20260131 Plenum

The Plenum is a regular meeting of all people involved with the space to talk about things and decide stuff. If you have any topics to add, go right ahead! Please sign your points with your name (by adding a "--~~~~" after your text).

After the Plenum, please follow the tasks outlined in Cycling the Plenum to archive the discussion.

Preamble

• The Plenum is an institution to decide what the space should look like, physically and in other ways, such as virtually.
• Things concerning the space should be discussed at a plenum.
• Everyone on-site can participate in that process, member or otherwise.
• Everyone can lead a plenum; no need for board members to do that.
• Topics should ideally be announced on the Plenum wiki page beforehand.
• The Plenum should be held in a language that everyone participating understands.
• Scheduling: Second Thursday of the month at 8 pm and the last Saturday after the cleanup (which starts at 4 PM)
• Plenums should be no longer than 90 minutes.

Next Plenum: Thursday, 31.01.2026 at 17:30

Topics for the Plenum

What are you currently working on?

• Milian: Light Projects, Cleaning Up the Space
• Peter: Toying around with DJI FPV stuff, maybe even frankensteining his own, cleaning out his parents' flat
• Adrian: Cleaning out the Basement, Cooking some food :)
• Nico: Some woodworking stuff like building a shelf or a bed
• Sven: Cleaning out some space for the screen printing setup, Printing a grip for an archery bow
• Hannah: Stained glass light box
• Chris B.: Cleaning out his storage box, still working on the Minijob Board
• Phier: Having fun with ESPhome and Home Assistant; Preparing the CNC auction
• Marco: Conducting Workshops, improving them and building a 40k combat patrol board
• Daren: Building a shelving system, and a LoRa Pet Tracker
• Sascha: Making split keyboards; smart pocket lights for Energy for Ukraine

Say thank you

• Everyone who helped at the cleanup
• Phier for testing our laser ventilation system
• Aaron for the next workshop for the embroidery machine
• Milian for some first refreshment in the electronics corner
• Milian for replacing the broken part and re-sorting of the machine screw sorting boxes shelf
• Phier for repairing and labeling the Filament dryer
• Phier for fixing the right slingshot in the pinball machine
• Phier for preparing the CNC sale

Projects & Groups update

This is a quick update from group meetings at our space, other long-term space projects (e.g., Lasercutter, CNC, etc.) or of the lab internal projects.

Laser Cutter ventilation system test

At the last Laser Cutter Maintenance day (19.1.) I did a test where I shortened the tube to the vacuum. Instead of using the existing pipe it went through the tube directly down to the pit, basically cutting the length in half.

Pictures and videos are in #laser-cutter-maintenance (Slack). It didn't have the effect (getting a much better air flow) as I expected. So for now I would leave the tubing as it is and try other methods to get the fumes faster out of the laser chamber (e.g. connecting a better air compressor).

More help on maintaining the Laser Cutter is highly appreciated. Just join #laser-cutter-maintenance on Slack --Phier

Kreativlabor Open Festival is this year on 19.-21. Juni 2026

We need someone who takes over the organization. There will be not much to do in the beginning, just staying in the loop with the organizer team from the Kreativlabor area. Milian organized our program last year and can assist if necessary.

Channel for the event: #kreativlaboropen

-- Milian

Corso Leopold

In the past the Munich Maker Lab also partipicated on the Corso Leopold

This year it's on two weekends:

• 20./21. Juni 2026
• 12./13. September 2026

Unfortunately, the first date overlaps with the Kreativlabor Open, but maybe we could participate on the second date?

=> plan to participate in the event in september

-- Milian

MVHS: Offene Werkstätten und "Critical Making": Zukünfte vor Ort gestalten

On 03.02.2026 (6-7PM) there will be a course for external people in our lab by Severin and David to present the concept of open workshops. The space will be usable during that time, but it make sense to avoid loud work. This workshop was taking place also one or two times in the previous years. -- Milian

Invite Teamwerk Open Workshop

We got an invite from the Teamwerk Open Workshop in Aschheim for a future exchange between workshops on the 12.02.2026, open to everyone, not just board members. I’ll be attending and would appreciate if there would be a regular meetup rotating between different spaces. -- Milian

Energy saving project

Light

• Since we're now paying per kWh for the electricity we should consider saving some energy. One main consumer are the old halogen lamps. Should we start a project of replacing them with LED?

