Skip to content

Introduction

Hackspace Manchester is a space for people who enjoy making things and being involved in a community.

We are a workshop run entirely by our own community, and by joining us you're making a commitment to giving your time and contributing your knowledge to keep Hackspace safe, open and enjoyable. We have a diverse community of over 350 members from all walks of life and with all sorts of skills. We have processes, guidelines and rules to keep things running smoothly for everyone.

Please take time to read through our docs, and familiarise yourself with how we run.

What is Hackspace?

Hackspace is a thing we do together. It’s a makerspace run by its community for its community.

Manchester Hackspace is just one of many spaces in the UK. Each space is run independently by its members. The aim of hackspace is to provide members with the tools and space they need to get making, and a supportive community to do it in.

It is important everyone understands: - Hackspace is run entirely by volunteers (including the directors) and people helping out where they can. A lot of us have full time jobs, and do what we can after work. You may not recieve speedy responses to your questions (though we do try), and sometimes things don't get fixed as quickly as we'd like. - We are not a business, providing you perfect workshops in return for money and you are not a paying customer expecting a 5* service. - We do not promise any tools will be available. If something is broken, ask 'is there anything I can do to help fix it?' instead of 'when will it be fixed?'. - If members don't help out, everything crumbles. - At the very very least, tidy up after yourself, report what you break, and help restock consumables you see running low when you pop to hardware shops. - The directors put their trust in each and every member to act with integrity and safely when in the space. If you see someone being dangerous, call it out. People taking unneccessary risks put everything we have on the line.

What is at Hackspace?

Hackspace is broadly split into four areas: - Wood workshop - 'Woody Dusty' - Saws, sanders, drills, routers, etc. - Metal workshop - 'Weldy Grindy' - Lathes, drills, mills, hand tools, welding, grinding, guillotines, sheet benders - Electronics - Soldering stations, Oscilloscopes, etc. - Visual Arts - Laser cutter, heat press, sewing machines, general arts and crafts tools.

As well as these four main categories there is also:

  • 'Snackspace' / 'Parkspace' - Food prep facilities, tuck shop, chill out area, informative books, board games & main first aid point.
  • 3D Printer World - A range of state of the art FDM 3D printers
  • Bikespace - a bicycle repair area with a small selection of purchasable items.
  • General area - tables, chairs, PCs, sewing machines, dust sheets.
  • Executive Toilet - the main accessible toilet by the front door.
  • Messy Sink & Second Toilet - a sink for washing messy things, e.g. paint brushes and a toilet.
  • Members Storage - for storing active project items. See the storage rules for more information.

Who's Who at Hackspace?

The Board of Directors

Aka 'The Board' are the named members legally responsible for Manchester Hackspace. They are volunteers who are voted for a two year period to lead the direction of the organisation.

Area Co-ordinators

Aka 'ACs' help to coordinate efforts in the different areas of the space and keep our processes running smoothly. If you have an improvement you'd like to see implemented in one of the workshops, chat to the AC for that area and they should be able to point you in the right direction to get going.

Area Teams

The area teams help keep the workshops ticking over. The teams are made up of trainers, maintainers and general helpers. Anyone is welcome to join a team, just speak to the area coordinator. - Trainers - deliver training and inductions on tools. - Maintainers - help to keep our tools up and running, providing preventative maintenance, upgrades and fixing things when they do break. - General helpers - keeping up with the general tasks to do to keep our workshops running and improving.

Members

This is everyone who is part of our community. Our memberships all pay into the same pot which along with the time we all give allow us to keep making hackspace better.