SANE Makerspace Holden Hill review | SA’s Great Travel Planner

Unleash your creative side using someone else’s tools in their workshop.

I spend a lot of time watching other people make stuff on YouTube. I’m a big fan of the maker movement and I’m mad keen to start creating stuff of my own. Problem is, like most people, my house doesn’t allow for a huge amount of equipment and a dedicated workshop full of expensive, bulky machinery. I thought I was doomed to just watching YouTube clips for the rest of my life and live vicariously through creative geniuses like Jimmy Diresta, Kyle Toth and Matthias Wandel.

That all changed when my wife bought me a month pass to SANE Makerspace at Holden Hill for Christmas. This place is a maker or hobbyist’s dream. Imagine your high school tech centre, packed with all the woodworking and metalworking gear you can dream of.

Then add a computer room for creating files to print on a 3D printer, cut onto wood, plastic or leather on a laser cutter, or run through a CNC router.

I was like a kid in a candy store. I didn’t know where to start. Thankfully owner Matt Stojko was there to guide me on my quest, and we started by getting the safety run down out of the way. This whole thing is his brainchild. His and his wife Laura’s, actually.

Matt’s a jack of all trades. He’s a shipwright, so he has the construction side of things down, and he’s also worked in photography and product development, so he’s got a good grasp of the latest digital technologies and electronics. Which comes in handy because I’m keen as mustard to get cracking with the 3D printer and the laser cutter.

There are a range of tools and equipment to use at SANE Makerspace.

The thing is I have no idea where to start. Not a problem, as Matt is happy to help me every step of the way. Or not, if I don’t want him to. That’s the cool thing about him. He’s passionate, but he’ll be as hands on or as hands off as you like.

The whole reason he started SANE is because he wanted to be involved in a space where people can gather, work together or independently, and develop their skills, while helping others and sharing their advice along the way.

The workshop itself is well set out. There’s a woodworking corner with a lathe, a table saw, a band saw, thicknessers, sanders and all the hand tools you need to lose yourself in a project.

Then there’s the metalwork area with welders, a plasma cutter, various cutting and grinding machines, and a metal lathe. I would go on to use this machine, rather reluctantly, I’ll admit (wood was more my thing, going in) to turn a rather beautiful aluminium spinning top.

That bug bit, and I’m keen to go back and try my hand at ring making. There are also sewing machines, leatherwork equipment, electronic equipment, a vinyl cutter, an airbrushing booth and the item Matt says cops more of a hammering than any other in the shop – the laser cutter.

Matt Stojko with a 3-D printed dinosaur at SANE Makerspace

SANE currently has about 30 members, and you can take out an annual membership, a monthly subscription, or even just a walk-in day pass.

All the materials are included, just don’t expect really specialist timbers or enough material to build your own house. Anything you can’t find there can be bought from the nearby Bunnings, or the local metal shop just down the road. It works kind of on a co-op basis, so any leftover materials you have, the idea is you leave them behind so others can use them.

So why are places like SANE so important? Matt sums it up: “For me, this space has always been about giving people the opportunity to discover what they can do. A lot of people admire others for their creative talents but don’t realise that they have them inside of them, they just haven’t had a chance to try out their particular interest and develop that skill. SANE gives them that opportunity, safely.”

By the end of the month, I’ve got a nice collection of projects I made, I’m much more confident using a range of tools, and I’ve unearthed some skills I didn’t know I had. There’s a heap of equipment I didn’t get to try out, but I’m not bothered in the slightest. I’ll be back first chance I get.

Reviews are unannounced and paid for by SAWeekend.

This review was first published in June 2018 and details updated in March 2021.

• Unit 3/6 Armiger Court, Holden Hill
• 0433 372 578
• sanemakerspace.com
• facebook.com/sanemakerspace
• FACILITIES A creative makerspace packed with a huge range of woodworking, metalworking and digital technologies.
• PRICE 25 per week for a monthly membership or $40 day pass for non-members.
• OPEN weekdays noon-8pm, weekends 10am-8pm and closed Tuesdays.