Whoever made this mess with the plasma cutter: seriously not cool.
Leaving the dirty room like this with no note saying you’ll be back to clean it up or alerting anyone is an insult. It has been said time and time again to clean up after yourself down here. This is absolutely unacceptable.
Whoever did this can contact me in private to right this.
Remember that this is a community space and it is everyone’s duty to clean up after themselves and keep the hive in working order.
Jon
My motive to clean is to fascinate other’s productive work at the Hive. General chaos and a mess or two has inhibited my work or ability to wholely clean up after myself… when this starts happening, it snow-balls, and everyone loses respect for the space and the other members…
This has pretty much happened over here at Losantiville… Now we have dumb, counter productive rules… like the trash can is intentionally placed about 100 feet away from the kitchen space and bathroom “because no one takes it out and it gets gross faster over there”
It looks ugly. So what? Can you not use the dirty room because of some floor oxidation and a little slag?
If you want to make dinner on the floor of the dirty room, designate it as an area to do so. If you want it shined to a mirror polish, put a sign up and provide a means of doing so. I had no such expectations going in to cleaning up.
The tools I could find (the wire brush) proved inadequate for removing all slag from the floor. (This isn’t the first time pieces of metal that I’ve been working on have stuck to the floor. I always try to remove them but sometimes they just stick.) I did what I could quickly and then gave up and moved on to properly putting tools away. Last time I used the plasma, I wiped the oxidation marks off the floor with a steel wool pad. This time, I didn’t worry about aesthetics.
As I understood it, the point of having a metal floor was so that welding, plasma and other such things that produce hot metal debris don’t start a fire or otherwise cause chaos. Was there an expectation that working with hot / molten metal would happen without any interaction with the floor? I’m sorry there are signs of oxidation from heat. I’m sorry that pieces of expelled metal stuck to the floor. As I said, if the expectation is that the floors remain shiny, say so. Additionally, the floor in that room is already so incredibly uneven and not-level that you would be a fool to try to build anything square off it - I didn’t render it unsuitable for a task it was previously suitable for.
I’m sorry for leaving the brush on the floor. I totally spaced. I could have scrubbed the floor with a brillo pad or similar and removed the oxidation like I did the last couple times I used the plasma. I didn’t. I could have sat there with an angle grinder and removed a lot more of the slag from the floor. I didn’t. If there is an additional expectation that the metal floor shall remain flat and shiny, make it known and I’ll gladly replace sections of floor that are no longer perfectly flat and shiny.
I really fail to see why you are bringing up insults when communicating your expectations better would be far more productive. There was no malice - just ignorance of expectations. I’m not ashamed. I’m 110% open to constructive criticism. I put tools away properly and failed to meet some of your other expectations. Lay into me if you think I deserve it. Really. I don’t care if you chastise me in public or in private. I think there will be more benefit from it happening publicly than in private so others can become more aware of expectations as I clearly wasn’t on the same page as you.
I already had an idea for what I was going to do further next time I came down but I’m super curious about what you had in mind now. If I had thought that what I left behind would affect others ability to use that part of the space for its intended purpose, I would have emailed the list or left a note.
Thanks,
-Dave
I feel that taking this so personally is not the right way to approach this. There was no mention of a name, so I don’t understand how this insults you or called you out publicly. I’m sorry if you felt that way. The option was given to handle the matter privately; it was your choice to post at length here. (In fact before your post, we had no clue who did this).
The main intention of the post was to show people that it is not part of proper community/maker culture to leave spaces dirty**.** If someone had left a large pile of saw dust in the wood shop, I am certain that it would have been posted here as unacceptable just the same.
No, neither mess impacts the utility of the space, but it doesn’t mean that leaving a space worse than you found it is OK. Whether dirty dishes, saw dust, solder, paper, etc. no mess should be left. If messes are left, then not only does it perpetuate the idea that anonymous “others” will clean up, but it just piles up into something unmanageable. Unfortunately as we all know, not everyone cleans up each time for a variety of reasons. We hold monthly clean up sessions, in addition to cleaning up after other people daily. All the “little, unimportant” messes add up, end up falling largely on the shoulders of a few awesome individuals who repeatedly help clean the space (thank you!).
I appreciate the fact that you tried to clean it, but from an outsiders perspective it did seem like it was just left there. Thank you for the clarification.
Re: insults - “Leaving the dirty room like this with no note saying you’ll be back to clean it up or alerting anyone is an insult.” -Jon Neal, in the first mail regarding this. My point was that getting insulted and bent out of shape isn’t the correct course of action here. There was no vandalism. There was no wanton neglect. At least from the “perpetrator”'s perspective, there was no harm aside from cosmetic damage to a working surface in an inherently messy area. Unless I’m missing something, there wasn’t anything to get insulted about; If I missed it, please explain for my benefit and the benefit of other members that may find themselves in a similar/parallel/different situation. I chose to forgo privacy because my feelings aren’t going to get hurt and others stand to benefit from this being discussed.
Sure, the floor of the dirty room is a little dirtier. I’ll 100% concede this. I was serious when I expressed confusion about the use of the space. If people were spraying spray paint in the dirty room, there would be overspray. If the expectation is that you will grind slag and welds off the floor (which are guaranteed to happen to some extent while working with metal) then this is something that IS NOT PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE. Reasonable use means reasonable mess. and there are a LOT of unclear expectations here.
I’m planning on cleaning any oxidation marks off the floor and hitting any massive slag piles with a grinder next time I’m at the hive. I wasn’t planning on making a special trip just for this - just getting it done next trip since my mess has no impact on the use of the space for others. If this is not reasonable, please tell me. I’m not trying to cause trouble. Really.
-D
I vacuumed up a crap ton of other metal dust, the majority of it from before I last used the room. I spent about 15 minutes with a wire brush wheel trying to clean the floor as best as possible. Is this acceptable to others? What expectations are there for the level of metal debris in the dirty room?
D
