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Repair Club: Lamps Edition – Shedding a Little Light on Lamp Repair

We are trying something a little different at TOG with a new event format we are calling Repair Club.

Inspired by the work of Circular Square in Clonmel, this is a bit different from our usual Repair Café model. Instead of bringing along broken items for fixing, Repair Club is more like a focused class or workshop where we take one repair topic and explore it in more detail.

For our first session, we are starting with lamps.

We will be looking at common faults, how to test them safely, and some of the repairs you can carry out once you know what has gone wrong. That includes more than just the electrical side of things. We will also look at glueing, rewiring, testing, and the kind of practical fixes that often come up when bringing an old lamp back into use.

This event will be half class, half discussion, and half people standing around a lamp saying, “go on, try that there.” The idea is to share skills, compare notes, and build confidence around fixing things.

This is also a bit of an experiment for us. We want to see how this format works and whether it might become something we can repeat with other topics in future. There is no shortage of everyday objects that deserve their own repair night.

The event is taking place as part of Dublin Climate Action Week, which makes it a great fit. Repair is one of the simplest ways to reduce waste, keep useful things in use for longer, and help more people feel confident about understanding and maintaining the objects around them.

This session will be led by Jeffrey Roe, an engineer, maker, and long-time TOG member who has spent years running workshops, Repair Cafés, and hands-on events that help people build practical skills.

Event Details

Date: Thursday, 14 May
Time: 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm
Location: TOG Hackerspace
Cost: €5 via Eventbrite, with the fee going as a donation to TOG

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/repair-club-lamps-edition-shedding-a-little-light-on-lamp-repair-tickets-1987020952157?aff=oddtdtcreator

If you are curious about repair, want to learn a bit more about fault-finding, or just fancy trying something new, this should be a good way to spend an evening at the space.

And if this goes well, we would love to run more Repair Clubs in future. If there is a repair topic you would like to see covered, or if you would like to lead one yourself, please let us know. There is always something worth taking apart, figuring out, and bringing back to life.

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TOG heading to Shannon for the IRTS AGM Weekend

We’re packing up a few projects and heading west for the IRTS AGM Weekend in Shannon on Saturday 18th and Sunday 19th April.

This year’s 93rd AGM weekend is being hosted by the Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club, and it looks like it will be a great weekend of radio, chats, workshops, technical talks, the rally, and of course, the AGM itself.

On Sunday, TOG Hackerspace will have a table at the rally where we’ll be showing off some projects from the hackerspace, chatting about what we get up to, and catching up with radio friends from around the country. If you’re around, please do drop over and say hello. We always enjoy talking radios, making, workshops, and the odd slightly mad project.

We’re also delighted to see TOG members Daniel McDowell EI8ICB and Ana Cañizares EI5IXB among the nominees for the IRTS committee in the upcoming AGM, with our own Jeffrey Roe EI7IRB standing for the role of President. TOG Hackerspace wishes them the very best, along with all of the other candidates putting themselves forward.

Because one radio outing in a weekend is never enough, a few of us will also be in Shannon on the Friday evening to try our first-ever Bunkers on the Air Ireland activation. The plan is to activate the Shannon Airport defence artillery sites B/EI-0151 and B/EI-0152.

EIBOTA is the Irish branch of WWBOTA, an amateur radio activity built around activating historic bunker sites, so it feels like a very fitting way to kick off the weekend. If you’d like to join us for the bunker activation on Friday, get in touch with us in advance. It would be great to have a few more people along for the fun.

It should be a lovely weekend all round, with a bit of portable operating, a bit of history, plenty of radio chat, and a chance to bring TOG on the road again. Fair play to the Limerick Clare Amateur Radio Club for hosting it, and we’re looking forward to seeing plenty of familiar faces in Shannon.

For the full weekend details, have a look at the official IRTS AGM page and the LCARC AGM weekend page.

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We’ve a New 3D Printer at TOG

We’re delighted to say that TOG Hackerspace has a new 3D printer in the space.

The printer was kindly donated to us by supporters who would prefer to stay anonymous, and we want to say a sincere thank you for the gift. Donations like this make a real difference in a community space like TOG, giving members more tools to learn with, experiment with, and build exciting projects.

Our latest addition is a Prusa Core One L, a large enclosed printer with a generous build area, and it’s already up and running. After a bit of unboxing, setup, first prints, and making some very important “do not scrape the bed” signs, it has quickly become a great new tool for members to try out.

For anyone into making, fixing, prototyping, or learning something new, this gives us even more room to experiment. Whether you want to print a replacement part, make an enclosure for an electronics project, or finally try out an idea that has been sitting on your laptop for ages, now is a great time to jump in.

3D printing in TOG is very much a community thing. Some members are happy designing parts from scratch, others are just getting started, and there is usually someone around to help you get from “I have an idea” to “look, it actually printed”.

And yes, before anyone asks, printing a duck was always going to happen. It would be a bit odd for TOG to get a new printer and not make at least one duck with it.

If you’d like to give it a go, come along to our Maker Night every second Monday at 7pm. It’s a good chance to meet people, ask questions, get help with your first print, and see what else is being made around the space.

We’re looking forward to seeing what people create with it.

Check out our gallery for more here.

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April Repair Café

Got something broken at home that you have been meaning to sort out for a while?

Maybe it is a lamp that has gone dark, a toy that has stopped doing toy things, a kitchen gadget that has packed it in, or a jacket that is hanging on by optimism alone. Instead of letting it rattle around in a press for another six months, bring it along to our next Repair Café at TOG Hackerspace.

