Author: Crafty Rachel

I like to make wearables and laser random things. I have been a member since March 2012ish and really have a good time at Ace Makerspace My background is in front-end developments and design. I currently work as an independent consultant doing all manner of things.

AMT 360º – Dust collection in the Shop

You may have noticed that we have no windows or doors with direct access to the outside. That mean that air quality can suffer especially in the shop. We have some systems for ameliorating dust and poor air quality. Even the best systems though will fail if folks don’t use them. Below is a little visual guide to turning on the 3 systems in the shop.

The Honeywell Air Filter

honeywell-filter

This is the Honeywell Air filter is a HEPA filter that is great for normal-use larger rooms. You should run it when you are NOT using one of the big dust making tools. It is most effectively used to get all the little bits of dust that the big system makes and to generally filter and freshen the air when things get stale.

The Over-head Dust Filter

overhead-filter   filter-switch-close

You should run this whenever you are working in the shop. It circulates and captures dust floating in the air. The switch is located on the same wall as the door to the shop next to the shelves with the safety gear.

The Big Dust Collector in the Closet

dust-collector-switch

You should always always always connect this to the dust making tools. Seriously always. It can also be used to suck the dust out of the air but opening the gates and just letting it run a bit.

dust-port

Safety Gear

Last but not least there are dust masks. Use them when you make dust.

See the wiki or contact a shop steward for more information and details around dust collection.

AMT 360º Climate Control Upstairs

In the height of summer it can get mighty toasty upstairs. Here is how you can beat the heat with these different tools.

Fan and Heater Controls

switch-controls

Like all the things in the space we have hacked the environmental controls.

Exhaust Fan

ceiling-vent

This fan is a little loud but venting the air is a very important thing. If noise isn’t an issue or maybe even if some white noise would be a good thing this is the fan to use.

Cabana Fan

cabanafan

This is a standard cabana Fan. This is the switch. Not sure why but it is wired to go faster when sent to a lower number. Warning it gets really windy right under it.

Air Conditioner

swamp-cooler swamp-cooler2

This is a “swamp” cooler. That means that requires water to get the maximum cooling effect. You can use any vessel you like to fill it up on the side hatch and we use the tap water from the sink in the hallway.

If you use the 5 gallon drinking water container to fill it up, please refill it for your parched fellow members.

This air conditioner give the maximum effect if it is positioned in proximity to the running cabana fan. It also has a handy timer so you can set it and not have to worry about running down the water with nobody there to enjoy the cool air.

AMT 360º – Connecting and Communications

Ace Monster Toys will occasionally get asked how we operate and why are we successful. Quite frankly it really comes down to awesome people who care about the community. But folks often want to know how our systems work. In this post I am going to attempt to describe how our communications work. The caveat is that this system, like all the others we use, works because of those awesome people who care.

Tools and Platforms

AMT Website
We use our website to blog, post about projects to the public. We also have a members only section with newsletter archives, a directory, a membership add-on shop. Members can also manage their accounts including things like laser bills.
Slack
AMT has a slack team with, as of this post, 133 members and 25 topic specific channels. We use slack as our main chat platform. It has a fairly good phone app and makes sharing images and files easy. It also makes for easy private message conversations between individuals and small groups. This is the quickest way to get crowd sourced responses from the group.
Asana
We use Asana.com to manage projects for the org that keep us operating. It is the main tool for task assignment used in monster corps. It is also used to manage large events and initiatives, like build outs and maker faire. We have one master account that folks share to access our asana instance.
Meetup.com
Meetup.com is used to list our classes and manage RSVPs and RSVP money.
Google Calendar
Google calendar is used to manage operational meetings and visits and tours from other hackerspaces and organizations.
Discuss List Serv
This email list used to be our chief method of facilitating group discussion online. We have seen slack pretty much take over that function though some folks still post to this list.
Facebook
We use our face book page to talk about upcoming classes and promote blog posts and member projects.
Twitter
We tweet about cool stuff we do or like.
Flickr
We use this to share pictures. We have a camera in the space that has an eye-fi card in it that will load any picture taken to this stream.
MailChimp
We use mail chimp to… you guessed it … send emails. We send regular newsletters to the membership with updates about how things work or what is new. We send another newsletter to a public list of folks who signed up.

How the tools and platforms work together

AMT Website

Infographic of website integrations

AMT Website integrates with the doors and the laser as well as the standard complement of e-commerce functions. This website emails new members instructions when they pay membership dues for the first time. Once they follow those instructions the site also emails out vital information like the access codes. The list of members is sent to Mail Chimp to be added to the member list for the newsletter and other mailings.

 

Slack

360-comm2

Slack integrates with asana. When things happen in an asana project it posts a notification to whatever slack channel it is mapped to. For example, if a new task is created in the woodshop project a notification is posted to the woodshop channel in Slack.

Meetup.com
 360-comm3

Meetup.com is integrated with the AMT website and upcoming classes appear in the sidebar of many pages. It is also integrated to the google calendar and upcoming events appear on our google calendar.

Google Calendar

360-comm4

Google Calendar is integrated with the AMT website by being embedded on its own page. Upcoming meetup.com events also appear on this embedded calendar.

Flickr

360-comm5

Flickr stream is integrated with the AMT website via a widget that shows a random image stream in the sidebar of the blog and many other pages.

