Pitt Street Users meeting

[Marion Catlin]

Hello all

Andy Woods who is one of the Menscraft members and therefore our host at Men's Shed called a users meeting so that we could all go over some decisions and issues about using the whole space. That is Farmshare, Men's Shed, Menscraft, Hackspace and Taiko Drummers

It was a long meeting (so sorry to those I didn't see this evening) and I will only recap some here and then maybe post some notes somewhere that people can read if they are keen.

Headlines though

• In our member sessions there should only be Hackspace members in the building so we need to challenge anyone else that wants to come in, especially as there have been some squatters wanting to stay overnight
• Related - we need to be aware of security as more people are becoming aware of what is in the building
• There is now a light outside the main door and Matt asked if we can use that door rather than the fire exit. It has a Yale lock so we may need to leave on the latch until a bell is fixed up
  
• It is likely that the passageway from the 'common room' upstairs to our new space will be reopened and that the common room will be made more welcoming (taking away scuzzy sofas)
• I was asked to set up a Pitt Street Users Google group and calendar. At the moment the Google group is restricted to the people who attended the meeting but let me know if you want to be added
• The calendar is for everyone using the space so that we can be more aware of who is in the building at particular times and of special events such as...
• A maintenance day has been agreed for Saturday 5 March from 1pm with a BBQ at about 4.30pm for all Pitt Street users
• There was talk about parking etc but that doesn't affect us too much, it is mostly a daytime thing

Any questions please ask me

Marion

Marion Catlin
3 Trowse House Cottages
Bracondale Millgate
Norwich NR1 2EQ

Telephone 01603 765353
Mobile 07946 261651

[Toby Catlin]

Was there any mention of progress on our room? 

When can Matt get in to start the electrics? Alan said he was available to help him wire things up

t

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[Marion Catlin]

We didn't talk much about that specifically only that there is nothing really stopping us. Matt is generally quite overworked and inclined to take on too much. I suggest that we give Alan a general brief and ask him to project-manage the electrics with us as support. Then he can get started on the work and involve Matt as necessary. I think that will move it on.

I think we have enough of an idea of layout of the main room to start with lighting and sockets. We need a shopping list (which I started in the Google spreadsheet) and I will chase up Mark Stevens of Travis Perkins to see if they will sponsor any or offer a discount. I think that Alan can decide about lighting and exact socket positions (above worktop heights and two doubles per corner is what we have talked about)

When we looked on Saturday, we thought that the electrics would probably be surface mounted. We wanted to ask Matt if we should put the pegboard up, wallpaper style, before the trunking goes in or whether it would be a better idea to hide the trunking and cables behind. Then we could out pegboard all round which we could fix shelves etc to and hang tools from, plus it would look cool. Sockets would of course be mounted on top. This would give us a good surface to work with.

If everyone is happy with that as a first step, we could get going pretty quickly and I can talk to Alan about whether he would be willing to help to progress the work. below are a couple of photographs of the pegboard and benches that we have available to us, which we are proposing to reuse for the main space

Marion

Marion Catlin
3 Trowse House Cottages
Bracondale Millgate
Norwich NR1 2EQ

Telephone 01603 765353
Mobile 07946 261651

ᐧ

[Jay Zelos]

Trunking is an excellent idea as we can run cat5 and other stuff for net access and remote monitoring of devices. Might need to firewall off from menshed but would be handy.  Plus you can never have too many power points.

[Marion Catlin]

Over the peg board or behind?

BTW they also said that when Men's Shed become a separate organisation from Menscraft (probably autumn) they may well separate their telecomms. Not sure what that will mean for us but something to bear in mind

ᐧ

Marion Catlin BA(Hons) Design PGDip Cultural Planning AD:UK Senior Fellow
Free range cultural development and communications professional 

specialising in arts, culture and heritage

Director The Shift Norwich: Culture Shift, Design Shift and Digital Shift

Developing and promoting Norwich as a city of culture

Arts Development UK East Regional Co-ordinator

Trustee Norwich Puppet Theatre and Chair C>Media

Project manager write2screen network

​ 

and Creative Futures

Steering group member Sistema in Norwich

Convenor: Music in Norwich and Art in Norwich Forums

Co-director Norwich Fringe Festival

​Founder member Norwich Hackspace and What Next? Norfolk​

Telephone office 01603 765353  Mobile 07946 261651
LinkedIn Marion de Mello Catlin  Skype marionecatlin
Twitter accounts marionofnorwich and norwichcultcity

Website: www.theshiftnorwich.org.uk

[Toby Catlin]

There is that wide plastic trunking that can accommodate power sockets. Like this http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/cable-trunkings/3122614/ although it may be way too much money. I quite like the galvanised stuff: http://www.screwfix.com/c/electrical-lighting/cable-management/cat1150038#category=cat1970002&page_size=100

We have to remember that we may get booted out and so don't want to go too crazy. Cheap and cheerful is the way, so I don't think we need too many wall sockets as we can use multi-point extension leads that would easily attach to the peg board or scaffolding with zip ties: http://www.screwfix.com/p/masterplug-6-gang-switched-extension-lead-2m/8306g I'd say one set of mounted sockets in each corner coming off trunking that is running mains and cat5

Neil brought in a box with some light fittings/switches and other misc.

t

[Marion Catlin]

If there is stuff that is better but more expensive than we need for, say a 12 month stay (we may also outgrow the space) then I think we could ask Menscraft to pay for permanent infrastructure or split the cost. I have offered to contribute towards materials rather than guarantee to pay for them all. I think we should pay for stuff we require over and above normal usage.

Dis we sort out what we needed for the PCB?

And what were those bells? We did talk about bells which Matt was going to look at, possibly re-using the large red firebells!

