New Laser Cutter Project 2014/2014-01-22 Initial Meeting

Meeting 22-01-2014

Ideas meeting for purchasing a new laser cutter. Finance is a larger issue to be discussed as well.

Dominic Morrow, Andrew Armstrong, James Hayward, Martin Rainsford, Michel Foor-Henry.

Ideas from Dominic and Martin. See: /Sharks Laser Proposal. Main things:

£4000.00
Software can be used on more than one laptop (only one )
Chiller can run both lasers
Bed size is 1200x900 cutting area
Note: The shipping cost is not included in the £4K and James suggested the space pay it. Currently is unknown cost.

Will investigate alternatives. Similar one from other companies are around £6000.

Raising money:

We have this cost of X amount, how do we get it?
Pledge drive can be tried first
- Will this include laser time?
  - Argument is people will pay more for "free laser time" if payment is part of the usage, and if not then it'll be much less and be a donation.
Aim would be to raise the money in a few weeks of time

Using the laser cutter:

Feeling of pledges need to have something back for it (ie; usage of the machine)
Pay per use:
- Expensive machine to run (most expensive on the space)
- Money could go towards a new laser (and other things, like fixing it), or new machines (CNC machines etc.)
- Note this might price people out of using the machine
- Could charge at cost, or subsidised
Membership payment (from membership fees):
- Easier to manage (no taking individual money, tracking it)
- Issue possibly with overuse
- What about
Both ways?
- Possibly preferable for membership to have both options

Price list for replacement (laser hours for a tube and so forth)
- 1200 hours for a tube, 12-18 months replacement time. Plus mirrors is £450.
  - 37.5p/hour or something? Perhaps subsidised.
- Maybe £3 an hour for cost then?
£250 for power supply but these are replaced less often.

Main pay-to-use option:

£1 for 20 minutes (versus £1 for 10 minutes currently) was suggested which still makes roughly £2.60 "profit" back when taking into account average laser
- Note option is there to charge what we want, just this is based off cost of replacement parts.
- Pledge users would get time back for what they pledge (presumably)
- Would this be changing in the future?
  - Change of price could go up or down depending on if we aim to do things with the money such as a second laser cutter to allow more people to use lasers in the space

Secondary free-to-use option:

Free to use; Hackspace subsidises the running and maintenance costs out of the standard membership fees done on an honour system
- Remember average running cost is around 40p as above
- Time could be allocated by scheduling or booking if in heavy use

Tertiary both-of-them options:

Pledge drive the amount of £4000 with kickstarter-like extension goals of "more laser part spares" which are cheaper when brought with the machine.

Each donation gets the amount they donated back in laser cutting time (eg: Donate £30 gets you 10 hours time)
Pledges would need to be collected before a deadline to purchase
If funds are not made up decision would have to be taken on if Hackspace funds would fill the gap

Request for Comments (RFC) up until midday of the members meeting:
- Agree on the laser we are buying
- Agree on payment option (pay to use versus free to use)
- Agree on pledge process
Results will be given at the 5th of February members meeting on final decision and if anything has changed
Pledge drive start that evening for the laser cutter, duration 2 or so weeks or up to £4000
Check on pledge drive process and see if more funds are needed and if project is successful
Collect funds from pledges by a deadline
Pay for laser cutter