My trip to Metrix and what I found there

On 10/1/10 I had to go to Seattle on some personal business.  I had some
time in the afternoon, so I dropped in on Metrix, the Seattle hackerspace at
the north end of Broadway.  It’s literally under the Deluxe Tavern, where I
consumed a burger and brew.

Metrix is a small place.  It’s about 12’ x 25’.  There is a small work area
near the door where they are setting up a small hobby-type lathe mill that
might get CNC controls added to it. On the wall is a pegboard with various
wire, cables and various electronic bits for sale.  There is a glass front
counter with more small parts for sale underneath it.  Behind the counter
are several shelves of mostly technical books.  On the north side of the
space is a 8x10 walled in space with a glass sliding door that houses the
laser engraver/cutter.  It is down, pending the installation of a new laser
tube that just arrived.  The laser is very much the heart of Metrix - more
about that later.

Past the laser cutter, a very small room, barely a walk-in closet has the
soldering station.  It is a single-place work bench with a hot air station
and a temp controlled soldering iron, power supply, various meters, an
oscilloscope, etc.  It has city-required ventilation for removing fumes.

Returning to the front of the space, the south side opposite the front
counter is filled with an L-shaped workbench with seating for about a dozen
people.  The entire space is very full and cozy but not crowed.

Just past the workbench is the famous vending machine which is stocked with
a variety of snack, electronic kits and parts.  Food seems to be important
because many people would rather be at Metrix than eating.

There were two people there and we talked about the space and their
experiences getting it set up.  One thing that came up repeatedly was the
continuous interference from the City of Seattle planning and licensing
departments.  The space has to equipped with OSHA-level safety gear,
protective enclosures, ventilation, etc.  That was not nearly as expensive
or as complicated as the process of getting the city’s ravenous and
intrusive bureaucracy satisfied.  For example, there were endless delays and
$500 in fees for the city to determine that the laser engraver did not need
to be licensed with the city.  Got that?  Great trouble and expense for the
city to decide that it was none of their damn business.  Once the
waffle-butts got paid off, they went away.  Since then, there hasn’t been
any interference, but initially it consumed more time and work than any
other part of putting the space together.

In the near future, they will double their space by expanding into the
adjacent suite.  They also are interested in getting more
digitally-controlled tools like a ShopBot and a cnc milling machine.  One
tool they really wanted was a table saw.  They have built a cnc-router for
fabbing circuit boards by milling off the copper from a board.  It is
expected to be up and running real soon now.

They don’t etch boards there because the spent etchant is considered toxic
waste and they would be buried in bureaucrats if they had any.  Evidently,
the disposal regulations for businesses are prohibitive for small
enterprises.  So, no etching.

The laser cutter is very much at the heart of Metrix.  It’s a big draw and
people are cutting all sorts of things on it:  plywood, acrylic plastic,
paper, cardboard and cloth.  People spend a lot of time thinking up new and
interesting things to cut up and make.  Because of the safety regulations,
the laser is in its own room.  There is a cctv camera so everybody can watch
from outside the room.  It always draws a crowd when they are cutting, they
told me.

Because of their location, most of their members get there by foot or
bicycle.  There’s not much parking around Broadway and there is a very high
density of young people in the neighborhood.  I told them a little about the
feeble effort being made up here and also mentioned that we were initially a
little old-fart-heavy (at least as far as Martin and myself go.)  To which
they replied that they very much wished they had a few old farts around the
place.  At which point, I bit my lip rather than saying the only sage
old-fart advice I had was to move far away from somebody who says “I know
what I’m doing” when doing something stupid or dangerous.

I asked what pointers they might have about things that worked for them.
 Here’s a sampling:

* Have long and regular open hours.  They are open 12pm - 12am 7 days a
week.  This is important because a lot of people don’t fit into a narrow
time slot.

* Have a cool tool like the laser cutter.  It really is the central focus.
 It could be any neat tool, but the laser serves as a starting point for
many different projects.  They also get a lot of action around the 3D
printers.

* Quick classes are a good way to bring people in.  They’ve had good luck
with Arduino classes making stuff on prototype shields (which don’t require
soldering.)  They are starting classes on 2D CAD for programming the laser
cutter.  They tried some transistor classes but found that was a little over
people’s heads for starters.  They plan on reintroducing the transistor
classes later as people get up to speed.  Robots are also taught using
Arduinos, as is Arduino programming.

* Most people are building electromechancial stuff, but some people are
finding new crafty-type uses for the laser cutter including jewelry and
sewing projects using elaborately cut fabric.

They also said they’d welcome more visits.  I promised if there was a group
visit in the future, we’d rattle before we struck.

I'm up for a visit down there. I'd like to get into some arduino stuff. I've
seen some really cool DIY remote arduino drones.

On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 7:25 PM, Paul de Armond <paulfs...@gmail.com> wrote:

Very nice reconnaissance mission Paul :)

I got the feeling from the article I read, which was backed up by your
report, that Metrix was more of a business than a club or group. Nothing
wrong with that, but it requires a bit more control and effort to set
up. Things like business licenses, bookkeeping, taxes, city permits,
etc. It also changes the dynamic a bit from a group of people donating
their time and equipment to each other to more of an accounting of
resources and expenses type situation. Just something to think about if
the bham hackspace is considering following their model.