ᐧ

Marion Catlin BA(Hons) Design PGDip Cultural Planning AD:UK Senior Fellow
Free range cultural development and communications professional 

specialising in arts, culture and heritage

Director The Shift Norwich: Culture Shift, Design Shift and Digital Shift

Developing and promoting Norwich as a city of culture

Arts Development UK East Regional Co-ordinator

Trustee Norwich Puppet Theatre and Chair C>Media

Project manager write2screen network

​ 

and Creative Futures

Steering group member Sistema in Norwich

Convenor: Music in Norwich and Art in Norwich Forums

Co-director Norwich Fringe Festival

​Founder member Norwich Hackspace and What Next? Norfolk​

Telephone office 01603 765353  Mobile 07946 261651
LinkedIn Marion de Mello Catlin  Skype marionecatlin
Twitter accounts marionofnorwich and norwichcultcity

Website: www.theshiftnorwich.org.uk

[Ben Norcutt]

I know there was talk of putting in sockets with usb ports in them but for a workshop environment I prefer metal clad sockets with cable drops done in PVC conduit.

I hate multi way extension lead and they over ends up being over loaded.

With regards to placement and layout I will cad this before the weekend hopefully.

B

[Marion Catlin]

And I am seeing Graham tomorrow too for a meet about various things including layout which he has been working on.  Maybe you can CAD the electrics and things and Graham and I can look at the design of the layout and the desks/benches etc using the Castle materials. I think that so long as we have two double sockets in each corner we will be ok.

I think it's a moot point about whether the main room is more workshop or classroom style - maybe a mix of both? Will we be doing any really messy things ion there? Maybe we could have a couple of USB sockets as they are needed for a lit of Arduino and RPi activities. It seems to me that it is mostly 'clean' activities we are likely to do in there eg electronics and computer based. What is the latest thinking on the size of the laser cutter?

Marion

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[Alan Scrase]

Has anyone any specific ideas regarding lighting. Here are some I can think of:-

Main Room

1.  4 pendants with low energy bulbs. - cheap and spreads the light

2   Two  4ft fluorescents one across window one across the fire door. - more expensive but I do have one I can donate.

3   Spot lighting - may need four double spots. - fittings more expensive bulbs more expensive but may look better.

4   Track lighting - adaptable but again expensive.

Corridor

1  Two pendants

2  Fluorescent

Kitchen

1 pendant

End room

1  Pendant

2  Fluorescent

Donations may influence choices.

[Marion Catlin]

There are also some fittings there already, some shrouded spot style so we may be able to reuse some of them

And we need some worktop lights, either anglepoise style (as Jay requested) or undershelf LEDs would be good

ᐧ

Marion Catlin BA(Hons) Design PGDip Cultural Planning AD:UK Senior Fellow
Free range cultural development and communications professional 

specialising in arts, culture and heritage

Director The Shift Norwich: Culture Shift, Design Shift and Digital Shift

Developing and promoting Norwich as a city of culture

Arts Development UK East Regional Co-ordinator

Trustee Norwich Puppet Theatre and Chair C>Media

Project manager write2screen network

​ 

and Creative Futures

Steering group member Sistema in Norwich

Convenor: Music in Norwich and Art in Norwich Forums

Co-director Norwich Fringe Festival

​Founder member Norwich Hackspace and What Next? Norfolk​

Telephone office 01603 765353  Mobile 07946 261651
LinkedIn Marion de Mello Catlin  Skype marionecatlin
Twitter accounts marionofnorwich and norwichcultcity

Website: www.theshiftnorwich.org.uk

[Barnaby Relph]

"What is the latest thinking on the size of the laser cutter?" - Much as I was in favour of the largest cutter that could be got into the building, the more I think about it, the more I think the A3 laser is the more pragmatic choice. The bigger machine is likely to take up a lot of the current space and will be that much more expensive. There's so many tools and supplies that are needed to set up a hackspace, that I think it makes sense to go for breadth of tooling. 

On the subject of lighting, would it make sense to talk to shopfitters to see whether they strip existing installations and might be a source of cheap or free lighting?

Barny 

[Marion Catlin]

I daresay if we put out an appeal for gear we want we could source most of it. Once we have a list, I have some good contacts.

You mentioned the library - I have good connections there and can ask them plus Sainsbury Centre and other bigger venues if they are stripping stuff out

Plus Travis Perkins as I said before

I think that Alan is volunteering to make a list - does anyone object to strip lights? There are some spotlight fittings there already

Just to encourage people, I think that given a bit of time, it will be possible for us to also use the common room but fitted out with a table (possibly a home for the table tennis table?) and chairs so that if we want to sit down we can. I think they will probably reopen the access through so that it is more linked. We can also continue to have group meetings downstairs as I think that upstairs will be too small space for member meetings. So maybe we need to think of our hackspace rooms as a safe space for storage, for small groups to work on specific things and to use the main pieces of equipment

Marion Catlin BA(Hons) Design PGDip Cultural Planning AD:UK Senior Fellow
Free range cultural development and communications professional 

specialising in arts, culture and heritage

Director The Shift Norwich: Culture Shift, Design Shift and Digital Shift

Developing and promoting Norwich as a city of culture

Arts Development UK East Regional Co-ordinator

Trustee Norwich Puppet Theatre and Chair C>Media

Project manager write2screen network

​ 

and Creative Futures

Steering group member Sistema in Norwich

Convenor: Music in Norwich and Art in Norwich Forums

Co-director Norwich Fringe Festival

​Founder member Norwich Hackspace and What Next? Norfolk​

Telephone office 01603 765353  Mobile 07946 261651
LinkedIn Marion de Mello Catlin  Skype marionecatlin
Twitter accounts marionofnorwich and norwichcultcity

Website: www.theshiftnorwich.org.uk