Woodshop Committee Meeting 20200712

Time, location

2020-07-12 13:00 Interactive Classroom, Dallas Makerspace

Attendees

• Ian Lee
• John White
• Nadia Hannon
• Freddy Calvert
• Patrick O’Lone
• M. Blatz
• Jim Lancaster
• Crane Wood
• Paul LaChance
• Byron

Votes

• Approve $500 to bulk order teaching materials - unanimous
• Approve $300 to prototype RFID tool testing on the miter saw - Freddy Opposed, all else approved
• DMS will no longer provide Sawstop DADO cartridges. Members are encouraged to use the Powermatic table saw for Dados. Members may bring their own dado stack and dado cartridge to use on the Sawstop. - unanimous

Meeting Notes:

Discussion

Discussion:

• Extensive discussion on woodshop future, focusing on two pain points: Training and Maintenance. 
• Maintenance:
  • We need to develop a standardized maintenance and documentation protocol
  • We should examine orienting all tools in the shop to a basic user’s capability and requiring premium tools to be purchased by users. Ie: dewalt sanders vs festool. This drops maintenance requirements as tools are less likely to be damaged, and are less painful to view as consumable.
  • There are too many ‘feral woodworkers’ who use tools without training and damage them. This is probably more a symptom of training issues than maintenance issues.
  • Discussion on locking every tool so that members can only use tools they have been trained on. Counterpoint that we struggle to provide training on the primary 5 tools, how can we provide training for the rest of the tools?
  • Right now we are only performing ‘break/fix’ maintenance, not Preventative Maintenance. If we want our tools to last this has to change.

• Training:
  • We are struggling to meet the demand of members who want access, particularly new members who are just signing up.
  • There are inconsistencies between teachers and messaging from the committees for each tool. Also if you look at talk, there are inconsistencies in understanding by experienced users regarding the rules also.
  • We need to dive headfirst into online based training with in-person safety checkouts. This will standardize training, rule knowledge, and make it easier for new members to get signed off on machines.
  • We can look at having machines that don’t require safety check-outs; they are online training and testing only. (Metal shop is doing this with their grinders)

• Also discussed growth of DMS from small group of friends to large corporation. 
  • This requires less intrinsic group trust, and more standardized rule sets for tools we need to develop as a committee. Some discussed examples:
    • If a machine does not have its PM performed in a 30 day period, it locks out and is marked down until the maintenance occurs.

• An on duty Shop Steward would help prevent tool breakages and also help members who are unsure of how to use certain tools even after training. This is a good stretch goal once the committee is much larger 

• We should consider building a kiosk for issue reporting / PM reporting

Projects:

• Lets develop a standardized rule set for each tool that will be voted on and accepted by the committee. Let’s also develop a standardized PM schedule for every machine. To that end, members of the committee volunteered to take one free standing tool, read the manual, watch some safety videos, and develop a list of rules and a maintenance schedule for each machine. Include DMS specific rules where applicable, and if possible, include a link to a good educational safety video for your tool. These need to be submitted to Ian Lee before the next meeting. Dan Wolf has started this process for maintenance, that document will be posted on talk. Assignments are below:

Lathes - Paul LaChance, John White

MultiCam - Jim Lancaster

Sanders - Patrick Thompson

Table saws - Patrick O’Lone

Miter Saw - M. Blatz

Band Saws - Jim Lancaster

Jointer - Randy Lisbona 

Planer - Looking for volunteer

Drill Press- Nadia Hannon

• Vote on $500 for poplar for woodshop basics

• Right now woodshop basics classes require teachers to purchase materials and transport them to the space on their own time. In order to relieve the pressure on teachers to do ‘one more thing’, lets bulk order teaching materials and have them delivered so that teachers can just walk up and use them.
  • Recommended that we speak with various hardwood suppliers and ask them to set aside warped/ deformed material for us to use in classes.

• Unanimously approved
• Vote on Sawstop

• We will not provide dado brakes for the sawstop. IF you want to bring your own cartridge and Dado Stack, you may use it as long as you reset the sawstop to the normal cartridge and blade. Wood shop strongly recommends that members use the powermatic for Dado cuts.
  • Unanimously approved

• Vote on RFID test out

• $300 to run a prototype test on RFID locking out the chop saw. Will only be implemented after training system / test out is in place. Goal is to look at data in 3 months and see if it’s applicable to the rest of the tools. 
  • Freddy Opposed, all else approved.

Reminder:

• Do not use Southern Yellow Pine in Jointer or planer
• No pressure treated lumber allowed in woodshop
• No reclaimed lumber on anything with blades

Open Forum

• Committee meeting on Saturday noonish so we can do cleaning after