Hello @turners,
Please be aware that we now have a booking calendar for the lathe, to make sure that people don’t turn up wanting to use it, only to find it’s already in use for the rest of the afternoon/evening.
- We’ve implemented this booking calendar as the lathe needs to be used by a single member for an extended period of time.
- Please be realistic in your timings when adding a booking to the calendar.
- If you are more than 15 minutes late for your booking, and haven’t added a “running late” update to your booking post, or updated the timings, then your booking is forfeit and other members may use the lathe.
- Initially we’ll use a trust based system - if you think a member is abusing this by not turning up for bookings, or hogging the lathe, then talk to them directly or if you prefer, talk to the @lathetechs
- Do feel free to add some detail about your project, including photos of the work-in-progress and finished piece!
- @woodtechs - please remember to book out the lathe when you are running a wood workshop foundation induction, as the workshop will be too busy for safe turning.
Instructions for the booking system:
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Go to the Discourse homepage - https://discourse.southlondonmakerspace.org/
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There’s a dropdown list in the top-left corner (just below SLMS logo), showing “all categories” - click on this and select “Booking”:
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You now see a calendar of all bookings - which may include other tools in future. You can click on individual bookings to bring up the exact timings and a link to the full post, which may contain more details of the project. There is also a button labelled “Agenda” at the top of the screen - this lets you view the bookings as a chronological list, rather than on a calendar.
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To add a booking, you need to first choose the calendar for a specific tool. There’s another dropdown list in the top-left corner, next to the one from step 2, which shows “all in Booking” - click on this and select “Wood Lathe”:
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In the top-right hand corner of the screen, there is a grey button labelled “+ New Topic” - click the button.
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A new Topic (ie. booking) will open - you can enter a name for you booking and description. It doesn’t matter what the name/description are - just pop in something brief. Then click the grey “Add Date and Time” button. Crucically, DO NOT click “create topic” just yet.
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You should now be prompted to enter a start date and time for your booking. Tick the “include event end” box, and that will allow you to enter the end date/time of your booking. Note that the current date appears with red text in the calendars. Once you’ve completed the start date/time, and the end date/time for your booking, click the red “Done” button.
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You will be returned to your booking , which now contains all the details needed. If you wish to add this to your own online calendar, you can click the “Add to Calendar” button:
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Final step - you now want to click the red “Create Topic” button
Congratulations! You just booked the wood lathe 
Have fun, turn safely, and upload some photos of your project!