East Essex Hackspace

A view of the Hackspace on a sunny day.

This coming Tuesday 17th February we're running another Social/Induction evening at the Hackspace. We also plan to fire up the pancake machine so there will be automated pancakes available as well as the usual tea/coffee and biscuits.

A tall clothes rail with garment bags hanging.

The metal poles that make up the clothes rail.

Sometimes we get people asking if we can fix/make/modify things. It's not a 'service' we can guarantee but luckily last night member Matt had time to help somebody with a clothes rail which wasn't tall enough for long dresses. They'd bought longer poles that didn't fit and Matt was able to oblige.

A spot washing machine sat on a bench.

The two motors side by side.

One of the items at Repair Café was a spot cleaner where the pump had stopped working. If we can't repair it on the spot we often have to order a part. Unfortunately VAX had changed things and it wouldn't fit. Some lengthy skilled work got the old pump working and this one sent back.

A view of the edge connector on an HP server power supply. There is a resistor and wire soldered to the smaller contacts and a pair of crocodile clips are connected to the large power pads, driving a 12V light bulb.

Meanwhile, Trustee Nick who is also waiting for his BC250 board, is messing around with a recycled HP server power supply to power it. This will mean designing a custom case and a bit more work or simply letting it all hang out with some Kapton tape to protect those high current 12V connections.

A BC250 case in 'galaxy black' 3D printer filament with fire red laser cut acrylic side panels in a hex pattern.

Trustee Matt is doing another BC250 make. It's the same case design in different colours, which look absolutely great, but he's still waiting for the board to arrive.

Guest Speaker: Patrick_4D February 11, 2026 We are very excited to have Patrick_4D, the digital chef and Z-Brush expert, come talk with us about his experience working in 3D. He found his niche, doubled-down and made a name for himself while cr...

Join us for a session with guest speaker Patrick 4D - the digital chef 🔪

Tomorrow - February 11th, 5pm CET / 11pm EST / 8am PST

RSVP! forms.gle/NUM7v2bErQGA...

Check out Patrick's work: instagram.com/patrick_4d/

If you are interested in finding out a bit more about #HitchinHackspace and are free this evening why not come along to our Monthly Social evening at The Victoria pub....

Live in Ballarat and interested in learning about 3D Printing or Laser Cutting (wood/acrylic)? We run regular introductory workshops on the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month. All skill levels welcome, tickets essential. More info:

ballarathackerspace.tidyhq.com/public/sched...

A piece of plastic film stuck to the side of a pint glass.

A toothpaste-looking paste applied to the stencil. Probably best not to use this as toothpaste.

The end result showing the Southend United football club logo.

The end result showing the Southend United football club logo.

Sometimes you can augment old techniques with new equipment.

Member Dan wanted to engrave a pint glass so used the Cricut at the Hackspace to cut out some stencils from some stencil film, then applied glass etching cream.

🏆 Volunteer Group of the Year 🏆

This recognition belongs to our amazing volunteers, members, and wider community. Every repair, every workshop, every hour given freely is what makes this place special.

Thank you for believing in what we do and for helping build something truly community-led 💙

An etched glass block style awards trophy with the crest of Rochford District Council and showing the Hackspace as "Volunteer group of the year".

A certificate from Rochford District Council showing the Hackspace as "Volunteer group of the year".

We're proud to say that last night the Hackspace won "Volunteer Group of the Year" in Rochford District Council's citizen awards. Thank you everyone who nominated us and thanks to RDC for the support!

At the weekend we had a rocket launch that very much fell into the “excellent learning opportunity” category.

Made by one of our members using our laser cutter and based on a Pringles tube it has four small motors instead of one large one. Clever idea, tricky execution.

youtube.com/clip/Ugkx5YZ...

A view of the twin rear disks and gearboxes for the Hacky Racer

Meanwhile another member has been working on the gearbox and brake setup. As our chassis is more evolved than designed things have got messy but he's identified how he thinks best to do this now. The gearbox enclosure is currently 3D printed in 100% infill nylon but will likely eventually be cast.

Progress on our Hacky Racer is slow but yesterday things got done. We've got a MakerBase ODrive v3.6-56V to run our dual motor setup. This is going to need some mixing of the two based off throttle and steering and also the brake switches to cut drive when braking. So we've connected a Pi Pico.

A view of the Hackspace on a full day. The field is very muddy.

It's Tuesday today so that means it's Social Night at the Hackspace tonight from 19:30. Pop in and see what we're up to.

A welding bench that stands on casters tucked underneath another bench. The welding bench carries a large Parweld welded.

