Techshop question

[Amberly Brown]

Hi All,

So, in a stroke of luck, I won a semester long membership to TechShop from Wash U (valid to mid-January 2017). Currently their offerings are a bit light, as they are still in the "soft opening" stage of things. Unfortunately, to use most of the tools, I need to take the "SBU" (safety and basic use) class for the given machine or area. All of these classes cost additional fees. If I were only to take one or two classes, which ones would you recommend? What tools do they have that we don't have at Arch Reactor that would be most interesting? (I know we have a laser cutter, 3-d printer, and vinyl cutter...)

Thanks for the opinions!

Amberly

[jimski...@gmail.com]

It really depends a lot on what your interests are. They have milling machines, metal lathes and cnc mill (those would be my focus)but they have lots of other things that AR doesn't have. Beyond what you have named AR has a fair amount of wood working tools.

[Tom Blevins]

Water Jet is what I am in most interested in using.
-Tom

[Gene J. (GeekTinker)]

It depends upon what projects you plan to make using their equipment. They do have a vacuum former and their ShopBot CNC machine will take a full 8'x4'sheet of plywood or MDF.
Their basic wood working SBU covers things AR already has. Plus, it doesn't cover all of the equipment in their Woodshop. The basic metalworking SBU may grant you access to more tools that we don't have at AR. They have a welding area and classes for welding, but if you already know how to weld that won't be of much use. Then their are their lathes and machining tools which would be handy to learn how to use. They have a textiles area as well.

Lots of choices. I've found that the classes don't teach much skills, but rather that you know the basic safety of using those tools and know the specific rules & layout of their shop areas for use of their tools and things like dust collection, etc.

Think about what projects you will want to make, check off anything you can build or do at Arch Reactor, then choose the SBUs for the tools you want to use most.

[Peter Webb]

I did hear that the water jet will cost about $3 for use by the minute, it is capable of cutting up to 6" steel though.