[dms-discuss] Space Improvement Projects

Fri Jun 23 12:32:09 PDT 2017

So Wednesday went really well for us, we had a good turnout: Rob, his son
Callen, myself, my brother in-law Mike, and my friend Riley.

Fixing the lights was easier than we expexted.  We went in to this
expecting that some wiring faults would be the problem, since Rob had JUST
replaced a bunch of LED bulbs (which are known to be very long-lasting and
reliable).

Turns out we just had a batch of bad bulbs (every bad bulb was from a brand
called uBRITE, so avoid them in the future) and some incorrect switch
positions (the turn-switch on the socket housings) from previous
troubleshooting attempts.  Once we put some due-diligence into swapping a
known-good bulb into every lamp with suspect wiring and testing every
switch position (these lamps have 4 clicks to a "rotation") it quickly
became clear that all we needed was some better bulbs.

While we were working on that, Riley and Callen tore down one of the old
inkjet printers that Rob brought in.  They were able to salvage a few good
motors (both DC and stepper), a peristaltic pump, and a few belts, pulleys,
gears and rods.  The salvaged parts got added to the Radio Shack drawers
(which look great so far, thanks Roland!) and the bulk of the printer got
thrown out.  These are some good parts for any kind of mechatronic projects
people might want to make, and a bit of space has been freed up by getting
rid of the printer.

We then moved on to installing the AC unit.  We found the hole in the
ceiling that Braden mentioned, but it has been tarred over and the
corrugated tin roof installed on top of that... so I doubt the landlord
would be too thrilled if we went cutting holes in the roofing.  We then
discussed the viability of cutting into the southeastern-most window as
suggested by Aaron but decided we didn't want to risk running into the
plywood/wire mesh/broken glass sandwich that Braden warned us about.

Rob then noticed that we've got a strip of plywood that lines the top of
each north-side window (the functional ones) and we all agreed that it was
a perfect solution.  Mike (who is very handy with all things wood and power
tools) got us an appropriately sized oval hole cut out above the middle
Northern window and installed the blanking plate for the vent over it.  He
then made us a stable base for the AC unit to sit upon, as the vent tube
for the hot air exhaust is not long enough to reach the hole if it sits
directly on the table.

As we were hoisting the AC up into the table, we noticed that the top of
the table was at an angle.  Turns out that the back right leg of the table
was broken at the leg-to-table interface and the front right leg was
missing, but the leg-to-table interface was there and intact.  So we
swapped the leg from the back to the front, then Mike built us a new table
leg for the back.

Once the AC was installed we got it turned on and noticed that we really
ought to have it at ground level due to the way it shoots the cold air out
the top of it.  In order for this to happen we'll need to extend the vent
tube with some dryer vent hose (or something similar).

We then renamed the "out box" as the "free box" and designated a new "out
box" so we can get the system Jax described at the beginning of this email
chain put in place.  Next board meeting we will throw out everything in the
free box as it contains the contents of last month's out box that we went
through at last month's board meeting.  Feel free to start adding anything
to the new out box that you feel is no longer needed in the space, so we
can check it out at the next board meeting!

Also remaining, I think it would probably be good to have the AC wired in
to the same circuit breaker as the lights.  We only have two breakers for
the space inside the breaker box, one for the lights and one for the
outlets (both 20 amps).  The AC takes 11 amps (Riley tested it with his
clamp meter) so as it currently stands (plugged in to a power strip on the
same circuit as all the computers and stuff) we might start tripping
breakers if it's running at the same time as too many other things.  We can
discuss the viability of this at the next board meeting.

Overall, we had a very successful day of space maintenance.  Big huge
thanks to Rob, Callen, Riley, and Mike!  Attached is a photo of a bunch of
sweaty dudes, lol.

-Ryan

On Jun 20, 2017 11:20 PM, "Braden" <dms at dabrado.net> wrote:

Thank you everyone for all the work!

Maybe you've investigated this already, but in terms of trying to use one of
the remaining boarded-up windows as an exhaust: the windows on the other
side, back when they were in their boarded-up state, were a sandwich of two
pieces of plywood with a wire-mesh and (broken) window in the middle.  So
there may be a similar situation on the remaining boarded-up windows.