Can they easily replaced with LED tubes? My last info was that it's not that easy because of the electronics (starter) before the lamps!?

If we decide to change them we should also consider to make "areas" which are separately switchable. Community-, living room-, kitchen+electronics - area (no more lights above workshop and laser lounge).

Do we want motion sensors for the areas in addition to ordinary light switches? --Phier

Outcome discussion:

• We assume that they can just get replaced, just remember that you need to change the starter

• We'll buy one LED tube as a test and see if it explodes :)

• Make sure to not buy the Ultra Blue ones, the ones we have are too harsh already

Drinks Fridge

• Our drinks fridge is far away from being energy efficient. We want to replace it with a better one. If someone knows someone who knows ... who has a big fridge without glass door, please let us know. --Phier

Outcome discussion: If we get a good one cheap, we should replace it. => plan to ask in general about it.

Test some more cozy light

Sometimes it would be nice to have some more cozy athmosphäre in the lab and not always the bright light. Other clubs like MuCCC have much more this athmosphäre.

Idea: There is this warm white leftover fairylight at our outside wall. We could use it for a test and hang it over the community area and the living room and check, if this would be a nice solution for cozy lighting on event days. Request to make a test --Milian

=> approved

Status big CNC

• Sorting stuff out --> done. It's currently on Free To Take
• eBay auction is planned to run from 12.2. till 22.2. --Phier

Fire Extinguishers

Our fire extinguishers need to be checked every two years or replaced. It’s time again, and we want to improve the setup a bit:

Ideas:

• Switch to foam-based extinguishers, since most of our current ones are ABC powder, which isn’t great indoors.
• Add a typ ABF extinguisher for the kitchen
• Get a metal box with sand for the electronics area, since we’re repairing more devices with LiPo cells.
• Get a dedicated CO₂ extinguisher for the electronics corner; currently, we’re using some from the recycling group.

Practical points:

• We need at least 2 extinguishers, but ideally 4 for the different areas.
• For the laser cube, CO₂ would be practical, but too risky due to asphyxiation in the small room.
• Foam extinguishers are more expensive, especially PFAS-free ones (the PFAS type will soon be banned).
• Old extinguishers are still usable privately - we’ll offer them to members (free to take, donations welcome).
• In two years, we want to have the new ones inspected by a company (approx. €100–200).
• Renting of these devices is also possible, but is as expensive as buying new ones

Summary

• Buy 3 foam extinguishers and one for ABF— 275€ (Costs are part of our regular operational budget ( likeinsurance, rent, etc.)
• Buy sand box -> + 50€ + up to 20€ for Sand (if we get it now for free) = 70€

-- Milian & Adrian

=> Approved

Workshop

workshop safety safety course PDF

• find three or four people to review it
• after review I would : put it on the wiki, print out and laminate one example for the shop
• pdf file is uploaded: "Workshop Safety Introduction V1 PDF"

Workshop improvement project (very quick)

• Will show list and first drafts next Plenum
• Perfect time to post your ideas in slack channel workshop-improvement-project

-- Marco

Vorstand updates

Regarding the new rental contracts and increased rent costs:

• We are now part of the group represented by the lawyer.
• We’re essentially in limbo right now without a fixed contract.
• As recommended, we continue to pay the old rent to MGH, but they are only sending it back ot us at the moment
• We got now the proposal for the new renting contract, with the already known higher costs, but also quite bad conditions, which officially would make even more workshop activities (like painting stuff) a grey zone.
• Since this affects also all the other parties on the area, it's also a topic which is discussed by the protest.
• We hope to get some discount on the rent long term (e.g. no "Mehrwertsteuerschaden") and a contract that fit better to what we are actually doing
• It’s currently completely unclear what will happen next. There was a meeting with the lawer and the MGH, and also a meeting of the so called "Strategiekreis" together with the citiy. We haven't received updates so far.
• More details are in slack in #future-of-the-kreativlabor

-- Milian

Status missing Member fees

• Current member list is up to date (162 paying Member)
• General topic still highly delayed
• One more month identified that is missing. All affected month: Aug23, Sep23, Oct23, Nov23, Apr24, May24, Jun24, Jul24 = Sum 8 month
• Member who are affected are filtered out now
• Next step: Sending out information to all affected members (by David & Karl)

-- Milian

Financial update and budget for the year

With the recent issue of missing membership fees, the upcoming new rental contract, and rising costs for heating and electricity, our available budget for consumables, operations, and new purchases is smaller than in previous years. The long-term costs are still uncertain, so we need to plan carefully.

