Make it or break it

They retool everyday items to build a better gadget

SOMERVILLE - In the apartment space above the Subway sandwich shop on Elm Street, 15 hackers sat around a table Thursday night tinkering with their gadgets.

They weren't the kind of hackers who illegally break into computer systems. The term "hacker," in their case, refers to someone who likes to play around with tools and make things.

Ian Katz brought his reconstructed computer mouse, which he made by wiring a regular mouse to a metal wheel that once held tape inside of a VCR. He says the wheel gives the spin of his mouse better momentum.

Nearby, Brett Beauregard used a laptop and the hot plate from an iron to design an apparatus that controls temperature more accurately than the average stove. He has also created a cup holder out of a coat hanger that's designed for seats at Fenway Park.

Across from Beauregard, Jimmie Rodgers connected a toy guitar to a toy megaphone to make weird feedback. He likes to play with noise.

Meredith Garniss, who manages this workspace, watched from afar, pleased with her new community of creators. These people, these tinkerers and hackers, have always existed around Boston, but they've had a difficult time finding space, tools, and a community for their projects.

"They were like, 'I can't work in my little apartment,' " Garniss said. "Everybody's living with three roommates. Everybody has storage in their basements."

Garniss - one of the founding members of Boston's chapter of Dorkbot, an international club for people who work with electricity - has run the Willoughby & Baltic art gallery in Somerville for seven years. She has used her 400-square-foot space - which has a European-style red facade and a trail of painted polka dots leading to its front door - for art exhibitions, classes, and puppet shows featuring the puppets she makes by hand.

Over time, though, she has noticed that the artists using her space have needed it more for making projects than for showing them.

"Finding places to put on a puppet show isn't hard," she said. "Finding a place to make a puppet is hard."

So, about eight weeks ago, Garniss made the decision to re-create Willoughby & Baltic as a work space and organization for makers and hackers. She cleaned out the gallery space and made it a center for small projects and woodworking. Where there was once art and open space, she now keeps machines such as a drill press, a kiln, a glass cutter, and a ban saw, all of which have been donated. There's also a shelf of books about famous artists such as Frank Lloyd Wright and John La Farge.

Garniss has also rented out two other spaces for the new Willoughby & Baltic collective. She's taken over the top floor of the building next door to the gallery, the one that houses Subway, and created a "hackers' space" for artists and gadget-builders who work mostly with electronics. The space will be open 24 hours a day.

The third and most impressive Willoughby & Baltic space is in Union Square. While she was planning her new work space, Garniss saw that Kimo Griggs, the architect known for designing the wooden benches in Union Square, was advertising that he was looking to lease out his 2,000-square-foot machine studio now that he had moved to Seattle to teach. Garniss contacted Griggs about Willoughby & Baltic, and he agreed to let the group rent his basement space and have access to large-scale tools such as a milling machine, a table saw, and welding equipment.

Some Willoughby & Baltic members had been searching for a place where they could use these types of tools. Garniss figured the other members would be thrilled to learn how to use them.

Members will pay $1,000 a year to use all three spaces, provided they learn to use the machines safely. It sounds pricey, but it's less than the rent for most art studio spaces, and members will have access to thousands of dollars in machinery and tools. Garniss is working to find funding for a scholarship for artists who can't afford the membership fee.

Garniss plans to cap the Willoughby & Baltic membership at 70 to make sure each artist gets plenty of time with the machines. By Thursday night's opening party, 40 people had already signed up. They range in age from 20 to almost 60.

A few came from the Dorkbot community. Many are readers of Make magazine, which caters to do-it-yourself creators who often work with technology. Some found Willoughby & Baltic through friends and online communities for hackers and makers. About a third of the members were at one point affiliated with MIT and have been displaced from academic communities where they had made these types of projects.

Emily Daniels of Somerville said she joined the group because she's interested in developing a Web application that helps people record their sensory experiences. Daniels, who studied painting in college, says she also plans to learn to use the tools at Willoughby for art projects.

"I was really into this kind of space," she said. "It seems like it could be a good community of people who will teach."

Garniss, who intends to seek nonprofit status for the group, has secured $2 million in insurance for Willoughby & Baltic, and says she'll have artists who are familiar with the more dangerous machines oversee safety in the Union Square location. She guesses that projects made at the three locations will range from welded candlestick holders to robots to oversize art pieces made by members of Boston Burners, a group that brings creations to the Burning Man festival in Nevada.

"Maybe they would even make a vehicle that would take them to Burning Man," she said.

On Thursday night, new and prospective Willoughby & Baltic members celebrated in the hackers' space. They got to know one another as they worked on projects at a long, communal table.

One of the most admired machines of the night was a tiny vehicle designed by Dennis Atwood that drew patterns with a marker on the floor.

"Is it drawing fractals?" asked Kristjan Varnik of Cambridge.

Atwood, a graduate student in applied math at Northeastern University, nodded his head with pride.

"Nice," responded Varnik.

Now that the members of the group have found one another, they can get going on their first collective Willoughby & Baltic project. The interactive art exhibition will be a Halloween show for the Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation called "Ghost Hunting."

"It's a good project for us to get together and learn about each other and what our skill set is, and to have fun making something for the community," Garniss said. "We've been planning it for a while and have just been waiting for a space to build it."

Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.