Joining Nottingham Hackspace (and making something)

I finally decided that I should join Nottingham Hackspace (nottinghack). There are lots of tools I would love, but either can't afford or don't have the space for. Not only this, but it is a good excuse to get out of the house, which I'm in need of these days. Joining a hackspace solves this issue, especially when it's as well stocked as Nottingham's. Joining was relatively pain-free. I attended an open night for a tour. At the end of this, they asked for my email address which sent an invitation where I could sign up and set a standing order payment.

My first project was something I'd been putting off for a long time. Shortly after I got my PDP-11/73 (in an 11/23+ chassis), the line filter capacitor became a dead-short. The IEC power socket was part of this module, so I decided to wire in a mains cord directly to the switch. This was a bit annoying because it meant I always had a long flying cable attached to the PDP-11, even when I didn't want it plugged in. I had a piece of 1.6mm steel which I cut to size using a hacksaw.

Unfortunately I am bad at measuring (apparently) and drilled the holes slightly in the wrong space. I decided to JB weld epoxy it on instead. :-) Photos below.

<2022-06-12 Sun 21:32> Update, I made another thing tonight!

Tags: hackspace