Greetings! I’m Suzanne

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#1

Hello to all you fellow creative people!

I look forward to meeting some of you soon and hope I can share skills and ideas with and learn from you. My background is in architecture, but I’ve been making things in some form or other all my life. In recent years I’ve gotten into working with wood and also learning about tree and wood identification. I’m always on the lookout for bits of unwanted wood to identify and work with. So if you have a tree you’re pruning and are about to throw out the wood, please get in touch!

My setup at home is limited, so I’m really keen to do a woodworking induction and get stuck in as soon as possible. If anyone comes in during the daytime and would be happy to show me the ropes a bit in the wood workshop, I’d be thrilled. I really want to get to grips with all the tools and machinery so I can gauge what sort of projects I can do and experiment. I’ve read through various bits and pieces to do with induction, machinery, access rights and so on and am a bit confused about the process, what is formal and what informal etc. Any clarification would be very welcome. I’d love to get going as soon as possible! If you can help, please let me know! If you have shared interests or think I can help, let me know too!

Thanks,
Suzanne

1 Like
#2

Hi Suzanne, welcome to the space!

Inductions for anything significant (woodshop included) are operated on a waiting list basis. You’ll need to stick your name on the relevant induction waiting lists as a starting point! Once you do that, you’ll get pinged each time one of the techs for that particular area of the workshop (or bit of machinery) set up an induction. Induction sessions get listed here, and you can keep an eye on that section to see when they get posted!

I hope that helps.

#3

Hi Ara,
Thanks for your reply. I did see and put myself down for two inductions, but the lists are very long and I get the impression it could be months before I can even get started. I can’t see any inductions for machines like the bandsaw. For me, one of the key reasons for joining is to have access to equipment, machines and tools I don’t have at home. I thought that I would be able to use the space once my first payment went through, or shortly after that. But in fact the first induction is not until 6 January (a month after payment) and being at the bottom of a very long list, I doubt I will be having an induction any time soon. I have read comments suggesting that not everyone on these lists take up their slot when it’s their turn, but I have also read many comments from people who have been paying and waiting for many months and sound very frustrated. I guess I would like to know where I stand.

Or can I in fact use the workshop and equipment prior to induction if someone else who has had an induction is around to help if necessary? Should I be directing these questions elsewhere?

#4

Hi

This is a really great comment!

I think sums up a lot of the concerns and frustrations faced by both new and longer term members regarding the use of the more heavy duty tools in the wood shop, aka the ones people really want to use!!

I think real efforts are getting underway to make the wood shop a lot more accessible and its running a lot more transparent and fair for everyone!

My advice would, as suggested above, be to join up ASAP and get on all the induction lists, pester all the relevant ‘techs’ and keep a close eye on discourse for last minute drop outs/ changes to induction time.