Also, in case it provokes any ideas, there is a hole in the ceiling that
connects to a (currently) plugged up and disconnected pipe on the roof, that
existed for some unknown purpose.  However that is presumably too far away
to connect the portable A/C unit without some kind of extension, if that is
even possible.

  - Braden

On Wed, Jun 21, 2017 at 02:05:39AM +0000, Roland Synnestvedt wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I missed the meeting this month but wanted to give a brief update on some
> things.
> I was able to install some of the wall shelving (a 4' x 8' section) and
> have been organizing things here and there.
> I also emptied the two big boxes of random components (resistors, power
> bricks, etc) from the 3d print area and put them in the metal drawer
units,
> which I setup under the pegboard for now.
> The drawers aren't labelled yet but feel free to fill them up as you see
> fit. I tried to keep them somewhat organized (power cords in one drawer,
> random-ass components from the same company in another drawer) but it is
> easy to reorganize if things get messy. Same goes for the wall shelving,
> though that's pretty close to full.
> I also brought in a working vacuum cleaner so I figured we could get rid
of
> the old one unless people want to part it out.
>
> Regarding the A/C unit, I discussed it a bit with Aaron (he brought in the
> unit) and the best option seemed to be to cut a hole in the plywood that's
> boarding up the Southeastern-most window. That way the vent is blowing
> under the outdoor stairs (we will probably want to angle it downward so
> it's not blowing hot trash air at people). We will need to shuffle some
> stuff in the surrounding area of the fridge, but we should be able to just
> measure and jigsaw that plywood. I'm thinking maybe we can do that next
> week.
>
> I'm out of town this whole week so won't be hosting hours tomorrow, I'll
> update the wiki. Good luck on the lighting project Ryan!
>
> -Roland
>
> On Thu, Jun 15, 2017 at 4:57 PM, Ryan McKay <yakcm.nayr at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I normally have pretty much zero obligations and not much going on in my
> > life, so *of course* as soon as I step forward to help with a project
> > around the space my life gets super busy for a couple weeks.  The
project
> > that has had me stuck 80 miles away from Davis pretty much every day
since
> > our June board meeting (building a 10'x16' post-and-beam shed from
> > full-dimensioned lumber milled in our own back yard from trees felled in
> > said yard at my parents' place) has now reached a stopping point while
we
> > wait for some more materials to arrive, and after the Father's Day
weekend
> > concludes I will be back in the flatlands for a few days.
> >
> > So... Rob, I will be in touch soon to coordinate a day that works for
both
> > our schedules to get this lighting situation checked out.  Once we know
the
> > exact day/time I will share the deets here, in case anyone else wants to
> > help out.  More hands are always useful for projects like this, and my
goal
> > is to get this taken care of before the repair cafe happens.
> >
> > -Ryan
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Jun 9, 2017 at 2:14 PM, yourcurtainsareugly <
> > yourcurtainsareugly at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi, all!
> >>
> >> As discussed at the last board meeting, we have some new projects for
> >> improving the 'Space.
> >>
> >>
> >>    1. Fixing lighting
> >>    2. Building a ramp for better accessibility
> >>    3. Installing a vent for the A/C unit
> >>
> >> Rob and Ryan have taken charge of the lighting, so if you two would
like
> >> any assistance, please reach out!
> >>
> >> For the others, give a shout out here if you'd like to take them on,
and
> >> let us know when you'd like to work on them. Anything that's left over
can
> >> be done during the repair cafe on the 25th, but we should get the A/C
going
> >> before the first big heat wave!
> >>
> >>
> >> In other news, we decided at the last meeting to officially effect an
> >> outbox system. Simply, if you think something is useless, unused, or
just
> >> unnecessarily taking up space, put it in a box marked "out". If you
find
> >> something in an outbox that you still need, take it out and mark it or
> >> otherwise make it obvious that it's part of a project of yours. At each
> >> board meeting, we'll demote anything that's still in an outbox to a
"free"
> >> box. Anything in the free box is fair game to take home or where it
may be
> >> used. Again, at the board meetings, anything that has remained in the
free
> >> box for a month has proven its complete and utter uselessness to all,
and
> >> will be disposed of with extreme prejudice.
> >>
> >> Sound simple enough? Please let me know if I've been unclear or you
have
> >> any questions.
> >>
> >> -Jax
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
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> >> http://lists.davismakerspace.org/listinfo/discuss
> >>
> >>
> >
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> >
> >

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