Amal

From: bellinghamhackspace@googlegroups.com
[mailto:bellinghamhackspace@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Paul de
Armond
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 7:25 PM
To: bellinghamhackspace@googlegroups.com
Subject: [bhs] Visiting Metrix

My trip to Metrix and what I found there

On 10/1/10 I had to go to Seattle on some personal business.  I had some
time in the afternoon, so I dropped in on Metrix, the Seattle
hackerspace at the north end of Broadway.  It's literally under the
Deluxe Tavern, where I consumed a burger and brew.

Metrix is a small place.  It's about 12' x 25'.  There is a small work
area near the door where they are setting up a small hobby-type lathe
mill that might get CNC controls added to it. On the wall is a pegboard
with various wire, cables and various electronic bits for sale.  There
is a glass front counter with more small parts for sale underneath it.
Behind the counter are several shelves of mostly technical books.  On
the north side of the space is a 8x10 walled in space with a glass
sliding door that houses the laser engraver/cutter.  It is down, pending
the installation of a new laser tube that just arrived.  The laser is
very much the heart of Metrix - more about that later.

Past the laser cutter, a very small room, barely a walk-in closet has
the soldering station.  It is a single-place work bench with a hot air
station and a temp controlled soldering iron, power supply, various
meters, an oscilloscope, etc.  It has city-required ventilation for
removing fumes.

Returning to the front of the space, the south side opposite the front
counter is filled with an L-shaped workbench with seating for about a
dozen people.  The entire space is very full and cozy but not crowed.

Just past the workbench is the famous vending machine which is stocked
with a variety of snack, electronic kits and parts.  Food seems to be
important because many people would rather be at Metrix than eating.

There were two people there and we talked about the space and their
experiences getting it set up.  One thing that came up repeatedly was
the continuous interference from the City of Seattle planning and
licensing departments.  The space has to equipped with OSHA-level safety
gear, protective enclosures, ventilation, etc.  That was not nearly as
expensive or as complicated as the process of getting the city's
ravenous and intrusive bureaucracy satisfied.  For example, there were
endless delays and $500 in fees for the city to determine that the laser
engraver did not need to be licensed with the city.  Got that?  Great
trouble and expense for the city to decide that it was none of their
damn business.  Once the waffle-butts got paid off, they went away.
Since then, there hasn't been any interference, but initially it
consumed more time and work than any other part of putting the space
together.

In the near future, they will double their space by expanding into the
adjacent suite.  They also are interested in getting more
digitally-controlled tools like a ShopBot and a cnc milling machine.
One tool they really wanted was a table saw.  They have built a
cnc-router for fabbing circuit boards by milling off the copper from a
board.  It is expected to be up and running real soon now.

They don't etch boards there because the spent etchant is considered
toxic waste and they would be buried in bureaucrats if they had any.
Evidently, the disposal regulations for businesses are prohibitive for
small enterprises.  So, no etching.

The laser cutter is very much at the heart of Metrix.  It's a big draw
and people are cutting all sorts of things on it:  plywood, acrylic
plastic, paper, cardboard and cloth.  People spend a lot of time
thinking up new and interesting things to cut up and make.  Because of
the safety regulations, the laser is in its own room.  There is a cctv
camera so everybody can watch from outside the room.  It always draws a
crowd when they are cutting, they told me.

Because of their location, most of their members get there by foot or
bicycle.  There's not much parking around Broadway and there is a very
high density of young people in the neighborhood.  I told them a little
about the feeble effort being made up here and also mentioned that we
were initially a little old-fart-heavy (at least as far as Martin and
myself go.)  To which they replied that they very much wished they had a
few old farts around the place.  At which point, I bit my lip rather
than saying the only sage old-fart advice I had was to move far away
from somebody who says "I know what I'm doing" when doing something
stupid or dangerous.

I asked what pointers they might have about things that worked for them.
Here's a sampling:

* Have long and regular open hours.  They are open 12pm - 12am 7 days a
week.  This is important because a lot of people don't fit into a narrow
time slot.

* Have a cool tool like the laser cutter.  It really is the central
focus.  It could be any neat tool, but the laser serves as a starting
point for many different projects.  They also get a lot of action around
the 3D printers.

* Quick classes are a good way to bring people in.  They've had good
luck with Arduino classes making stuff on prototype shields (which don't
require soldering.)  They are starting classes on 2D CAD for programming
the laser cutter.  They tried some transistor classes but found that was
a little over people's heads for starters.  They plan on reintroducing
the transistor classes later as people get up to speed.  Robots are also
taught using Arduinos, as is Arduino programming.

* Most people are building electromechancial stuff, but some people are
finding new crafty-type uses for the laser cutter including jewelry and
sewing projects using elaborately cut fabric.

They also said they'd welcome more visits.  I promised if there was a
group visit in the future, we'd rattle before we struck.

