Edinburgh Hacklab goes bananas at the Union Canal Raft Race

Posted on 17 June 201817 June 2018 by Al

Our warriors of the water have defeated our arch rivals, The Forge (and several small children) to power to victory at the annual canal raft race. In a fine display of water-craftmanship, our team paddled our fine creation Dragonana through three heats to glorious win. With the rain lashing down, and The Forge’s 10 metre long raft a constant companion, it was by no means an easy win. Even the canal’s own swan racing team put up fine competition and were in the lead for much of the first heat.

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Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire – call for makers!

Posted on 5 January 2017 by Al

Welcome to 2017! Edinburgh’s Mini Maker Faire returns this year on Sunday 16 April 2017. It takes place at Summerhall, right on our doorstep, and is a great chance to meet like minded folk from other hackerspaces, see interesting things that people are working on and play with robots. For this to happen, the Faire needs Read more about Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire – call for makers![…]

Event: Makers Marks – Connecting Engineers & Scientists with Artists & Designers

Posted on 23 November 2016 by Al

Hacklab member Al (who writes in the third person) is helping to organise an event at Summerhall on Monday 28th of November to show some glass pieces that are the output of a collaborative art project, combining glass blowing and casting, electronics, sound design and composition. The event will include some brief presentations about collaborative art, Read more about Event: Makers Marks – Connecting Engineers & Scientists with Artists & Designers[…]

Made in Hacklab: Morphogenic Constructions

Posted on 10 July 201610 July 2016 by Al

Recently our Ultimaker 3D printer was kept busy for a few days printing strangely-shaped pieces for Edinburgh-based artist Penelope Kay. Penny had been working with Dr Thomas Pratt of Edinburgh University to create strange pseudo-organic shapes that blur the lines between diagrams and the the real world. The 3D printed pieces were encapsulated in medical-grade resin to make a stackable and re-arrangeable artwork. It’s always great to see interesting things being made in the lab, and satisfying to know we’ve helped bring something to fruition. […]

Your Hacklab Needs You!

Posted on 16 June 201617 June 2016 by Al

Your favourite hackerspace is about to get bigger. An empty room became available near our current “suite” of rooms, we’ve snapped it up, and we have a plan…

If you’ve visited the lab and taken the tour, you’ll have seen our current storeroom is quite big but our workshop is quite small. We’re going to fix this by moving members storage to the new, smaller room and then refit G8 (the current storeroom) to be an epic workshop!

Since we improved our small workshop (room G2) with a new bench last year it’s been well used. It’s one of the few publicly accessible workshops in Edinburgh, so it can get pretty crowded. We’re also really tight on room in there, we can’t add any more big tools, like a table saw, CNC mill etc. So, let’s refit G8 to be a great workshop with room for lots of people to hack at once, and space to add to our library of tools.
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Made in Hacklab: Sentient Forest

Posted on 13 May 201620 May 2016 by Al

If you’ve been in the lab during the day in the first couple of months this year there’s a good chance you’ve found me, Andrea and Random sweating over LED strips, surrounded by wires and PVC tubing. It was all assembly work for an artwork called Sentient Forest, which has now been installed in its new Read more about Made in Hacklab: Sentient Forest[…]

Science Festival 2015 workshops!

Posted on 2 April 2015 by Al

We’re pleased to again be part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. This year’s Science Festival is just about to start and the big finale is on the 19th of April when the Edinburgh Mini Maker Faire returns to Summerhall, more on that soon. Hacklab is running five workshops this Festival, our Paper Circuits workshop has already Read more about Science Festival 2015 workshops![…]

New workshops for the Science Festival!

Posted on 13 March 201417 March 2014 by Al

Missed out on our recent Arduino or soldering workshops? You’re in luck! In April, we’re running workshops as part of the Edinburgh International Science Festival. We have four different workshops in the Festival programme, each one running twice during the two-week Festival: Getting started with Arduino Arduino is an easy to use microcontroller platform designed for Read more about New workshops for the Science Festival![…]

Thursday 20th: 3D printing with the Ultimaker 2

Posted on 17 February 2014 by Al

Hacklab member Gary Martin has a new shiny gadget: an Ultimaker 2 3D printer. This Thursday from around 19:00 Gary will host an informal workshop to demo some of the software, print some widgets, and bring along his stash of test 3D prints for closer examination (some seen in the photo above). Gary has been Read more about Thursday 20th: 3D printing with the Ultimaker 2[…]

Mini Maker Faire 2014 is coming!

Posted on 27 November 2013 by Al

Good news everyone! After the success of the first Mini Maker Faire in Edinburgh last year, it’s coming back in 2014! MMF 2014 will be held at Summerhall and promises to be bigger and better than last year. The call for makers is open now. If you make cool things and have some interesting things Read more about Mini Maker Faire 2014 is coming![…]