2023-07-05 Transcript
Roll CallAaron, Steve, Andrew A, Matt L, Douglas, Chris, Duncan, James, Ali, Malcolm, Simon, Eddie, Phil, Edgar, John, Gareth, Emily, Bob, Ava, Sam, Jacob.
Announcements and EventsOpen Nights - Encourage people come in on Wednesday. We may do full open nights to the public soon.
Hack the Space Day - 12th August 2023
One Shot Wonders - There is one on 20th of July, Fiasco being played. Moving discussions over to Discord.
Laser Surgery - 9th of July by Emily. One or two new materials to make a lino cut and work with felt and other materials and taking questions.
Robot Event - May be in October now due to a clashing event in September. Event will be open to the public and some people attending from across the country.
Welding course - some potential dates have a look and mark yourself interested if you want to attend and which are the best days.
Actions & Minutes of Last MeetingPAT Tester - Gareth said he would be able to do it after going on training. Ava Firth may also want to help. Matt mentioned a database which is potentially available to log things. nhpat.nottinghack.org.uk
Metalworking DownstairsThe flooring will be done w/c 17th June. Things will be moved out of the area in advance of this. Internal foam will also be removed. Douglas will run a work party on Tuesday 11th at 7PM. (edited)
Next steps will be sorting sockets and then moving items downstairs.
DiscordMigration - Discord, migration by the end of September, next months minutes will be on Discord. How to sign up - https://wiki.nottinghack.org.uk/wiki/Discord
Let us know of any other problems.
Laser
Parts due to be replaced are looking to be the more expensive parts. The bed is not level
Matt: The bed isn't actually that far out. Park that one ! next
Andrew: Bits like the motors are aging. The track system has also been noted. Variety of parts which will be coming up for repalcement
Matt: Parts are cheap, belts can be easily replaced. Rails won't have worn. May have some wear but it won't be much. Across the bed it's out by half a mil, but the stackup of the knifebed on top of the honeycomb is more of an issue than the actual levelling. Was expecting the subframe to be bad but the total difference across the bed is half a mm.
Andrew: honeycomb and knfife edge?
Matt: Honeycomb is stacked ontop of the knifebed. Need to 3d print a part to measure this. This can be adjusted under the bed.
Douglas: Have you got an idea of the costings for this?
Matt: Levelling is the bed is free, may be worth replacing the bed. The knife bed is only under the honeycomb because we chose to store it under the honeycomb. Disadvantage of using the honeycomb is that we lose the airflow which the knife-edge gives us. We can file the edge of the knifedge down so that the honeycomb sits flat ontop of the knifedge.
Douglas: Other consideration is light burn.
Matt: Yes as far as I am aware. Motion controller, control panel, license for the software - these can be replaced and are currently for Lasercut - this is within our capability at the hackspace - probably less than 1k to do this and retrofit into our laser.
Ali Maq: What is the advantage of lightburn?
Matt: I'm not a laser user?
Various people: It's much better for engraving - it's much better than LaserCut.
Ali Maq: So we might look at a pledge drive for switching to Lightburn?
Andrew: We upgrade existing laser, or we improve the existing one knowing that it still requires quite a lot of maintenance. Looking at the money it has brought in, it might be worth it?
Lots of discussion about having to clean the laser lenses a lot - use has increased over the past year.
James: Bringing a new laser might be difficult due to getting it up the stairs.
Matt: The current laser can be disassembled. Taking the top off means it exposes the mirrors. Getting a new machine means dismantling it to get it through the door.
Duncan: People have been discussing re-arranging the laser area to make it cleaner.
Matt: When was the tube last replaced?
Ali Maq: Years ago
Andrew/Emily: There was a log of it somewhere. We'll go and have a look later, theres a log book in the back.
James: Are the mirrors we using at the moment of a good quality?
Emily: We have replaced the lenses, but not the mirrors.
Ali: people are not cutting the right materials. When was the last time the bed was cleaned? It is a fire risk. Greasy carbony stuff all over the honeycomb.