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nice writeup and im hoping that we can get some nifty stuff set up to
draw people in. Also the broad open ours realy is a must too and its
something ive been a little concerned about with reelectronics but I
figure once we are set up and integrated with them we should be able
to make the hackerspace hours be whatever we need them to be.

as for arduino, i have a ton of them sitting around for us to get
started working with, I may bag up a few and drag them down for some
classes soon.

On Oct 2, 10:05 am, charles porter <cporter1...@gmail.com> wrote:

The feeling of Metrix was like a drop-in center or a coffee house.
Sort of like Stewart's back when they were still in business or the
original Food Co-op when it was in Fairhaven.  They have to pay the
rent and they are doing it in a very social way.  It's a hangout.

The open hours are an issue in my case because I work a split week
with Weds and Sun off.  Evening hours are about my only possibility.

I think there are opportunities for getting something going with the
Radio Museum and MindPort.  They are sympatico.  The Radio Museum has
space that would work for classes, just like the Media911/Metrix/
Dorkbot collaboration on classes.  They had a really nice art show for
science-based art last spring that was well attended.  I never saw so
many young nerds and nerdettes in one place before.  There's obviously
some sort of social change going on around tech.

If you haven't been to the Radio Museum or Mindport, go take a look.

Good point. I really think that approach could work in downtown
Bellingham. I miss Stuarts, and to have something even remotely close to
what Stuarts used to be, but with a laser cutter or something equally
impressive in the back... that would just be amazing.

Amal ;)

If I ever get this touch table built we can use it in the space for working
with and letting people play around with the different cool looking apps.
Check out the http://.nuigroup.com site. go to their TV page at
http://nuigroup.com/tv. That might help a little, and I just really want to
make the dam thing LOL.

Porter

On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 7:25 PM, Paul de Armond <paulfs...@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi Paul and spaceyhackers from the other old fart:

I made a point of checking out Metrix after hearing this piece on KUOW on
Jan 21 this year:

http://www.kuow.org/program.php?id=19225

I really liked the people and their energy, and that, rare for the tech
world, women felt valued there (this seems to confirm Paul's remark about
the nerd scene here locally).  I think Matt is a modest fellow with great
gifts and a lot of gumption.

I looked for some sign of Willow Brugh's Jigsaw Renaissance, down by Spokane
St I think, but I couldn't find it.

I can confirm that parking on Cap Hill is dreadful--I once spent a few
nights driving cab in the area.  There used to be free back-in parking east
of the park on 11th St, but I think it is metered now, and that's still a
fair hike to B'way and Roy.  If a group traveled together, an off-street
pay-lot might be worth it, but I don't remember one nearby.  And if you do
happen to find unmetered vacant parking, you need to check the signs for
neighborhood restrictions that require a resident's sticker--that can get
really expensive..  (Even when you can find a meter it's $2-$3/hr or more;
take a roll of quarters, and check for quitting time, if you can find it.
It's not like SeaTac parking where if you are there less than half an hour
it won't charge your credit card; last time I tried, I couldn't get a credit
card to work in a street meter).

When I'm alone in Seattle now I mostly use the Park and Ride at 65 St (under
the freeway) and take the 48 bus into the U district  To get from there to
Broadway I transfer to a 49.  Both buses run about every 15 minutes.
(Metrix is at the kink in Broadway by the lights at East Roy as you get into
the commercial district going south).  Of course, it's easy for me, I get
the geriatric discount on the (electronic) ORCA card....Another way if you
have time is to park (free) in Everett at the new transit center off of
Pacific and take the 510 Sound Transit (which runs at least every hour
between 5 am and 11 at night), and catch the 49 at Pike St, which saves both
parking and the worst of the traffic.  The most convenient place for printed
transit info north of downtown is the University Bookstore lobby, on
University Ave above 43rd.  Anyone using Metro is advised to check the map
in the schedule, because some of the routes use different streets coming and
going. (Pike/Pine for the 49)

I see huge variations in the payment modes of different hackerspaces  As we
found with Relectronics, the economics are very different in a small town
from what is possible in a big urban area like Portland or Seattle--if
Metrix finds it hard to get classes going, 'Hamsters might have to be
exceptionally creative.  Perhaps small study groups meeting fairly
regularly--sort of like book clubs--would provide mutual support for
intensive learning work, and then it ought not to be too hard to find spaces
to do some of at least the more basic hands-on stuff.

Part of the problem is the same as with any move ino a new mode: very few of
us can know exactly what we want from any truly novel capability until we
have actually used it for some time.  So the problem condenses into defining
the minimal step that allows for the best probability of the next critical
insight.  Often the most accessible path to a new plateau is to define the
most blatant lack in the present--much like an entrepreneur defining the
biggest hole in the market.  For me that could translate into using my
fortcoming period of enforced idleness to try once more to get some sort of
grasp of programming.

I'm still not going to be able to participate much before the spring.  Ill
be very lucky if I get my fancy soil-geek project to v_0.1 before I get shut
down by rain and the coming 5 lb lifting restriction....

cheers

martin