Questions about this group...

[James McMillan]

Hi All,

I have been lurking somewhat since pre-covid times and have been meaning to get in touch for a while, life gets in the way....

I am curious as to what this group would usually be doing if it were not for Covid putting the brakes on? 

Personally I have an ambition to make a basic analogue synthesizer, and to that end have been looking for opportunities to improve my understanding of electronics and woodworking (of which I have elementary knowledge and experience at present). Furthermore I have limited space at home and limited cash for equipment, so being part of a club and sharing/renting things makes more sense (and might be more fun anyway.....?).

However, I am up for making all sorts in the grand scheme of things, nothing is of no interest to me.

Curious as to what kind of projects are current members interested in? and what does the group aspire to do once it can make use of a proper space again? (I note a recent post indicates the Makers Museum membership scheme may be getting off the ground soon).

Appreciate its a bit pie-in-the-sky at the moment due to the obvious but thought I'd ask what the general plan is anyway....

Kind Regards,

James Mc

[Al Johnson]

Hi James,

Most of the current members have some sort of engineering background although
a few are more arts and crafts based. With luck the reopening of the Silk Mill
museum will help restore the mix we had before, as the different backgrounds
can bring up interesting ideas we wouldn't have thought of separately.

For some the meetings were about having the facilities to work on their
projects. For others it was more about being able to chat through a problem
with others, with most of the actual work happening at home. Space for work in
progress has always been tight, both at the Silk Mill, and more recently at
the Radio Museum. I don't expect this to change at either.

Between us you'll find people doing 3d printing and CNC, assorted computing
(arduino, stm32, Pi, PC), wood and metal work, fabrics (craft and for outdoor
sports), audio (speakers, electronics and DSP). I've mostly been looking at
slightly daft speakers, DSP and CNC recently.

The Radio Museum would be ideal for your analog synth in terms of facilities
and knowledgable people. The Silk Mill is currently rather basic on the
electronics side, but well equipped for wood and metal working. Both will
depend on how their plans to open up proceed though.

[Tony Brookes]

Hi James
I’m hatching a plan to make a 3d contour map of part of Derby in wood, either using a laser cutter (one at both the Radio Museum & Silk Mill), or 3d cnc woodworking machine (Silk Mill only). I suspect the laser cutter would be better as them I could get a map of the area etched onto the wood. But all this is theoretical, and I haven’t yet done anything practical to test it yet!!!

Tony

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[Al Johnson]

Remember we've got Jeff's CNC router too - ~2ft x 3ft usable bed area. You can
engrave with it, but fine detail may be limited depending on the wood used.

[James McMillan]

Apologies for the late reply, I cant seem to respond to messages on my phone for some reason (??).

I have been busy the last two weeks but can probably attend the next Zoom meeting so will catch up with you all then. 

Thanks indeed for the replies so far, this group sounds great to me and I shall definitely endeavour to attend.

3d contour map sounds very interesting to me, I really enjoy those kinds of models, best of luck with the build!