James Belchamber

Ask most people to describe a Makerspace simply and they will give a simple answer: “A space with tools and materials, that people buy and maintain as a group, and then use to build projects”. This is unsurprising – the stereotype of “makers” as having a practical and tangible understanding of the world is well-founded.

But it does, albeit unintentionally, do Makerspaces a disservice.

Yes, a Makerspace often has tools and space unavailable to members. And, yes, it allows for people to make things…

As many of you will already know we are crowdfunding the completion of the space throughout October. But with the resources we have we’ve been trying to get parts of the space open now for members to work with.

Today, with the installation of the fire door, we are deeming the woodwork room ready for wood work.

There are some caveats to this:

• The room enclosing the full-size CNC sheet router is still being built out and so this cannot currently be used.
• Extraction is still yet to be installed,…

FizzPOP 3.0 is tantalisingly close to completion – from the walls to the wiring, we are just about ready to put a bow on this build-out and throw open the doors. Members have been working evenings and weekends, and it’s all coming together beautifully.

But we’ve hit a snag.

Since the carefully budgeted plan for build-out was conceived, prices have rocketed up – and that’s left us with a space that’s around 80% ready for makers, but with significant material shortfalls.

We have built and carefully…