hackerspace

Be inspired, bring your ideas, lend a hand. We provide the space, tools and knowledge to help you fullfil your vision.

Think It

Collaborate with our diverse community of hackers, makers, engineers, and artists of all skill levels.

Build It

We are equipped with laser cutters, CNC machines, 3D printers, chemistry, and electronics labs, a machine shop, and even a scanning electron microscope.

Break It

Utilize our tools and community to build a better understanding of how things work by reverse engineering and voiding warranties.

Why Should You Become A Member?

High-Tech Facilities

Our building is filled with helpful robots that are always willing to lend a hand. Even if you'd rather they didn't.

Diverse Toolset

We are equipped with laser cutters, CNC machines, 3D printers, chemistry and electronics labs, a machine shop, and even an electron microscope.

History Of SBHX

The Santa Barbara Hackerspace was founded in August of 2010 by Steve Phillips and Mike "Swiss" Bales. The goal was to build a space to allow the community to access tools and especially space, a real commodity in Santa Barbara. Our first meetings were held at Swiss' garage and quickly grew. Six months later we rented our first official space, 400 square feet of awesome. We grew from 12 members to over 20 and quickly ran out of space. A year later we upgraded to a new office, 2000 square feet and within a year managed to fill it with tools and added an additional 2000 square feet. By this time we had 40 plus members, a respectable collection of tools and equipment, and offices for co-workers. Today we have a 4000 square foot shop, with a machine shop, electronics room, co-worker offices, classroom, an awesome membership of 50+, and an amazing team of volunteers to keep things running.

Our Location


5782 Thornwood Drive
Goleta, CA 93117


We Support Open Source!

We support Open Source hardware and software. We work on a wide variety of Open Source projects and when we do document them we put them on GitHub. Checkout some of our projects and contribute!


Contact Us

  • General Inquiries: info@sbhackerspace.com

  • 5782 Thornwood Drive
    Goleta, CA

Hours of Operation

for non-members:

  • Monday - Friday: By appointment

  • Saturday: Open meeting 2:00 pm until midnight

Charitable Contributions

Santa Barbara Hackerspace is a 501(c)(3) federally recognized non-profit. Donations are tax deductible in The United States except where prohibited by law.