New Laser Cutter Project 2014/Sharks Laser Proposal

By Martin and Dominic vertibrim. See the meeting notes for further information.

300

300

£4000, Nottingham Hackspace only, one time special price

1200x900 cutting area, 80W laser tube, 1720x1210x1070 physical size, 280Kg Free Standing, Red Laser Dot, Motorised Z Axis, HoneyComb Bed, Knife Bed, Water Flow Detection Switch, Extraction, Water Pump. Lasercut 5.3 Controller (Workaround for installing on multiple machines) CW 5200 Chiller (suitable for chilling 2 lasers)

£4000 covers the cost of the laser, vat and import duty. Just Add Sharks will cover the cost of shipping to the UK and within the UK. Once the laser has arrived in the Hackspace Dominic and I would like a few days to photograph and install the machine and ensure that everything is working correctly. It will be the responsibility of Just Add Sharks to fix any problems with the laser. Once the machine is functional and ready for handover we will run a whole weekend of inductions on the new software (free for people who are already inducted)

Money to be raised through a month long member pledge drive. At the end of the pledge drive a plea may be made to have any short falling made up from Hackspace funds. In the case of failure we shall enquire with our supplier to see how large a laser we can buy with the pledged funds and that will be presented to the hackspace as a new proposal

As with all hackspace tools, users should have an idea how much the laser costs to run. If a user uses the machine a lot they should pay more money to the hackspace. Payment can made by increasing your monthly payment or through a donation tin. (Some people will use it a lot each month and prefer to increase a standing order, others will use it a lot in a single month so won’t want to mess with banking).

Members who pledge should track their own usage and determine at which point they have got their pledges worth of money from the machine. If or when an RFID tracking mechanism is implemented then the state of the pledges can be used to credit peoples accounts with free hours.

The incentive to pledge is that it’s a very expensive machine and if people don’t pledge for it then the space will not be able to afford it. North East Makers Hackspace just raised £3500 in 5 days, this kind of pledge is very achievable.