Hi everyone - TLDR: is it possible to bring children to use the space under supervision / are any workshops in the works?
I came along to an open evening a few months ago, and I am very keen to join. I spoke to some members on the tour about whether it would be possible for a member to have their child with them, and there was a really great conversation about the posibility of having children come - and that there might be support from other members to help guide them in small projects. I can see from previous threads that various ideas have been floated and I would love to connect with anyone who can give me more info about the posibility.
Finally, could we bring one along to the next open evening next week to show them around? We are hoping to inspire a very talented young friend.
I’ve brought my boys (now aged 9 and 11) into the space fairly regularly over the last few years and everyone has been very friendly and welcoming.
We’ve used the 3D printers to make mostly fidget toys and the laser cutter to make wooden model kits and bespoke gifts for birthdays, Christmas, etc.
We work on the designs at home together, I operate the machines at the space with them watching and then they put the bits together, decorate, etc. with my help.
They loved the open day that was held at the space a couple of years ago. My older son is very shy, but he ended up teaching people how to make origami frogs.
DT is one of his favourite subjects now he’s started secondary school, so I think his experiences at the space have definitely inspired him!
I would kindly ask no kids on the machine tools of course, but the rest of the shop, with handtools, vices, and the sorts, is available.
Please keep in mind that the metal shop is noisy, often dusty, always oily and most importantly always full of sharp and heavy things that can be dangerous. Please be careful 10 times over if you bring a kid over!!!
I also loved this sort of stuff at school and would have been very happy to be given the chance to come somewhere like the makerspace. But as someone who is very aware of the dangers, I do want to re-state some of them, as the space has not been setup with kids in mind
We have chemicals labelled poison we store in unlocked cabinets at knee height
A whole variety of machines that can damage people and a number of those machines could damage other competent users if they become distracted while operating, including one that is fascinating to look at, and located directly next to a trip hazard (mainly metal and wood)
We have a number of safety procedures that are based around telling adults not to do things that will result in injury (such as sticking fingers near spinny things, lifting up lids to look at lasers)
People sand resin in the woodshop, they grind with silicon carbide discs in the metal shop, and they create lead solder fumes in the electronics area
I don’t want to put you off, but I want you and any other members thinking about bringing kids along to be aware of these dangers, and if bringing kids into the space, to do so with caution
No we don’t. Obviously we could make one - if we do it should be for visitors as a whole, there is strong history to back it up but it has never been formalised.
I hear it a lot, so a little bit of off topic rant - lead boiling point is 1749°C so it’s vapour pressure doesn’t cross even 1 Pa until ~1000°C, on top of it being heavy molecule. You pretty much cannot vaporise lead or other metals in solder with soldering iron temperatures as opposed to the main component of soldering fumes - flux - which works roughly the same as normal air pollution/particles/smoke.
You are spot on in terms of lead, but I do not share your take on flux.
Being exposed to it, without appropriate extraction for only a few minutes a day is a serious health risk and – imho – shouldn’t be done in the clean room without exctraction.
If you’d like, take a look what the government says:
You’re right, sorry, I should have said that differently, so it doesn’t have double meaning. What I should have said is “it is acting like a smoke”, and that what needs extraction. It generates a lot of particles in a very short time, you can easily see it on any particle detector, and it would have similar risks to the same level air pollution (at comparable level of pm2.5) - effects on lungs/asthma etc.