Current idea:

We have a rough financial plan covering our income (membership fees and donations) and our typical yearly expenses. We also have a good overview of last year’s purchases. Based on this, we’ll keep a soft budget in mind and communicate updates regularly.

• Purchases 2025: €4,600 – does not include some items paid out in early 2026 (e.g. the laser chiller).
• Soft budget 2026: €5,000
• Current spending: €950 (excluding laser material, which should refinance itself; including stuff from 2025).
• Special budget for bigger updates like new CNC or Second Floor: We are probably still able to invest in some bigger investments, but this will only be possible, if the back payment of membership dues has success.

If you’d like to see the details, just ping me - I have all tables available. I’m also preparing an overview of income and expenses, but a few items still need to be calculated (e.g. the fire extinguisher purchase or some of our club memberships).

-- Milian

Outcome discussion:

It would be nice to check out more possibilities about company supporting us or orther ways to get financial or material support. We have already a wiki page for ideas: Finanzierung

If more poeple are interested we should create a channel to support options and continue with this topic.

Updated Homepage and Onboarding Material

Over the last year I updated a lot of Material in the wiki and on the homepage.

The most important parts are the

• Homepage: Explain more about the club, who we are and how to join. Would be still great to update the design a bit more and the pictures. Help highly appreciated.
• FAQ: Answer typical questions we get via Mail
• Onboarding: Make more clear the steps
• Welcome Mail: Extend the most important information

=> Please help to review the content and give feedback. Especially, if you are new and something was not really clear.

-- Milian

Update Law & Order

We have a few topics around our outdoor area, that should be more clear in our law and order, especially since our renting situation got more strict. We live this already and it's part of our "Hausordnung"/Rental contract, but should write it clearly down it in our law and order to avoid confusion.

I added this as proposal:

House Rules and Site Guidelines

We follow a few simple rules to keep a great relationship with our landlord and neighbors: Avoid noisy work outdoors, especially at night, our neighbors host guests who might be sleeping. No storage of highly flammable materials, chemicals, or loose lithium batteries (not installed in devices) in the space and never dispose batteries in the trash. No usage of chemical liquids or paint in the yard, especially automotive fluids like oil. Full outdoor rules here: Space/Yard

Full context: Law and Order

-- Milian

=> approved

Get Involved

If you want to be mentioned at the previous section as well, one of the easiest ways is to take one of our MiniJobs or to get involved in one of our Lab Projects.

This is a great way to participate in the Munich Maker Lab and contributing time helps to keep our space in a good shape.

Current key topics looking for additional support:

• Mini Jobs: We need more people who support the space drive by, by cleaning specific areas or helping e.g. with the trash or supplies. At the moment it's quite unbalanced
• Doing introduction courses: 3D printing, Lasercutter or CNC. No expert knowledge necessary, since we mostly teach the basics. It's more important to have fun teaching others and to support self-organized on a long term basis.
• Social Media: It would be great to get more people involved. Our external presence is especially important right now amid discussions about the Kreativlabor - it's key to showcase to the world the amazing work happening in our space and why it's worth supporting.

Note on 3D Printing Courses

If you are interested in holding 3D printing introductory courses, get in touch with Aaron!

• You will need to use the ticketing system admin interface yourself to create an Event that is suitable for you. For that you need an account that you can get from me (and of course I will give instructions too)
• As for the intro itself, there is no strict form: We mostly only introduced the Bambulabs in last year, going over the rules, and answering general questions about filament tradeoffs and so on. We also usually printed a small demo piece, I can give more context if needed.