We will be hosting the event on Saturday 11th April 2026, from 12 noon to 4pm, in TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12. Tickets are free, but booking ahead really helps us plan the day.

A Repair Café is a chance to bring along broken or worn items and sit down with volunteer fixers to see what can be done. Sometimes the repair is quick. Sometimes it takes a bit of testing, fiddling, tightening, stitching, glueing, soldering, or thoughtful staring. Sometimes, the item makes it very clear that it has other plans. But even then, you usually come away knowing a bit more than when you arrived.

That is part of what makes a Repair Café different. It is not a drop-off service where your item vanishes into the back room. You stay with it, chat through the issue, and get to see what is involved in trying to bring it back to life. It is about repair, but it is also about sharing skills, building confidence, and showing that plenty of everyday items still have a bit more life left in them.

What can you bring?

You can bring along things like:

  • Clothes and accessories
  • Toys
  • Small electrical appliances and electronics
  • Small furniture

And usually a few other bits besides.

There is always a good mix on the day. Some things arrive with an obvious fault, some arrive in several emotional pieces, and some arrive with the immortal phrase, “It was working grand until…” We cannot promise miracles, but we do enjoy a challenge.

Why bother?

Because a surprising number of things do not need to be replaced. They just need a bit of time, attention, and somebody willing to open them up and have a look.

Repairing things keeps useful items in use for longer, saves money, reduces waste, and helps people learn practical skills that are too easy to lose. It is also a genuinely nice way to spend an afternoon: a room full of people helping each other, cups of tea, odd screws on tables, and the occasional round of applause when something suddenly starts working again.

Event details

When: Saturday 11th April 2026, 12 noon to 4 pm
Where: TOG Hackerspace, Unit 1B Motor City, Kylemore Road, Dublin 12
Tickets: Free, but please book in advance

Book your free ticket here:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/repair-cafe-tickets-1980452469649

This event is supported by Dublin Maker, and we are delighted to have their support again for another afternoon of community repair.

So if you have something broken, worn out, or just acting up, bring it along and we will see what can be done.

And if you would like to be a fixer or volunteer at a future Repair Café, we would love to hear from you. We are always glad to have more people involved, whether that is helping with repairs, welcoming visitors, keeping the tea flowing, or making sure the day runs smoothly. If that sounds like your kind of thing, please get in touch.

Come by, fix something, learn something, and help us keep a few more things out of the bin.

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POTA on Easter Monday from Ticknock

We’re heading out for another Parks on the Air activation on Easter Monday, 6 April.

If you have not come across POTA before, it is all about bringing amateur radio into the great outdoors, setting up in a qualifying park, and making contacts from the field. We did a quieter test run on Bull Island recently and it went well, so this time we are opening it up to the wider TOG community and the public. You can see a few photos from the last outing here.

We will meet at 10:30 am at the Ticknock café and then head off to find a good place to set up and operate. The activation will take place from Ticknock Forest in the Dublin Mountains, and we expect to be on air for around two hours. You can read more about the area on the Dublin Mountains website.

You are very welcome to come along, help out, and even have a go on the radio using the club callsign EI0TOG. Jeffrey Roe, EI7IRB, will be leading the activation.

Jeffrey is planning to cycle out, but there is parking nearby too. And if radio is not really your thing, or you do not want to stay for the whole activation, Ticknock has plenty of walks so you can still join us for part of the outing.

After the POTA activation, there are also the IRTS 70cm Counties Contest and IRTS 2m Counties Contest running, so anyone who wants to keep the radio fun going is welcome to do that too.

As always, this one is weather-dependent. If the conditions are awful, we will give it a miss rather than spend another Monday getting soaked.

If you are thinking of coming along, please let us know. We hope to see some of you there in person or hear from you on the bands.

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Dublin Maker 2026 – Open Call Now Live!

The 14th Dublin Maker is on the horizon, and it’s shaping up to be bigger and better than ever.

This year’s event takes place at Leopardstown Racecourse on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd August 2026, with a full weekend of creativity, invention, innovation, and hands-on making.

If you’ve ever built something, fixed something, hacked something together, or just have an idea you want to share — this is your chance to be part of it.

👉 Check out the open call and apply here: https://dublinmaker.ie/open-call/

Made by the Community, for the Community

Dublin Maker is entirely powered by its open call. Every exhibit, demo, and project comes from makers putting their ideas out into the world — which is what gives it that brilliant mix of creativity, curiosity, and a bit of chaos.

From electronics and repair to art, crafts, science, and the wonderfully hard-to-explain — it all fits.

What We Got Up To Last Year

Tog Hackerspace has been a community partner of Dublin Maker from the very beginning, and it’s always one of the highlights of our year.

Last year we brought along a range of projects, including our Reverse Hammer Machine — a strength tester inspired by old carnival games, but with a bit of a twist. Instead of swinging a hammer, players had to pull upwards on a rope, with their strength measured in real time and displayed for everyone to see.

It turned into a proper crowd-puller (literally), with people lining up to compete, compare scores, and try beat their friends. The LED strip climbing as you pulled — and the numbers jumping up on the big screen — made it instantly competitive and great fun to watch.

That’s really what Dublin Maker is all about: a mix of hardware hacking, coding, design, and a bit of playful madness that gets people talking, laughing, and getting involved.

Thinking of Applying?

We’re already looking forward to this year — both to bring along new builds and to see what the wider maker community comes up with.

So if you’ve been thinking about applying, take this as your sign.

Build something. Share it. Be part of it.

👉 Apply now: https://dublinmaker.ie/open-call/