 

AMT Board Election Polls Now Open

Summer Board Election: Candidate Interviews

We have three seats on the board open this election cycle. Four awesome folks have stepped up as candidates. Get to know the candidates:

Chris O’Sullivan (@sullimech)

Chris O'Sullivan
Chris O’Sullivan

Why you want to be on the board at AMT?

To contribute to the possibility of continuing to play with the cool folks at AMT

What are one or two things you would get done if you were elected?

Investigate sponsorship and more breathing and playing room

Ray Alderman (@Whamodyne)

Ray Alderman
Ray Alderman

Why you want to be on the board at AMT?

Time to level up

What are one or two things you would get done if you were elected?

Better lighting in electronics

Ben Hanna (@ben)

ben-hanna
Ben Hanna

Why you want to be on the board at AMT?

I have been on board for past year+ and would love to see AMT continue to thrive and evolve.

What are one or two things you would get done if you were elected?

Increased automation of signup and better member support. The new website already looks great!

Niki Bustin (@niki-b)

Niki Bustin
Niki Bustin

Why you want to be on the board at AMT?

Help further enable members’ creativity

What are one or two things you would get done if you were elected?

Start a program of meet ups where participants can learn an new skill while making objects that will be useful in some way to the community. For example – sewing baby blankets for a shelter, knitting hats for the homeless, laser cutting and assembling signs for a school…

 

Ballots were sent out to voting AMT members Tuesday, July 5th and polls close Thursday, July 14th. New directors will be announced at the Thursday meeting.

blue cats

Feral Kitty Shelters

shelter
Prototype Cat Shelter

 

Ace monster Toys (AMT) is a group of individuals focus on teaching, creating and things with technology. Fix our Ferals is an organization focused on caring for and controlling the feral cat population. Here is how the two of us worked together to benefit the community during what we can expect to be a harsh El Niño storm season.

amt-mc-hdr-kittysAMT raised over $300 for materials to produce 30+ shelters via a tilt.com campaign. It took 4 days to raise the funds… exceeding our 30 day goal many fold. Cats really do win the internet.
https://www.tilt.com/tilts/making-feral-cat-shelters-help-us-help-them
These shelters are a combination of Coroplast, a corrugated plastic, and plywood cut on our our large Computer controlled router.

The shelters provide a warm, dry and safe environment for feral cats.

389-cat-sitting-on-chair

The 3 piece design is light and durable and can easily be opened to clean or aid the inhabitants. It also can be quickly assembled or disassembled. While disassembled it is 3 flat pieces that are easy to store.
You can download the files to make your own shelters here. You can produce these yourself if you have access the this type of equipment. These are all based on the design by Chris Peterson from corokitty.com This would not have been possible without his work and research.

800px-CNCRouter-8-15-2012

Ace Monster Toys, an Oakland 501(c)3 Non-profit organization, is making and distributing a simple and aesthetically pleasing feral cat shelters to Fix our Ferals, another 501(c)3 Non-profit organization. Chris Peterson is an industrial designer from Houston,Tx
Fix our Ferals http://fixourferals.org/home/
Chris Peterson http://www.chriskpeterson.com/chriskpeterson/corokitty.html

poster_2

How AMT is different from a service bureau or contract facility

AMT has a variety of different types of members. We have hobbyists, artists, students, entrepreneurs and small business people. We have members who are a little bit of all of these things at once. We have conversations every so often about what kind of org are we when we are weighted more one way than another. So we are going to take a stab at describing how we are different from service bureau’s and contract facilities in a Q&A format.

Base definitions

Service bureau provide services for a fee (PSPrint, Ponoko, etc).

One can rent space/equipment in an contract facility for a contracted fee (example: commercial kitchens).

AMT is neither of those things. AMT is a member based non-profit organization dedicated to education and make culture. AMT can also be described as furthering those goals by having a shared workspace and tools.

Q&A

Q:Do we want to foster and support business incubation in our community?

A: Yes. We don’t police the motivations behind folks joining AMT as long as it is to make, teach, or learn. If you are doing those three things as a hobbyist great. If you are doing any of those three things as a entrepreneur that is great too.

 

Q: Is fostering and incubating businesses our primary reason for being here or how we are structurally set up?

A: No. We are here to help people make things, help people help each other to make things and to learn.

 

Q: Can you work on your small business or incubate your start up here?

A: Yes, as an individual member with all the rights and responsibilities of a member. AMT’s relationships are with individuals who make, teach or learn. AMT as an entity does not offer memberships to businesses. That would be contrary to our mission and reason for existing. We don’t offer membership or create contract relationships with business entity’s because that would endanger our 501(c) status*.

*At some time in the future we may be able to engage in a fiduciary relationship with other organizations that have a mission to make, teach or learn such as the public library or other non-profits, but that would require research and lawyering.

 

Q: Does working on your small business or incubating your start-up change your membership?

A: Nope. Membership is offered to individuals. Those individuals get the same privileges (guests, tool use). They also have the same obligations as individuals… pay your dues, follow the rules, mind your guests, keep things clean, be responsible for what you use, etc, participate. Expectations should also not change just because you are in individual who happens to be working on a business. Expect this to be a community space built by the good will of the folks who volunteer their time and expertise.