--Aaron

Stuff from the past

What was discussed at the last Plenum? What's the current status of those things? 20260108 Plenum

• New scale for filament arrived. It's in the 3D printer shelf.
• New wood saw (Fuchsschwanz) arrived. It's in the workshop in the saw box.
• Spare parts for the pinball arrived. Put into the box beneath the pinball machine.
• Status: Precious Plastic Injection Moulding machine? Storage usage of precious plastic in the basement?
  => Severin and David will check the stuff on the weekend or on Tuesday.

Anything you don't feel comfortable with within the space? What would you like to change or to be changed?

Storage Boxes and sorted out stuff

• discuss deadline and what to do with the stuff, that has been sorted out on the cleanup day.

• discuss deadline, if people do not pay there storage boxes.
• discuss mood picture for rising prices for storage boxes
• compare also Nico's topic at the bottom about storage boxes

--> Decision: A whole stroage box will bei 80,-€ starting in March 2026 (so 20,-€ for a quarter box).

--> Chuck out the old laptops on top of storage boxes => will be taken by the electric tree project first and then remaining stuff goes to recycling center

--> other Personal stuff from the top of the storage boxes needs to got and are also available until the next cleanup and will then be free2take

--> Member boxes got also sorted out for boxes who seems to belon

Screen Printing Machine (Siebdruckmaschine)

The reaction of the members present on last saturday, when I did a testprint in the lab, was positive towards the screen printing machine.

I checked what is stored on top of the Project/Member-boxes at the moment. Some things seem to be there since the move.

I suggest we sort the stuff on the boxes on the next clean up and decide what can be disposed to make space for the machine.

--Svenson

--> Put all related stuff into boxes and label it properly so we know it belongs to the printing machine

--> Wiki Article necessary to make clear we have this machine and to get a starting point

--> Approved

Storage box

As far as I know Kinky-DIY has ia free storage box since 2018 as they were doing workshops which is some kind of marketing for us and we got some donations from them. There are no workshops anymore and they opened their own Makerspace last year. As it's not actively being used, there is no longer a good cause and no benefit for us I'm voting that the storage box should be emptied out. --Nico

=> Adrian will contact him, he'll has time until the next Cleanup to get the stuff out.

Bitcoin Wallet Workshop

I am relaying a request by Finn/Schnuartz for a Bitcoin hardware wallet workshop. If approved, I (Aaron) can add it to the calendar. The date would be Wednesday, February 11th at 19:00. I checked and there are no conflicts. Proposed title and description:

Specter Shield Lite assembling Workshop

Description:

Build your very own Bitcoin Hardware Wallet. Guided though Schnuartz every participant builds together their very own Specter Shield Lite Hardware Wallet, mainly only from Off-The-Shelf Components. The device features a big touchscreen, interchangable Secure Elements in Smartcard Form, for multiple Wallets and operates fully air-gapped via QR-Codes. The device is fully Opensource and Bitcoin only.

=> approved

Gardening Update

For this year's gardening efforts I'd like to add two new planters to the yard. They will be on Euro Palettes like the other ones, using the black ones we are storing below the network/IT cabinet. Planter #1 will be on castors so it can be moved for better car access. Planter #2 is planned to replace the slightly rotting Bench made out of palettes. Both new planters will use two Palettenrahmen (like most of the existing ones, only the corner planter is four Palettenrahmen high). Between the corner planter and planter #2 (i.e. behind the long bench) I also plan to add a scaffolding for beans to grow over and make the area even more green. If the costs for the soil are worth it will be decided at a later date, this decision is only about replacing/throwing away the old bench and the general idea of putting more planters in the yard. If people want to keep the old bench for now, I think we can make something work by turning it 90 degrees and putting #2 behind it. --Aaron

=> approved

Proposition of putting two new planters in the yard

Things to Buy

• RGB LED 5mm and some magnets to fill op our LED rocket vending machine (Up to 20€) and approval that we use 1 or 2 mdf sheets to cut new wooden rockets. -- Milian => approved
• A few things from the hardware store: One last deadbolt for the laser lounge hatch. 2x handle for the mitre saw table to grab and move it easily. 15,-€ --Phier => approved

Request for online participation

If necessary, you can request to participate remotely (via jitsi). Please briefly describe why you want to participate remotely and what topic you want to discuss. (additionally to adding the topic on top!)