Month updates - May & June 2026
.gallery { line-height: 0; column-count: 2; column-gap: 0px; } .gallery > * { max-width: 100%; margin: 0; } p:has(img), .gallery { margin: 0; } .gallery img { width: 100% !important; height: auto !important; min-height: 2rem; } iframe, video { display: block; margin: 0.5rem; max-width: 100%; width: auto; height: auto; } p { margin-top: 1rem; } What have members of Sheffield Hackspace been up to this two-months? Let’s find out what some members have been up to! EMF Camp Stuart - making an eternity ring Tom - metal casting dredzik - Polaroid fix Jon - custom coffee mill dredzik - 3D printing underware dredzik - drum visualiser Matthew - braille keyboard alifeee - making a torch prop alifeee - new Sheffield Hackspace front page Alan - calliper holder Tom - pottery Alex J - singing teapots saphybelle \& dredzik - building a pergola alifeee - installing the new embroidery machine alifeee - creating a hackspace project book alifeee - light-up orb Alan - laser-cut living hinge cup alifeee - new mudguard bracket alifeee - making a shelf for the craft room alifeee - collecting Kindles EMF Camp In two weeks, it’s EMF Camp ! Several members of the hackspace are going, and a few are helping organise the event. Stuart - making an eternity ring The eternity ring and box I made my wife for our 25th anniversary. The event has passed now so I can show it. (Yes, that is Shadowfoam in the box 😁) The box is made from cherry, and finished in Danish Oil. I made use of the hackspace’s belt sander to get the box square and smooth, and the pillar drill with a forstner bit to make the hole for the ring. The box is held closed with magnets which are superglued in place. It could do with a lip to make alignment easier but time was short. I also made the ring at another Portland Works resident, The Jewellery Business round the corner from the hackspace. the ring is made from 2 bands of silver, one smooth and the other with a horizontal pattern across it. Tom - metal casting The metal casting is my first attempt with sand casting. Starting from a 3d print and some molten scrap aluminium from a machine shop. Hoping to make some name plates for a friends boat. dredzik - Polaroid fix I fixed a 2nd generation Polaroid Go camera I bought on eBay. Seller reported that flash did not work. I followed the step by step teardown to gain access to the inside. I resoldered the cold joints on the wires going to the flash capacitor and confirmed the camera working again. Teardown video I followed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXFs896yRuk Jon - custom coffee mill My latest project is a coffee mill. I made the top to fit on my airtight storage box using a template router bit and laser cut templates, and turned the shapes for the fittings and bowl on the lathe. dredzik - 3D printing underware Underware. I printed everything over 3 weeks. The teeth on the channels kept breaking during installation on the grid. Even though I really like the end result, I will not be touching this again any time soon. dredzik - drum visualiser My drum visualisers are finally complete. ESP32C3 used as BLE MIDI interfaces. Split between cymbal and tom visualisation based on the MIDI ProgNum CC. Path: strudel.cc -> Firefox Web MIDI API -> macOS Bluetooth MIDI system -> ESP32C3 -> Bay Indicator. Each unit has an independent ESP32C3 controller with a BT antenna, and can receive all or a subset of MIDI notes depending on the program change message. I have added proper PCB-s to the bay indicator displays and am having last moments of fun before installing them back in the space. Driver: https://github.com/sheffieldhackspace/bay-indicator Server: https://github.com/sheffieldhackspace/bay-indicator-server Midi Visualiser: https://github.com/dredzik/midi-visualiser Matthew - braille keyboard A summary is also in the readme on the code repository While doing my job and looking at my wife job, I noticed that there was a lack of facilities for the blind and partially sighted. I looked at what provisions that we could provide to help with this but found the Braille display keyboards are prohibitively expensive and closed sourced; with the open source version (in python) being next to useless. So I set about, with my merger programming and electronic experience, to see if I could build one. So far I have nearly completed the software side of it, with many hiccups along the way, but there is still more to do; as it turns out Braille isn’t written the same way as written English. Especially the punctuation. alifeee - making a torch prop For a party, I made a simple flaming torch prop. The tube is a thick cardboard tube I got from Scrap Dragon a few months ago, painted with black acrylic paint. The fire section is two interlocking laser-cut pieces of MDF wood, painted orange with craft paint. Then, each has around eight 4 mm holes lasered into it, through which I pulled scraps of red and yellow fabric (that I also had gotten at Scrap Dragon – love that place). alifeee - new Sheffield Hackspace front page I spent a while this month designing and making a new front page for this website! If these images don’t do it justice… go and browse the homepage ! It has an interactive map of the space, better instructions on how to visit, and a calendar for prospective members to see when we’re open :] Alan - calliper holder Made tonight Tom - pottery The pottery is an experiment in slip casting and learning some mold design and process. It’s gradually improving, but everything is still very uneven Alex J - singing teapots Singing Teapots is a multi-sensory installation designed to engage people living with dementia with technology in a way that’s more approachable and playful, as part of my Familiar Glow collection. The game is controlled by 3 cast iron teapots, these can either be used by one person or split between multiple people. When a player brings their hand close to the teapot, the lights on the LED strips will change and a distinct bird call will play. Capacitive touch means that contact isn’t necessary, hovering close will also trigger input for those cautious. Different combinations of teapots make different bird sounds, so experimenting together can discover new sounds and fill the LED ropes with vibrant, swirling colour. You can find out more on Alex’s website about the teapots . Alex was also featured in The Sheffield Star for his work! saphybelle & dredzik - building a pergola We have built a Pergola this week. alifeee - installing the new embroidery machine This month, the hackspace bought an embroidery machine. I’ve set it up in the craft room and learnt how it works Here is a collection of stuff I’ve embroidered recently (test pieces and patches). You can read more about it on the wiki page: https://wiki.sheffieldhackspace.org.uk/public/embroidery_machine . It can be used to add embroidered designs to existing clothes or fabric, or to make patches. alifeee - creating a hackspace project book I spent a while this month creating a 120-page “project book”. In effect, it’s just lots of posts from these month notes, printed (I think around 108 projects). If you want to see inside, then … visit the space! alifeee - light-up orb As part of a party costume, I stuck an Arduino into a lamp I had lying around, and programmed some simple colour cycles. I stuck a button on there so I can switch between them. It should last the night with the power of a portable charger inside it. Alan - laser-cut living hinge cup It’s flexible hinge cut on 3mm ply. Epoxyl join and ply top rim and base used for kitchen utensils. The colour is the result of the burn. I could have used a sacrificial piece to prevent staining inside (maybe next time) alifeee - new mudguard bracket Joining my apparent obsession with breaking my bike mudguard, this month I made a new bracket for my front one. It turned out quite nice! Thanks for the help ;] alifeee - making a shelf for the craft room There were a lot of boxes stacked on top of each other in the craft room. I spent some time (and had some help) collecting some waste bricks, cleaned them up, and stacked them into a neat little shelf. It’s a lot easier to get to each box now. alifeee - collecting Kindles As I’ve mentioned here before ( once or twice ), I’ve been jailbreaking Kindles recently. Well, this month I’ve been collecting a lot of them, as I’ve promised to run a kindle jailbreaking workshop at EMF Camp ! You can see my workshop on the schedule . That’s all That’s all for this month! Remember, you can: come and visit the space! https://www.sheffieldhackspace.org.uk/ learn more about on joining on the wiki: https://wiki.sheffieldhackspace.org.uk/ add your own items to next month’s month update: https://github.com/sheffieldhackspace/month-updates Until next time :)