The months of April and May were both exhausting and productive for our team. That's why we're giving you the latest insights into what's been happening.
At the end of May, Maik created a new 360° photo tour of our area. This is a good way of showing the progress we have made in the meantime. There are various ‘i’ symbols as you walk through the tour. Clicking on them will take you to the respective location comparison :-)
This is the way to get to the tour.
Our recreation area has various terms in the collection under which it is listed. This is because different areas overlap here or flow into one another. Terms for this include: main room, social room, workshop room, textile workshop, kitchen, bar, reception, exhibition, lounge, front room, presentation area, pizza lounge. On paper, there are numbers and defined terms. In everyday life, it is the people who animate the place and also characterise it with nicknames for certain zones.
What has been going on here? After several weeks of continuous work with preliminary planning, material procurement, tool repairs (when you need things that need things that need to be made whole again first), sawing, sanding and so on, our woodworkers have built a large, heavy project shelf. It was built to fit 15 large Euro boxes. Thanks to the screen printing plate, the top can be used flexibly for all sorts of things - including preparing small buffets. We are delighted that it is finally up and running.
As a result of the low-threshold refurbishment, as the jargon here likes to use, our rental unit is unfortunately full of pipes for drinking water, heating systems, etc. These are clearly dull and their metres are too many. That's why we are decorating them with various elements to enhance their appearance or make them disappear and turn them into a backdrop. It's not an easy task and it sounds trivial. But it's an imaginative one, along with its pitfalls - after we've had a long headache trying to find reversible and material-saving solutions to deal with all the routes and supports here. For example, we used coloured tape strips, artificial plants and LED strips to add a few accents to brighten up the mood and provide motivation. Only very few people can develop good ideas with concrete grey.
We are also pleased that all of our radiators now have heat cost allocators and that all furniture can finally be placed permanently in front of them - including our heavy lockers for members. Every member can have their own locker to store their private project items.
Because of the pipe topic, our info terminal now also features the famous Pipes Screensaver from the Windows 98 era. See also our last post.
There is much more to this workshop than electronics. Among other things, we combine development and repair, 3D printing and laser cutting here. In May, we received a large donation from ULT AG and, together with the private addition of a refine filter and the last remaining work, we were finally able to make our laser fully functional, which we also gave a brief update on in April. We are currently working on documenting the system for members and making it usable for beginner courses. We have also replaced various pieces of furniture and organised our material landscape for the 3D printers. All filaments and leftover materials now have a fixed place. We are also making progress with the construction of our two height-adjustable workstations. The wall shelves are already hanging and the two table frames are in place.
The cutting plotter can be used in the graphics workshop, as can a large A0 printer and our textile transfer press, as well as the mug press. Things for laminating, cutting, laminating, gluing and so on are also stored here. We have also stored various workshop materials here. The room is slowly taking shape and emptying itself of its clutter.
The band saw, circular saw and cross-cut saw were made fit again in the wood workshop. The saw blades have been freshly sharpened/re-toothed and the emergency stop switch and other parts have been repaired. They are now ready for use again. The older machines eat up a lot of small parts - starting with bent or lost screws, worn carbon brushes and so on.
First impressions count. That's why we recently installed our ancient exterior façade lighting from Philippstrasse 13, which we immediately installed and integrated into our IoT landscape after receiving authorisation from the city.
Below this, there is also a green oiled hexagon raised bed in our care. This was built in a joint venture with the Museum für Naturkunde Chemnitz and the Holzkombinat and given to us to look after. We think it's very fitting because the MufNa is right next door. Planted in it is a hazelnut seedling, which we were recently able to get hold of at the side of the road in Kaßberg (yeah!), as well as a few flowers and a rosemary.
We also had spontaneous noise and access problems, but it was worth it. We got the first section levelled for wheelchair and pallet truck access and a good chunk of old concrete was replaced with a natural stone paving variant. We like it very much.
Our Tino has realised himself with the foil plot and stuck dominant letters in the door, which are also clearly visible from the outside. We are experimenting with the long-distance effect and are curious to see whether we will be found more easily by parcel deliverers in the future ^^.
We don't just work in the Stadtwirtschaft. We also maintain our networks, annual works and projects. Among other things, we have once again decorated a large art frame for the Hat Festival - with the doves that have been folded by hard-working peace folders in previous years. We were also able to fold a large number of new doves with the help of a hard-working FSJ team from Rhineland-Palatinate. We would like to thank Tina Winkel and her colleagues for their courageous organisation and welcome. The space and the atmosphere helped to create a good mood and productive results. The frame can still be found in the Rosenhof until 01.06.2025.
Mario (me) was also in Nuremberg for the second Inkscape Summit 2025 and the Libre Graphics Meeting. I spent a whole week there with long-time Inkscape developers from all over the world and was part of the big picture. Among other things, we worked together on an extension proposal that will replace the current approach of the internal extension manager in the distant future. One of the big results is that the MightyScape documentation is completely available again after we had to take it offline at the end of 2023 due to a server hack.
I have also met many people that I have discovered again and again on Gitlab because they have built helpful extensions or bug fixes or features in the core of the software. Getting to know the people behind the digital nickname is always an enrichment that is irreplaceable for a community. The LGM also provided plenty of input on Blender, Gimp, Krita and other tools that we use in the association and whose use we also promote ourselves - in other words, good networking.
The first projects are slowly emerging in our workshop. Together with the Chaostreff next door, an arcade gaming machine has been created. Here is a video of Marcel. It will probably be travelling to Hanover for this year's Maker Faire.
Comments