A welding bench with a blue kiln on top to the left and a mounted gas torch to the right. Underneath is a large machine, which is an oxygen concentrator. Various pipes are coiled on the lower shelf.

Yesterday, after Repair Café, two members did a bit of a rearrange in the metalshop. One workbench got modified so our new and improved welding table could be stored underneath. The old Welding bench is being repurposed for glasswork with the kiln and oxygen concentrator on it.

At the weekend we ran a Repair Café at East Essex Hackspace.

People brought along broken household items, electronics, bikes, and battery-powered kit. Together we diagnosed faults, repaired what we could, and explained what was going on so people could learn in the process.

It's our busiest repair day ever, by some margin, will follow up with some photos later.

A view of the outside of the Hackspace

Repair Cafe at the Hackspace this morning!

Wheelbarrow Tyre 3.50-8 adapter for hoverboard. by geofrancis This lets you fit a cheap wheelbarrow tyres to a hoverboard motor The problem is a 5 inch tyre that fits it is normally rated for mobility scooters making them very expensive but this adapter lets you...

There are also designs for a 3D printed adaptor that takes larger tyres. Like this one.

www.thingiverse.com/thing:6657711

Mostly a 4.10/3.50-5 tyre, punch a valve sized hole in the sidewall, put valve through. Undo screws and separate the motor from the shaft by hand, then use a hammer to remove hub from old tyre with hammer. Then push them together, screw up, inflate to 20psi.

Also beware not all hoverboard motors are the same, even though lots are, so do some measuring before ordering tyres.

A disassembled hoverboard hub motor on a table.

A tyre with a hole punched in the sidewall.

The tyre on the hub motor but the valve is on the wrong side.

Oops, a destroyed hub motor.

Buy 4.10/3.50-5 tyres and inner tubes. Strip down hub motor and remove solid tyre. Make a hole in the side of the tyre for the valve stem. Squeeze onto hub motor, but remember to pass valve out of the 'front' of the hub. Reassemble and pump to fairly low PSI, maybe 20. Beware of plastic ones.

The partially assembled luggage trolley sitting on a table.

A stripped down hoverboard chassis offered up to the rear 'bogie'.

A hoverboard hub motor with the solid rubber tyre removed and pneumatic tyre fitted.

The beginnings of a mounting for the hub motors. It is constructed from chopped down axle mount sections from the original hoverboard chassis and a piece of steel to bolt them to.

Yesterday, Tim was looking at turning a luggage cart into a powered one with the idea of eventually having several in a 'wagon train'. Motive power will be hoverboard hub motors but fitted with pneumatic tyres. Good progress was made, next it will involve chopping the rear frame and some welding.

The BC250 case sat on a low cupboard with its new acrylic sides. In the background is a Voron 3D printer.

The BC250 case sat on a low cupboard with its new acrylic sides.

The BC250 case sat on a low cupboard with its new acrylic sides.

The sides have been fitted to the BC250 enclosure and the fasteners are a bit too prominent so there are some black anodised countersunk ones on their way to fit.

We're expanding our offering to 'crafters' over time alongside the usual wood/metalworking/electronics tooling and open to suggestions that we can accommodate with the limited space we have. Sewing/fabric provision has come along well and as well as the glasswork people have been trying silver clay.

A piece of worked glass that looks like a flower bud.

Using a gas torch to shape glass rod.

A little sheepy looking guy made of glass

A piece of worked glass looking like a flower petal.

We've been equipping the Hackspace for jewellery and glassworking recently. We now have things like an oxygen concentrator and small kiln available. Members have been getting to grips with these and developing the practical skills to use them.

A view of the Hackspace on a cold grey day.

The Hackspace woodshop looking less crowded than usual.

It's cold and wet outside but warm and dry in the Hackspace tonight for our regular Social Night from 19:30. This weekend members had a big tidy and reorganise of the woodshop and we might make further progress on that so we can get the table saw back into operation.

Cutting ply on the laser cutter.

Trying the laser cut ply on the BC250 case.

The side cut in black acrylic.

Trying out some red vinyl behind the acrylic for contrast.

The second half of the case got printed along with the sides. It's sectioned for typical 3D printer build volumes but as we've an A0 laser cutter a remix to one piece sides was done. First test fit was done in ply before cutting in acrylic. It's come out quite nicely.

A partial Hackspace logo being worked on in the InkStitch interface.

The embroidery machine doing the design on some green fleece material.

The finished logo on a piece of fleece material. There are some missed stitches with something we're also working on, it seems slightly unreliable.

The process of creating a design from scratch for our new embroidery machine is quite fiddly and the supplied software limited. Members have been coming up with a workflow for inkstitch.org that means we can use open source software to produce designs for it. We're almost there...