New Hackerspace facility in Baltimore, MD

We recently moved into a 1250 square foot facility and are in the process of renovating it to suit our needs. The space is located at:

6410 Landay Ave
Baltimore, MD 21237

The floors were looking pretty bad when we moved in, so we gave them a vigorous cleansing using a floor buffer and a power washer. The floors still were not up to par, so we painted the floors using acrylic floor paint and then added paint flakes to really kick it up a notch.


Painting Floors at Baltimore Hackerspace
Painting Floors at Baltimore Hackerspace

 

We need a place to work, so we built a few work benches. 40 2×4′s, 2 sheets of plywood and 2 sheets of laminate was just the right amount of wood to build 6 benches which are 32″ high x 30″ deep x 48″ long.

Photo of Work Benches

As you can see in the background, we have also moved much of our stuff into the space.  That’s not all…We have really been hard at work in making this space feel like a warm and welcoming place to hang out and learn new skills.  Paul King gave the place a slightly more social feel by adding a little graffiti to the newly renovated office wall.

Baltimore Hackerspace Graffiti

 

Maybe that should be E=I*R but does it really matter? Google ‘Ohms Law Chart’ and you mostly find V=I*R as examples. Besides, it’s only paint so we can fix that! We plan to add a lot more electronics-related graffiti to the wall. I bet that Ohms law triangle will get used more often that people think…

 

 

We got our 501(c)(3) status!

Harford Hackerspace is pleased to announce that we have received our official letter of approval from the Internal Revenue Service giving us 501(c)(3) non-profit, charitable status.

We started our adventure of becoming a charitable organization in July 2009 with the help of Nick Farr from HacDC. Nick took time out of his busy schedule to visit our Hackerspace and go through the rough draft of our IRS Form 1023. Without him we would have made a few mistakes on our form. A very special thanks goes out to you Nick.

In October 2009 we put the stamp on our envelope and sent our application to the IRS hoping for the best. A lot of hard work went into preparing the application. It’s a 26 page application and several of the questions require written responses. To keep the application reviewer from guessing at what we do we included several project examples and  took photos of us working as a group.

On January 11th 2010 we got a request for more information. Apparently this is standard procedure for all applicants. The questions were fairly straight forward and we were able to call the IRS agent directly and ask her questions. After faxing her our answers the lady quickly reviewed them and told us over the phone that she was recommending us for our 501(c)(3) status.

Today, we finally received our approval letter complete with our 501(c)(3) exemption number. It has been a long time coming but I am sure all the hard work will pay off in the near future.

Our space has been upgraded!

I know we have been pretty bad with updating our blog. However, I can assure you we are a very active hackerspace and have been building like of fun things in our Baltimore space. Over the last few weeks we received a Schlage Link Z-Wave keyless entry kit and installed it with no problems. Miles has been leading the construction of a hovercraft made from laser cut wood parts, some bolts, and a motorcycle inner tube. It works very well! Jason has brought in several little gadgets for show and tell and the CNC Machine is just about complete. It just needs a few finishing touches.

Check out the photos for a little motivation. You could be here having fun with us.  info@harfordhackerspace.org