The cheap plywood handrail precariously nailed to the wall felt flimsy at first touch. The walls needed paint. The floor would benefit from repair. Dusty corners blew up wood chips. Welcome to the Hacktory, a community technology and experimentation space just north of Spring Garden in Fairmount.
The main attraction for Saturday's Open Hack was a somewhat-functional 3D printer. Walter Bell, a Hacktory organizer, has been here since the early afternoon. Bell takes pride in his DIY mentality. "Nowadays people don't know how to building anything," Bell explained while staring at a computer screen. We know how to work things, but we don't know how anything works. "We teach people that they can build things yourself," Bell said.
Jim Huebotter arrives. He has been coming to the Hacktory for almost a year. His past experience as a house painter leads him to adjust the saran wrap surface on the printer to provide a more stable surface for printing. After getting hooked after his first hardware class, he has stuck around to work on other little projects. Huebotter is trying to start what he deems the "slow learning movement," where learning painstakingly slow and on a need-to-know basis is acceptable.
Working at the Hacktory becomes a geek show-and-tell. As projects progress, everyone gets encouraged to share developments. Advice is shared on how to proceed. Huebotter describes it as "reverse peer pressure."
Bell's restarted the 3D printer. Huebotter looks over his shoulder. It seems to be functioning, but Bell can't say for sure. Part of the appeal is trial by error. It's a slow process.
