Can I suggest that as we were talking towards the end of last year about some kind of honesty box system for materials for the laser cutter such as ply and acrylic .
if we charged £4 a sheet total returns would be £120 (£8 profit)
I would be quite happy to pay £5.00 a sheet to have the convenience of materials such as ply and acrylic on hand at the space and not have to pay shipping.
if we all did this we would end up with a £38 profit on a pack which over time would allow us to build up materials
such as acrylic to the (stock) available to buy in the space.
I would like to offer my time to make a rack within the existing rack to hold the (ply to purchase)
plus an honesty box.
I would also be happy to administer this system (stock control, ordering ) but possibly a @lasertechs@lasers
would prefer to do it.
@directors , do we have the funds to start this with either £111.92 for one pack (or ideally £220.01 for 2x packs so we can purchase another once half the stock has gone) thus keeping a constant stock.
once we have a decent stock of materials the excess funds could be put by for servicing/extra lenses for the laser cutter.
I think this’ll be really convenient. Especially if mistakes are made, you can just grab another sheet and carry on, instead of having to come back later.
We need to design and build proper storage for laser materials, @Jonathan is happy we repurpose what he built, I’ll help when / where I can (moot offer currently but it’s the thought that counts?)
One of the earlier threads, which covers a lot of ground, is here: Laser material store?
Couple of points: @lasertechs need to agree they’re willing to trial this, then someone needs to take ownership of administration of it, under the umbrella of @lasertechs – doesn’t have to be a lasertech.
I’d keep the material list very simple: it’s probably best as to aid spontaneous making/prototyping, rather than a materials shop.
I think it comes under ‘safe enough to try, good enough for now’, in terms of an action.
We have a members’ meeting Tuesday next week, if someone wants to organise a proposal for this.
It’s really great to have materials for use, and having someone know which materials to buy and getting whatever benefits of bulk is great.
Can I suggest we have clearly established rules for:
can I use the offcuts for free?
If I only want half a sheet can I get that?
If I buy a whole sheet can I leave my unused portion in the space?
My suggested answers would be:
A bucket marked “free offcuts”: you put your unwanted pieces in there; technicians free to move to bin at their discretion
No, you buy a whole sheet, rummage for offcuts, or go halves with a friend
A bucket marked “members’ offcuts” where you can leave clearly labelled “Barack’s Beech”. Material left here will be delabelled and moved to free offcuts at technicians’ discretion
My suggestions are intended to keep it free if you’re just making a little thing, experimenting and learning, while having some tidiness without us having to carry our plywood home every time.
Just tuppence; leaving it to (primary) laser technicians’ good judgement.
I think this is an unqualified “yes”
We’re already swimming in offcuts (which I try to prune, but they just keep coming back!) so anything to get that stuff used up should be encouraged
I’ve got no objections in principle to this sort of group purchase, and am happy to let @naxxfish run the scheme. Will have a think about how best to take payment
Re additions to the existing laser materials rack: is the existing rack a permanent feature?
As for the materials themselves, I would like to point out that projected calculations of profit would appear to assume a uniform demand for all thicknesses of material. It is more likely that there will be a demand for one thickness of ply over the others, and the second-most frequently used considerably more than the third, and so on. So building a stockpile with equal quantities of each material might not be a good idea if recovery of those costs is an important goal.
my idea of buying the pack of three sizes is a trial to see what sizes are in demand.
obviously included in the administration tasks would be regular stock control and re ordering the thickness that is the most popular, however this cannot be determined until we actually do it.
My experience is that we need to make it as easy as possible or it is less likely to get followed. I can easily imagine picking up some ply and think I will post to discourse when I am done and just forget about it.
I think if we want to log purchases, it would need to be a pen and paper job, and a request that you flag if it falls below 4 sheets on discourse.
