Adafruit donates its first pick and place machine to NYC Resistor Hackerspace @nycresistor
Today is a sad day and a very happy day here at Adafruit. We have donated our first pick and place machine (MDC 7722FV) to the New York City Hackerspace, NYC Resistor. It’s odd to say we will miss a machine, but we do, we’re sure there are many makers that also feel this way about their equipment, it’s very possible to be very fond of a machine and have feelings for it.
Adafruit doesn’t have funding or loans, the purchase of our first pick and place was a really big deal for us. We sacrificed a lot, saved and saved until we could afford it and paid for it in full. It was the most expensive thing we ever purchased in our lives. We worked hard to teach ourselves how to use it and we were able to get Adafruit to an $8m company with just this pick and place in our apartment/live-work space. 4 years later we now have our new Samsung Techwin SMT SM482.
We didn’t want to sell the machine, we wanted to give it to someone (or some group) that celebrates sharing, learning and open source. We also think hackerspaces have the potential to become the next manufacturing hubs in cities, we think we can help that process happen by donating this machine to a hackerspace. NYC Resistor is not a non-profit, we’re straight up giving this to them and we’re really excited to see what cool hardware and businesses may come out of having access to this machine.
NYC Resistor is a hacker collective with a shared space located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn. We meet regularly to share knowledge, hack on projects together, and build community.
Here are some photos and blog posts. Good bye friend, you’re off to new adventures, we will miss you!
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You never cease to amaze me. I remember driving with you to PA to look at that machine…followed by some pretty bad locally sourced pizza. Many companies allow their ‘less-used’ (can’t really call it old) machines die a slow death in the corner. Congratulations on being different.
You never cease to amaze me. I remember driving with you to PA to look at that machine…followed by some pretty bad locally sourced pizza. Many companies allow their ‘less-used’ (can’t really call it old) machines die a slow death in the corner. Congratulations on being different.