Before I get on with it, shouting out a thank-you to all the volunteers that came to the working bees, this would not have been possible without your help! @Paula_ODonnell, @doc, @zach.forrester, @Catprog, @riumplus, @Boo, @nogthree
This post has three purposes, in this order:
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As a follow-on from @Boo’s posts and work for the Craftpunk refit
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To document the progress made as far
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And to outline the suggestions that have been made for the future.
Okay, part one:
Originally, Craftpunk looked like this:
There was a lot of discussion about difficulties accessing the tools and the lack of project working space, and having a lot of consumables take up a considerable amount of room. Meka was organising for the room to undergo a dramatic refurbishment, including painting and flooring. He organised the first working bee, where we moved out the kitchenette, culled a lot of materials and created a temporary Craftpunk Boneyard in the stockroom, which had a cameo in another post. The results of that first bee were thus:
After the first working bee, Meka worked on fixing up holes in the walls of Craftpunk, put bookshelves on Gumtree and started organising tools into smaller, easier to recognise and retrieve boxes. He also stepped down from the cause leadership position to focus on his own home renovation, and to have a break from some dissension in the cause itself. This did leave a leadership void, however, this has led to Craftpunk members trying out a more communal approach to the cause, where members take on individual parts of the cause and equal responsibility. We have informed the general membership of this and will continue to monitor and report on the outcomes of this model.
Okay, part two:
@Paula_ODonnell took on organising the next two working bees and volunteered to focus on getting the sublimation tools working once again. This was the result of the second working bee:
Mostly we got the shelves moved, and tools/consumables being kept were organised into clear boxes and put back on the shelves, and we took down the MDF shelf, lowed the placement of the pegboard and continued discussions on what we’d like Craftpunk to become. We talked about having different crafting areas, and tool accessibility. The rough consensus is that we’d like to copy the success of Metalshop, Woodshop and Digifab, all causes with workstations, with tools out and ‘project-ready’.
In order to achieve something like the other causes, the members of the working bees agreed that Craftpunk would need to choose and develop specific crafting areas, ones that are out of reach for most people at home. Sublimination, CNC, sewing machines, screenprinting, moulding and casting, and dremelling and jewellery-making were all nominated as key areas. (Although I will admit, my bias is towards sewing and jewellery-making.)
@Paula_ODonnell organised the third working bee, and brought in a temporary table so we could get a feel for what the new room could use. We continued to sort through consumables and tools, and the results were this:
Part three.
The parts of Craftpunk that still need to be worked on are:
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Securing the Eat Street facing window, as expensive machines will be more noticeable as workstations. There is grating that can be cut and bolted to this window where the bus used to be parked.
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Discussion is still going on how/what the working stations for each crafting station will be like.
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Discussion around messy/clean working areas, we have a ‘messy bench’ and on the other side of the room, plans for clean sewing tables.
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Discussion around having an extraction system for fumes/particulates, so painting, dremelling and jewellery-making is potentially possible without creating dust that will affect Digifab, Electronics and the Green room.
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Documenting and creating an induction for the overlocker
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Continuing to sort the beads, as the last consumable item to be organised before going to the Craftpunk Boneyard