Blog

Wood carving crowdfunding

We have set up a crowdfunder at spacehive.com, to buy a variety wood carving equipment, which will be matched pound for pound by the Lancashire Sport and Culture fund. Our goal is to generate a total of £395, but if we can raise £200 ourselves, then it will be matched by the fund and we’ll get the new equipment paid for. The equipment will be accessible to all members of LAMM, but also the public when they are attending classes at our space.


Once we have the equipment, we will put on some courses in wood carving and whittling – any donation of at least £15 will get a place in one of these classes (they will be £5-20, pay-as-you-feel, should you want to pay later).

  • Set of 6 wood carving gouges (for use with a mallet for relief carving)
  • A brass headed carving chisel for use with the above
  • set of 10 wood carving knives (for whittling and spoon making)
  • 2 “safety” wood carving knives, for use by kids or novices.
  • wood threading kit – essentially a large tap-and-die for making parts for vices and presses

Every donation, from a minimum of £2, is worthwhile and we are already up to £75 out of the £200 we need to raise ourselves! We do need at least 20 discrete donations, so small contributions are still very important!

https://www.spacehive.com/wood-carving-in-lancaster

New IT for local Heritage Centre

Graham and Lin Dean, from the Friends of Heysham Heritage Centre, receiving a “new” PC from us. This machine will replace a knackered old laptop that they, and the other volunteers, were using, that was no longer fit for purpose.

We refurbish computers, mainly laptops, and pass them onto schools, refugees and other local community groups.

2023 review

We had a surge in membership, partly due to a grant from Lancaster University, allowing us to give out free or cheap memberships at different times!

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  • Number of members: 35 in December (best was 59 in June)
  • Total subscriptions: £447.12 in December (best was £468.67 in June)
  • 85 unique human people were actually members at some time in the year!

We got a new, electronic kiosk to allow you to buy food, drink, laser time and materials… Finally without us having to handle cash and keeping manual records

  • Shop takings: £237 in December
  • Shop sales made: 33 in December (best was 42 in May)
  • Shop transaction fees we paid: £4.30 in December

We got a new, easy to use, quiet diode laser, just in time for making xmas presents (thanks John!)

pew, pew, pew

  • Diode laser time in November: 192 minutes (3 hours 12 minutes)
  • Diode laser time in December: 766 minutes (12 hours, 46 minutes)
  • This raised a total of £192 for us!

We collaborated with a great local charity, Escape2Make, to design and create a myriad of fun items for sale at the heritage market in December

We ran over a dozen free activity stalls, all over the area

festive maps

  • West End Gardens, Morecambe (Creative West End): 2
  • More Music, Morecambe (Creative West End): 1
  • Market Square, Lancaster (Food Futures): 4
  • Sustainability Hub, Lancaster (LESS): 1
  • Lancaster Library, Lancaster (Fun Palaces): 3
  • Tabletop Republic, Lancaster (Fun Palaces): 1
  • Community Centre, Brookhouse: 1

Repair in Brookhouse

Yesterday, Saturday 4th November, 2023, we were in the nearby village of Brookhouse getting involved in a repair event. We found lots of young repairers to help us and made a record of what was achieved!

We actually had more repair experts than clients, which was disappointing, but people still need to be educated about even the possibility to repair a lot of items!

You are welcome to bring broken things in to our regular open evening at our makerspace in the centre of Lancaster!

New Xtools Laser Cutter in the Space!

The Space has now made available an XTools S1 Laser Cutter with 20W Diode Laser. Able to cut pine wood up to a thickness of 15mm, as well as engrave metal it includes a base for larger objects and lots of great features to ensure predictable and clean cutting and engraving.

You will need to talk to a member to be inducted in the use of any Laser Cutter, and pay a per minute charge for use, to pay for ongoing maintainance.

Free Space2 access for Lancaster University Students

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Are you a Student at Lancaster University? Would you like 24/7 access to the Space2 Makerspace?

Good news! you now have free access to the space whenever you need it. You don’t have to be an Engineer or Computer Scientist, just someone looking for a friendly and inclusive space to work on technology, art, or manufacturing projects.

To join, come to the space on any Wednesday open day and sign up as a student member, agree to the terms and conditions of the space, and attend any safety training needed for equipment. Storage space can be arranged for small projects, and specialist tools stored.

Would you like to say hello? Ask a question. Join the telegram channel and tell the other members what you are working on. Often members will meet up outside of the Wednesday sessions to work on specific projects, you might find a like-minded maker

Access to all equipment is free, except the laser cutter which is ‘pay as you go’ to fund laser servicing. The MakerSpace sometimes has free consumables such as printer resin and filament, but you may have to purchase your own.

Contact Space2 with any questions at https://lamm.space/contact/

Enabled with thanks to the financial support from the Faculty of Science and Technology, Lancaster University.

Updated Photos in ‘About’ and a New 3D printer enters the space!

If you haven’t seen the space recently, and are curious about how many abandoned laptops are scattered around (Surprisingly, not as many as last year) take a look at https://lamm.space/about/ for updated images of the space, and the new PCs, 3D printers and equipment.

We have also been given a very kind donation of a dual extruder 3D printer. It is a bit dusty, but think of the possibilities!

Another 3D Printer