I missed the meeting yesterday, but I see in the minutes that Ryan’s generous offer to do welding classes was discussed again. I’m sure there would be announcements, but I wanted to add my name to any “interested in the class” lists, just in case.
It’s funny, I have no desire to weld anything, but am excited at the possibility of being able to.
The other thing in the minutes that caught my eye was the discussion of a dedicated training day. This is also something I’ve been very interested in working on but not being checked out on some of the tools, was not prepared to do anything about yet. I will help out on future events.
I’m particularly interested in the band saw and 3d printer(s), both listed on the wiki as requiring certification before using.
I will just repeat what I said at the meeting last night: The welder will not see any significant use until we have the dirty room set up to be a safe area to weld. I don’t want the hive to burn down or someone to be blinded because someone was impatient in waiting to make things safer!
The only impatience I have is I would like to take Ryan up on his offer before he leaves.
I’m sure there was agreement to Jon’s comments about the dirty room in the meeting (I also see “clean out the dirty room saturday” in the minutes), but I’ll add a “hear hear” to this requirement.
Spray painting at the same time as welding would probably be a fire hazard. At a minimum, you’ll have to take turns using the area.
As part of the dirty room clean up, spray paint and other flammables will have to get put away so that stray sparks will not be able to hit them. There is a cabinet that is severely under-utilized in that room so this shouldn’t be much of a chore.
Flammables have already been put in the flammables cabinet in the dirty room - we may want to consider bolting it to the wall though - it didn’t seem very level/sturdy yesterday.
Tiffany
Suggestion: put the welder on a metal rolling cart and roll it out to the loading dock to do welding work. Welding inside is usually a really terrible idea.
On the subject of appropriate ventilation: maybe we could rig a system similar to what UC uses. Both the MIG and TIG units at DAAP are indoors. Their ventilation was a 6" diameter piece of flexible tubing attached to a fan system that drew air outside. This way, the suction could be positioned a foot or two away whatever you were working on, so that the argon (or whichever inert gas we wind up using at the Hive) was drawn outside instead of building up in the workspace. This would keep power from being an issue, and I think the welder will see much more use if interested parties don’t have to haul it back and forth.
Also, adding my name to the “volunteer for cleaning the dirty room day” and the “would attend classes” lists.
From what I understand we can try to replace the ventilation fan in the dirty room with the one in the main room (a direct swap?), and we’ll be good for clean air. We definitely want to remove any flammables from the immediate area to get the area safe.
i’ll try to come down to the Hive around 3:30 today and see if i can help on the fan swap or maybe try the welder on the loading dock (if possible). I’ve got Bunbury to go to today so it may be a short visit
Its here! it’s here! the welding class is here and coming up fast!
So, At this moment there is an Event-Brite in place for reserving your spot in the welding weekend, specifically August 9th-11th 2013! See the main page of the hive to learn more.
I’ll be teaching groups of 6, in 2 hour sessions this weekend so don’t dally and reserve your seat now.
A simple breakdown of the class is as follows;
~30-45 min of theory and safety
10mins of demonstration (both the welder and band-saw)
1hr - 1hr 15min of hands on training (rotating people in on the only machine)
Dress code:
-Wear something you wouldn’t mind too much if damaged by hot embers
-closed toe shoes!
-Long selves are a must, (don’t want to get sunburns by the arc)
What to expect:
I’ll teach you how to weld safely at the hive by yourself
I will teach you how to use the band-saw to cut metal
you will get to make practice welds on scrap metal that you cut on the band saw
if you have something in particular you would like to weld, we may be able to fit it in, depending on time.
This may be a simple repair on something, like a lawn mower or bicycle frame, scratch-built projects are
unlikely to fit within the time constraint… just ask
I will coach each student while they weld, to lower the learning curve
With limited masks, some will cut scrap for themselves to weld on, while others are practicing on the welder, rotating every 10-12min
What to bring:
A LONG SLEEVE SHIRT! lol (just gotta reiterate in case no one reads the dress code )
