FabLab Coventry and its Eco furniture factory are two community maker spaces, capable of producing almost anything (small products to the size of a small house), within an informal welcoming environment that is open to all. We provide existing and budding makers with access to over £200,000 of manufacturing equipment and associated skills and qualifications, which is accessible to local citizens, makers and SMEs to produce products. We support local people to learn the skills they need to both design and make products and deliver a number of accredited courses which encourage the uptake of careers and start-up businesses in design, manufacturing, engineering and physical trades.
FabLab Coventry and its Eco furniture factory are two community maker spaces, capable of producing almost anything (small products to the size of a small house), within an informal welcoming environment that is open to all. We provide existing and budding makers with access to over £200,000 of manufacturing equipment and associated skills and qualifications, which is accessible to local citizens, makers and SMEs to produce products. We support local people to learn the skills they need to both design and make products and deliver a number of accredited courses which encourage the uptake of careers and start-up businesses in design, manufacturing, engineering and physical trades.
Machine Hire
To hire our machines / tools you will be required to have a machine and health and safety induction.
To make our equipment most accessible, all hire costs are at a lower than industry standard rate. You will be required to cover the cost of your materials, if purchased from us, alternatively, we can advise you on where to source your material locally.
Items for hire
3D Printers
Laser Cutter
Vinyl Printer
CNC Machine
Woodwork Tools
See further details below and complete a contact form, to enquire about machine hire.
3D Printing
We own 5 3D printers, 4 Ultimaker 2Go, 1 Makerbot replicator 5
Print Sizes:
The largest print size we can print to is 250mm x 200mm x 135mm
Printable Files:
All printers require a .stl file to work from – this is a 3D model file, for help building your own 3D model you can attend one of our free introductory classes in 3D modelling.
The 3D printers are standalone machines, the .stl file(s) needs to be loaded onto a memory stick
Usable Materials:
Our 3D printers can only print using PLA and use a single extrusion head. We have a selection of filament colours on offer.
Red
Pink
Yellow
Orange
Green
Silver
Laser Cutting
We own 1 laser cutter, a Whitetooth A1 Laser Cutter.
Cutting Sizes:
The largest size we can laser is 840mm x 560mm
Lasering Files:
The laser cutter requires a .ai or .dxf file to work from – this works from vector drawings, for help designing you own vector graphics for cutting, you can attend one of our *free Digital Fabrication courses. Sign up for the course here
Please note, we are not able to accept any files with hatching in the design.
Useable Materials:
Materials you can use on this machine are:
Perspex
Matt Board
Laser ply
**Please note: MDF and Laser MDF is NOT permitted to be cut on our laser cutter**
Vinyl Cutting
We have 1 Roland Camm GS-24 and 4 Silhouette Cameos.
Cutting Sizes:
The largest size we can cut to is 570mm x 5m
Cutting Files:
The vinyl cutter requires an .ai or .svg file to work from – this works from vector drawings, for help designing you own vector graphics for cutting, you can attend one of our *free Digital Fabrication courses. Sign up for the course here
Minimum height of text is 6mm, anything smaller than this will not be cut.
Usable Materials:
Materials you can use on this machine are:
Paper
Card
Vinyl
Cloth
CNC Milling
We own 1 CNC milling machine, a Roland SRM-20.
Milling Sizes:
The largest size we can mill to is
200mm x 150mm x 60mm
Milling Files:
The milling machine requires a 3D modelling file to work from, for help building your own 3D model, you can attend one of our free introductory classes in 3D modelling.
Usable Materials:
Materials you can use for CNC milling are:
Modelling wax
Wood
Plastic
Foam
Material is charged by volume in mm²
Woodwork
We have a variety of woodworking tools available including:
Table Saw
Planer Thicknesser
Pillar Drill
Band Saw
Various other hand tools
The woodworking area requires a pre booked induction, which will take about 1 and a half hours to complete prior to any work being undertaken – this must be arranged prior to turning up to ensure our Woodworking expert is available to conduct and induction.
Materials you can use on this machine are:
Wood
For woodworking only you can source your own materials to suit your needs, we do have a selection of stock MDF in various thicknesses you can purchase from us.
Repair Cafes
We host monthly Repair Cafes – keep an eye on our latest news and social media for upcoming dates.
We can help repair:
Textiles – clothes and small items
Advice and fix:
Broken Furniture
Bikes
Small electrical items
and much more!
Technical Support
Our staff and volunteers have the creative flair to create designs within branding guidelines and design briefs, providing innovative solutions. Over the last few years we have developed a number of key products which are resourceful, making best use of reclaimed and recycled materials. We create bespoke pieces of art and products utilising the skills, knowledge and creativity of our team and have used manufacturing processes that support the use of recycled or repurposed materials where possible, supporting the need to address climate change and champion a circular economy.
Examples include, street signage, keyrings, shopfront vinyl, shop signage, stools, sandwich boards, t-shirts, mugs, small 3d printed figures, a guitar and small pieces of furniture, a large portable structure – the chapel of many holding 90 removable chairs and many others.
We make laser cut, 3D printed and vinyl based products in our Digital Fabrication lab and unique woodwork products in our Eco Furniture Factory.