South West Makers

In August/September 2021 I spent six weeks in and around Adelaide. Before I left, I looked up all the Maker/Hacker spaces I could find with the idea I would set out to visit as many as I had spare time to stop by.

1: Adelaide Makerspace
Web: https://makerspaceadelaide.org/
This is the largest of the Makerspaces and one of the longest running. It has around 700m2 of floorspace. I spent so much time here, that I took up a monthly membership for $66 per month. This gave me free Induction training, which I used for the Electronics room, as I needed to use the digital oscilloscope and hot air gun to help troubleshoot one of my projects.

The wood and metal working area took up most of the space and includes a wood and metal lathes, along with three different metal welders and a wide range of wood working machines:

Wood working area: table saw, lathe, dust extraction, pedestal drill, bench grinder, wood planer Plastic vacuum former, bandsaw, another table saw A large area was set asside for project building benches: The Learning Lab has a number of computers on desks around the perimeter and a large central worktable. The room has a central projector: The Digital Fab Lab room hosts the very busy laser cutter and 5 or so filament 3D printers. Each one has a computer that can be used to design and slice digital objects for cutting or printing: There is a sewing/Cosplay room. The back wall is for storage: The electronics room hosts two soldering workstations. The back wall is filled with component and wire storage that have been donated over time: They also have a Multimedia room and a dedicated room containing three Elegoo Mars resin printers, a washing station and workbench.

This space is busy on the weekends, with people in working on various projects. The laser cutter was very busy, with projects queued up with materials waiting to be cut/and etched. This is a volunteer not for profit run organisation with help from a State Grant. I enjoyed working there and meeting interesting people and loved seeing and hearing about the projects they where working on.

2: SANE Makerspace
Web: http://www.sanemakerspace.com/
This is a commercial Makespace, in that a few people have got together to host the space and people can pay to use the space. It is very strong on wood working and hosts three very busy laser cutters, bandsaws, planers, a lathe, drills and a full panel CNC machine. It also has a small electronics room, and a 3D printing room. Matthew was kind enough to show me around the space, but no photos where taken inside.

3: Adelaide Hackerspace:
Web: https://hackerspace-adelaide.org.au/

This is space specialises in Electronics and computers and is open two nights of the week. On Tuesday night 18:00-21:00 it's hosted at the Torrens Flinders University Campus - Digital Lab, and on Thursday night it's hosted at the Adelaide Makerspace. I attended the Tuesday night Finders University evening. It's at the old SA Mitsubishi car factory, which has been converted to a HUGE innovation centre. At one end is the University, at the other end is a SA TAFE Campus and in between (100m to 200m long), undercover area filled with startup office spaces that are stacked 1-2 levels tall, along with some funky food stalls. They where glass walled, so you could walk around and see what was going on inside the spaces. I didn't take a room photo, but did photograph a unique hand driven injection moulding machine: They had experimented with various solder ventilation systems, with this soldering iron vacuum system being the current favourite: They had lots of bench space, with computers scattered around. A central workbench with electronic power supplies, oscilloscopes and logic analysers etc. The room also had six 3D filament printers and a laser cutter. The night I was there, there where maybe 10 people present, all working on their personal projects.

4: Port Adelaide Enfield Library Makerspace
WEB: https://www.cityofpae.sa.gov.au/explore ... makerspace and https://stemlibrary.space/iot-experimenters/

I was tipped off about this Library based space while chatting with a member of the Adelaide Makerspace. I was grateful that Robert, one of the two full time Makerspace staff members gave up some of his time for a tour and discussion of how it all works. They host a range of weekly events around the five PAE library sites.
Each site has at least one lockable mobile tool/component chest:
The main makespace hosts a smallish room with space for around six people to comfortably work in, more if they are all working on different projects. I liked the simple plywood CNC routed walls. These are covered in slots, so shelving and storage boxes can be hung from and re-arranged as needed. They have a few 3D printers: Some damage proof metal benches and a sink (far LH side), a large screen for training/instruction:
A central tall workbench, along with small power and hand tools: At the far end is a very soundproof multimedia room:
This was a very community driven Council area, so each Library would host different STEM/Maker sessions depending on local interests. I was fortunate to be able to attend a Sunday afternoon IoT event. Yes, some of the libraries where open and busy on a Sunday afternoon. We had around seven people attend the three hour event. It all passed way too quick. Robert had loads of equipment for us to experiment with. Some people where designing new electronic circuitry and PCB's that where going to be placed out in a local marsh area to record environmental data via a LoRa system.

He had a table setup with some of the previous IoT projects:

5: Adelaide Hills Business Centre and Makerspace
Web: https://www.adelaidehillsbc.com.au/facilities/

This is one place I didn't get time to visit as it was a ways out of town. I did call the coordinator and he offered to give me a tour of the space, as it was closed to the general public due to Covid19. Maybe next time. Apparently the woodworking section was a hit with local people coming in to use the specialised tools.

While not Makerspaces, I did visit the Goolwa and Victor Harbor Libraries. These both hosted 3D printers from which the public could come in and print out things they had designed or downloaded from the Internet. This is the Goolwa Library printer:
The Victor Harbor Libraries has a volunteer hosted workshops and is onsite once a week to help people out with printing etc.