[Noisebridge-discuss] Membership Q

[John Magolske]

Hi Daniel,

* Daniel Dunbar <daniel at zuster.org> [110305 12:37]: 
> ... I have an urgent need to use a table saw + bandsaw. Is it legit
> to make use of the woodshop if I drop off my membership application,
> but am not a confirmed member yet?

You do not need to be a member to make use of the facilities at
noisebridge, but I have some commentary regarding the table saw.

First, what type of wood are you cutting? How much cutting?

The tablesaw is IMO not appropriate for the space without a proper
dust collection setup (which it lacks). Otherwise the whole space --
not just the workshop -- gets filled with obnoxious dust. Especially
when cutting particle board & other composite woods that include
toxic glue as a binder. A reasonable dust collection setup would be
something like a shop-vac with a HEPA filter connected to the saw in a
way that captures the dust while the cut is in progress. The existing
shop-vacs would not work very well for this as they don't catch the
finer dust, pumping it out like a crop-duster. Also, I don't believe
the table-saw has appropriate safety features like a blade-guard and
something to prevent kick-back.

Sorry if I come across like a wet blanket here, but I've experienced
allergic reactions to excessive saw-dust in the space.

I've been meaning to see about scraping some funds together to put
some sort of dust collection system in place, maybe I'll get started
on that this weekend. But regardless of the dust issue, a table-saw
can be a fairly dangerous tool and I think people should be checked
out on it before using it. I'm not sure if I'd be the person to do
this though, as I'm not comfortable with having a table-saw in the
space to begin with.

John

-- 
John Magolske
http://B79.net/contact