Ava: Where are the maintenance records for this equipment?
Andrew: There is a book for it in the back of the laser.
Ava: Lots of you are very experienced in maintaining equipment. Can we check the "curve" of maintenance? If it's gone up suddely maybe it's time to buy a new one. If it's more gradual maybe it's not.
Steve: Three years of covid with no one using it. Usage pattern has changed.
James: Also the usage of 100% power.
Ava: Where is Ian?
Various: We can't force Ian to come back.
Andrew: We have a good team which is why maintenance recommended. We're not sure how much this would help in the long term.
Steve: Mirrors, bed level, honeycomb bed. We should do these things and see if it helps.
Duncan: Buying a new laser doesn't change the maintenance problem.
Andrew: It would start us on a good ground.
Matt: I have found the replacement date for the tube. In April 2020 minutes - three years ago. Original tube did over 8000 hours.
Ali: Should have plenty of life.
Ava: I live in a whole different non technical world but I do data for a living. You are sitting with no data in front of you.
Steve: No let's make the easy fixes.
Ava: I can put the records on a spreadsheet. We can figure out if anything is salvageable.
Douglas: Is it really that clear cut?
Malcolm: Are we here to enjoy fixing the laser, or should we just get a new one?
Andrew: It's 10 years old
Malcolm: If it there to be used we need a new laser
Steve: If making simple fixes saves us 5k on a new laser
Duncan/Ali: Yes
Last few things:
Maintenance should be done more immediately especially the honeycomb bed cleaning
Need to review the major repairs that may need to be done and the cost them and action some
Need to review the options around new lasers and the potential costs and interest across the membership
Reason we should do this is we are sometimes offered or see good deals, would we go for any?
(edited)
Charging for ToolsLaser is £3/hour. Likely not going to change immediately (not without a new laser) even with an increased cost of electricity. See previous discussion on new laser.Embroidery Machine will be set to £1/hour. It needs thread and repairs. Will need data once we have the embroidery machine used more with the charges to see if the £1 needs to go up due to the thread cost.
Servicing is £40 per machine done once a year. Done for Health and Safety as well to make it usable.
Other tools:
Welding - Adding a card reader when moved downstairs and cost be calculated on electricity usage / gas. Cost of electricity is especially high.
3D Printing - New ones that are faster would benefit from a charge so it's not monopolised and to help fund the area.
May need some data and a booking system to see usage
Helps keep them usable
New £5 membership charging structure would help
Matt said he will do it potentially in the next few months
Gives us data on how sustainable and makes sense on how we can do
Matt - CNC Mill (£30K) - high price but would be amazing
James S - Sheet Metal tools
Plasma Cutter is £5-8K
Bookable payable storage areas
Space is an issue - Metalworking upstairs may be usable for some of this
Drying space, large space for projects, materials, etc.
James S - Waterjet Cutters
Grants to get higher quality tools
Talk to the Trustees if you want to help with this
Quick note:
Eddie - Fire suppressant (a ball in the ceiling that powder)
Team Updates3D Printing
Requests for induction - the induction process is being rewritten. FDM non-machine specific induction process. Bear with them to get onto the backlog.
Will be changed on HMS
Getting resin printer repaired
Shortlist high end printers, and see what would be beneficial to the space (Bamboo based one). Bamboo can be left alone and not be tinkered with.
Metalworking
New dates for induction courses - see Discord for the form and to show interest in dates need 7 people minimum
CNC
New benches have been built may get some monitor arms soon
Snackspace
Vending machine still being looked at by Matt still investigating
Snackspace help to get stock - someone able to go and buy things from Bookers would be appreciated and may have some compensation
Filling up the vending machines would be good
Woodworking
Woodworking Lathe Wednesday 19th of July from Trent University
Financial Update
Update for May done last month
Need more workshops to run to get income
Minimum Membership fee
New accountant end of year in September, currently £280 each year for accounts - but current accountant is retiring - so may cost more. If anyone has someone who will do it fairly cheap let us know. A full accountant will cost more.