Whilst there I managed to sneek a trip into Newcastle Makerspace and check out the wonderful space and community they have there.
I was lucky to end up visiting on a wednesday evening when they have a public opening evening. It was really nice and busy and extremely friendly and welcoming. They were totally happy for me to have a good look round etc.
So they have a city centre building with 2 main rooms, one which is project tables and 3dprinters and appears to be a bit of a cleaner working space and another room which has the lasercutter, and subtractive messier stuff, a nice lathe, bandsaw, pillar drill sanders and grinders etc. There's a third room with a library and computer desks and a lot of electronics test kit and then finally a kitchen and some storage areas. Here's some pics.. If you're ever in Newcastle, drop in and check em out, as I say, like (most makerspaces/hackspaces I've visited) they're darn friendly!
3dprinters making more 3d printers, mainly repraps but some makerbots too... over 20 in their network now!
Nice lab with library and computers and test equipment.
Some nice vintage space stuff on the walls :)
Hack stickers for material/stuff management!
Nice lathe retrofitted with interlocks etc.
