Stuff, Storage, and Stickers Guide

The storage at Hackspace is divided into three categories: 1 - Personal Projects, 2 - Tools and Equipment, and 3 - Donated Hackables.

Most of the space at Hackspace is strictly communal, and should not be used for storing your stuff. The Project Storage Area in The Main Room is provided for the storage of stuff relating to your current projects.

Ad-hoc storage elsewhere makes Hackspace harder to use, less accessible, and more dangerous.

In the Project Storage Area, there are a few storage options:

Stickers for your project materials can be found in the Sticker Holster, in the Project Storage Area.

Do Not Hack Stickers - These should be used to protect project boxes, sheet materials, and long materials, when stored in the correct place. They offer no protection on other items stored elsewhere!

They are printed with a date between 6 and 9 months in the future on them. Once the date on the sticker has expired, the item becomes fair game for hacking or disposal. You can extend the protection by updating the sticker with a new one.

Write your name on the sticker - it offers no protection otherwise.

Short-Stay Stickers - These should be used to protect stuff on the short-stay rack for a maximum of around a week.

Anything that has been hanging around on a 'short stay' for conspicuously long is fair game for hacking or disposal.

Write your name and the date you left the item on the sticker - it offers no protection otherwise.

Please don't use the Project Storage Area to 'donate' materials you don't want any more. See “Stuff for Hacking” below!

If you have a short-stay item that absolutely wont fit on the rack, and you have no choice but to leave it briefly somewhere else in the space, please ensure that you:

• Notify the google group in advance, with the details of what, where, and how long.
• Do not leave it on a bench - Put it somewhere where it will cause the minimum of inconvenience to others.
• NEVER leave it in the workshop - The machines in here are simply too dangerous to share an environment with ah-hoc storage.
• Ensure it does not create a hazard (eg: by blocking a fire escape).
• Remove it as soon as possible.
• Place a 'Short Stay' sticker on it, giving the date it was left there, so others know that it's not just random junk.

Storage Space is at a premium in Hackspace, so please be thoughtful in what you store, and for how long.

If the directors feel you are taking up more than your fair share of our limited storage space, we may ask you to remove some stuff, or remove it for you.

Everything left at Hackspace is done so entirely at your own risk.

Donated Stuff for Hacking is our evolving collection of stuff that anyone can use in their projects, however they see fit.

This stuff is mostly stored in the following places:

• On the hack-racks, on your left as you enter Room 1.
• On the materials hack-rack, immediately on your right as you enter Room 1 (behind the door).
• In the following places in the Electronics Area:
  • The component drawers.
  • In boxes under the benches
  • On the cable reel rack.

Our stock of assorted useful stuff is one of the things that makes Hackspace special, so we encourage everyone to donate surplus stuff for others to hack.

Please remember when donating - this is an opportunity to support other members’ projects by giving them cool and useful stuff. It is not an opportunity to get rid of your rubbish!

Thus, we encourage donations of:

• Common parts, hardware, components, and materials.
• Stuff which can be easily stripped for valuable parts.
• Weird or interesting stuff.

We don't want:

• Junk, household rubbish, scrap, etc.
• Stuff with no valuable easily-strippable parts, like old TVs, VCRs, and broken laptops.
• Stuff we already have lots of.

When you donate something hackable, you should store it in one of the areas listed above. These areas are partly organised into labelled boxes, drawers, and bins, so try and put your donation in the right place, if that place exists.

If there is no room for your donation, or it doesn't fit on the shelves, please take it away again. You can offer it to other members via the group instead. Never leave donations anywhere else in the space, especially the workshop

Hackspace is full of tools and equipment for the use of its members. If something isn’t stored or labeled as either somebody’s personal project item or as a hackable item, it’s probably piece of equipment you can use.

Hackspace infrastructure consists of our furniture, fittings, shelving, electrical installations, networking equipment, large tools, machinery, and computers. Do not hack our infrastructure! Any changes to the infrastructure (such as moving the furniture or altering mains wiring) requires a formal proposal.

On no account should any part of the building's fixtures be altered without express permission the Directors and the Landlord.