[Swansea Hackspace] New member and some tools

[Justin Mitchell]

On Thu, 2015-11-12 at 07:56 +0000, Aled wrote:
> Hi, just joined up, came down a couple weeks ago to meet some of you
> and have a look around, thought I'd say hi on here as well.
> 
> I have a load of tools at home here, however I live in a flat so some
> of them are just sitting in a cupboard and don't see much use as I
> don't have the room to work on anything and thought they might be
> appreciated at the hackspace, what's the deal with loaning gear to the
> space?
> 
> There's a few things I thought might be useful: oscilloscope (though I
> did notice you already have a few), some wood working tools, a small
> router table and also my small bench top bandsaw. The bandsaw can be
> bolted to a bench or I also have a fairly crude stand for it on
> castors, it also has a built in disc sander so is quite handy for
> small wood and acrylic projects.
> 
> Would they be useful to anyone? Is there room? And are there any
> safety issues? (PAT testing, training, people sawing/sanding their own
> fingers off etc.)

First off, Welcome, and thanks for joining

Quite a few of the tools we have are loaned from various members, just
make sure they are clearly labeled with 'on loan' and your name, there
should be stickers for this in the stationery drawer by the door.

Oscilloscopes i think we have enough (too many? ;) of, unless it is one
that is significantly better than the pretty old ones we have.

A bandsaw would be a great addition, we regularly wish we had a way to
cut down materials to fit inside the laser cutter for example. I was
recently discussing this with other members as something we should try
to acquire in the future, so that would be wonderful.

Our policy is that people must not use any piece of equipment unless
they feel qualified to do so safely (self certification), this is
clearly signposted. We require induction courses for most of the
machines, this is to ensure you are familiar with any quirks of that
machine, how to use its interfaces, and so that you don't inadvertently
break it.

Right now we rely on honesty and there is a list on the website of who
has been inducted on which machines, but we will soon be adding an
electronic lock to certain machines to enforce this and keep better
accounting records.

If you have any more specific questions then email us, or speak to one
of the directors on a monday.