don't. If you feel you have something to contribute to this wiki then please ask Steve-R for a log-in so you can edit!
Getting your Hackspace Induction
Before you can use the Hackspace un-accompanied and have your own access card you'll need to recieve your Hackspace induction which provides important information about how the hackspace is organised and run and how to work safely in the space. These inductions are normally run on a wednesday open evening as part of the sign-up process.
How to find us
How to get in contact with us
Our resources
The Hackspace
The Reading Hackspace is an industrial unit on Weldale Street and internally is divided into 3 main spaces. The main room upstairs is where most electronics and software hacking takes place and also the main social area. The small machine room upstairs houses out Laser cutter and the store of materials for use with it and is used for making activities that do not create any dust or mess. The downstairs space has most of the power tools and is where all metalwork and woodwork activities take place including anything that makes dust, noise, mess or nasty smells. All tools and equipment in the space are the property of the Hackspace unless clearly marked otherwise. You've paid for all the tools and equipment through your membership donations, so please take care of the kit as if it were your own as the cost of repairs or replacements comes out of your donations and reduces the budget for new toys! Please report any damage or dis-function either on the mailing list or directly to any member of the relevant team. We understand that occasional breakages are inevitable in this environment and we don't mind that things sometimes get broken so long as no-one's hurt and we're informed when it happens so that they can be fixed promptly, you can email the maintainers listed for each tool directly if you prefer or just post on the mailing list and the relevant people will see it.
Tools
We have a wide variety of tools divided across the 3 main areas of the space and all members are welcome to use them on their projects, some of the more hazardous or valuable tools do require induction before use both to protect members and the equipment!
Here's a listing of some of the larger tools that we have, it does not include the wide range of smaller hand-tools and instruments. If you know of a tool that's missing from this list then please create it's page and add it.
Digital resources
Our Logo and other materials
<<<Links to our logo etc>>> <<<Policy for use of above?>>>
Software that we use
<<<links to general software that's in common use, tools-specific software should be on it's tool page>>>
3D/CAD/CAM designs
<<< Models for bits of equipment and accessories in use around that lab that might need replacing >>>
Mailing list and Wiki
<<< the google group and this wiki >>>>
We also have this wiki of course! If you'd like edit rights on this wiki then please contact Steve-R on the mailing list or at the lab. Yes I know the editing function can be very slow at times, this is apparently a known issue when running mediawiki on this hardware platform, Rupert is looking into it. There is a copy of the old wiki site that we used to run available here but please be aware that it's a snapshot taken as the old wiki was going offline so it's incomplete, out of date, and partially broken, DO NOT RELY ON WHAT YOU FIND THERE!
Other
Projects
Any current project groups here
Special interest groups
Details here
Workshops
Some of our members are able to run workshops that showcase some of the abilities of the space will helping other members learn how to use the resources we have. These workshops are normally much more in-depth than the inductions that are required before using some of our tools and involve making something that you get to take home at the end. Workshops vary in length from a few hours up to several days and in cost from free up to £75.