I wanted to just say thank you to Jeff Del Papa @ the-nerds for stopping by the space last night and sharing his Junkyard Wars experiences with us. Jeff and his team have been featured on a few episodes in the US and UK.  It was very cool to be able to ask Jeff questions about what happened behind the scenes.

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Robot Fest 2010 has come and gone. Some of the many interesting exhibits this year included the pneumatic rocket experience provided by the Baltimore Node, the many Lego Mindstorms projects, Maker Bot demonstrations, various art demonstrations, and a fashion show.

Make coverage and more pics here.

We’d like to thank everyone that stopped by our exhibit to view the Oobleck demonstration, PIC micro-controller LED arrays, the hand-powered Arduino random movie quote generator, build some cardboard robots, or just hang out and talk electronics. We had a great time and we hope to see everyone next year. Our next event will be at ArtScape in Baltimore. In the meantime, feel free to come by and do some hacking on one of our open hack nights.

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If you have been following our progress and have not been able to make our Thursday meetings then maybe Wednesday will work for you. Starting on August 12th 2009 our weekly meetings will be moving to Wednesday nights at 7pm. Contact info@harfordhackerspace.org.

Unfortunately, all the photos I took of our CNC Build over the last two weeks were currupted. Hopefully, I will get some photos this week for your enjoyment. It’s coming along nicely. We have added black paint which looks really nice with all the aluminum on it. We have started the y-axis by adding the y-bracket, y-rails, and y-bearings. We have also designed remaining components and are waiting for them to be cut.

Also, we have tested the X-Axis, Motor Controller, and Mach3 Software and all in working well.

Just a friendly reminder that we will be meeting this Thursday, 7:30pm @ the garage. If you are new and would like to join us e-mail info@harfordhackerspace.org for details.

I could not help but smile really big during yesterdays meeting. There was the real feeling of a hackerspace with Miles building a prop gun, all of us pitching in on the CNC Machine and a few of us tearing into a work related project of mine. Then to top it all off Logan from Baltimore SDIY stoped by and demonstrated his projects. We all had a great time.

Now we need to take th CNC apart and paint it.

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Nick Farr stoped by Harford Hackerspace and shed some light on the 501(c)(3) process. He also shared some “good practice” points with us and The Node. Prior to Nicks arrival Harford Hackerspace and The Node had a long conversation about how the two organizations could collaborate or possibly merge. There was a lot of repetative questions asked but very little answers came of the discusssion.

Several members from both organizations put on the table the possible merge so long as the two organizations could agree on a suitable location. As of the end of the meeting on July 11th an agreement was not reached on the merge but both organizations agreed that our goals were similar and we would help each other in our efforts. A merge is not out of the question but it’s also not likely to happen in the immediate future. However the offer is still on the table from Harford Hackerspaces perspective.

Now that that intense meeting is over Harford Hackerspace will resume its normal activities on July 16  @ 7:30 pm in the Temporary Hackerspace Garage. E-mail info@harfordhackerspace.org if you ever want to attend any meetings. We may even be able to schedule a meeting around your calendar.

Guest Nick Farr from HacDC will be joining us at our next monthly members meeting to help us knock out some of the ugly business stuff and discuss collaborative efforts between Harford Hackerspace and HacDC. Also, it now looks like members from Baltimore Node will be joining us as well.

This will be a two part meeting with the first half being all about business and taking care of important paperwork. New member can feel free to come late to skip the boring stuff.

When: Saturday, July 11th 2009
Time: 2pm – Whenever
Location: Baltimore, 21206 – E-Mail info@harfordhackerspace.org for an address

The meeting agenda can be found on our wiki. Feel free to add to it.

This week on Thursday – June 18th, 2009 at 7:30pm we will be gathering at superfro’s garage which he has kindly offered to let us use as a temporary hackerspace. We will be working on our first project which is a CNC Machine capable of etching circuit boards and routing small objects from wood and soft metals. At this meeting we will be discussing the design of the CNC Machine as well as start setting up tools and gathering materials which the members will be donating from their personal stash.

In other news… Our bank account is now setup. Also, we would really like to see some new faces at our meetings. We currently have 6 members which come to every meeting. So,  if you are in the area and you would like to come check out the club please e-mail us at info@harfordhackerspace.org for directions.

It has been a while since we posted an update but that’s because we have been busy. Here is the latest on the organization.

1. We found a temporary place to start meeting weekly. It’s a large garage owned by one of our members. This will allow us to start working on projects and hopefully attract a few new members. We plan to start holding weekly meetings to work on our projects starting next week. Get in touch with us via IRC or the Forums if you would like to hang out with us.
2. We have decided that our first project is going to be to build a CNC Machine capable of creating circuit boards. We are currently in the design phase and the design discussion can be tracked on our forums project board.
3. [***FINALLY***] This is the most exciting news. We are now officially incorporated with the State of Maryland Department of Taxation as a non-stock corporation. You can look for your self at http://www.dat.state.md.us/ and searching for Harford Hackerspace. This means that we can setup a bank account and start collecting membership dues. Not being incorporated has been a big setback for us but we pushed through it and are ready to move full speed ahead.

Last night’s IRC meeting was a success and now we are getting organized. On Sunday – June 7th @ 6pm we are going to start holding monthly meetings with each meeting being the first Sunday of every month.

Date/Time: Sunday – June 7th, 2009 @ 6pm
Location: Grind on Cafe @ 4607 Harford Rd, Baltimore 21214 (www.grindoncafe.com)

Also, from now on every Tuesday night at 8pm is IRC chat night. Visit us on the Freenode server @ #harfordhackerspace.