I came in this morning (2/28) to see a print finished on Elegoo 3. Notified the user and proceeded to remove his print. Only to find the tank is leaking.
Did you get the tank and machine cleaned up?
No. It was not my print.
So you let it sit there and leak?
Are you blaming me?
Don’t you agree whoever broke the tank should be responsible for cleaning it up?
Wouldn’t it be better to stop and clean it up so it doesn’t get gummy and dirty, making it harder to clean up and harder to use in the future?
It’s just the nature of shared workspaces that it might not be your fault, but next time you need to use that piece of equipment it could quickly become your problem.
3 Likes
I’m not going to argue who should clean it up … but the person whose job is on the printer is probably not the culprit who “broke the tank”.
Most common damage scenario is damage to the FEP film while scraping off (failed) prints. The scraping user probably doesn’t know they caused damage because they don’t use the vat after they scrape it. The next unsuspecting user wouldn’t know that the film was potentially damaged by a prior user. All it takes is a tiny pinhole.
Should yes… but who is that, the damage could’ve happened at anytime. Even then not everyone does their part. I’ve cleaned up way more dust than I’ve created in the Woodshop. It’s part of being a community.
These are your tools (just like they are mine) - we either spend our money on new tools/toys or fixing things that aren’t taken care of. While you didn’t break it, you had the opportunity to help correct the issue before it got worse.
I know some people wouldn’t even post about the problem, so thank you for that.
5 Likes
This reason sounds persuading. However, some people are pretty messy at home, let along in a community.
Anyway, if this is the expected, I suggest adding it to the training material as action number one, the preparation step, in setting up the machines.
Iron Rule: Do onto others before they do onto you.
Silver Rule: Do onto others as they do onto you.
Golden Rule: Do onto others as you would have them do onto you.
Platinum Rule: Do onto others better than you would have them do onto you.
I would argue that the higher up the rule set a community/group can get the more successful it will be. I would also say that the “Platinum Rule” is limited to small groups [parents of teenagers] or saints & martyrs. Unfortunately, I feel our society is slipping more into the Silver & Iron rule level [especially our politicians].
For DMS, we require more people to operate at the “Golden Rule” level in order to survive - at our price point, we require a lot of volunteerism to make things happen. DMS has recognized this by “Rule 5: Don’t Merely Respect each other; be excellent to each other.” [a Bill & Ted interpretation of the Golden Rule]. Being excellent to one another is much harder to maintain as the group grows. In fact, there were lots of discussions on whether we should expand or limit membership when we were around 2200 members. Ultimately [and IMHO correctly] we decided to expand and try to maintain/grow our “Be Excellent” culture [then COVID hit and drastically dropped our numbers].
The argument was if we attracted more “customers” [people paying dues but not contributing back to the Space] and fewer “members” [people paying dues and giving back], the more likely we were to go fail - because a group like ours is not sustainable with only customers. TechShop tried this [charging substantially more than we do] and went bankrupt. The price point for maintaining and [hopefully] increasing the tools and paying for the staff to maintain/clean the building, tools, etc is more than anyone would be willing to pay [why pay for a woodshop if you only do ceramics or glass or metalwork or…].
The transition from “customer” to “member” is extremely simple; you just need to leave the place better than you found it [what every Boy Scout should know]. Simply cleaning/straightening up adds value to the Space, it lessens the load on other volunteers [and allows them to add more value elsewhere]. It also will allow people living at the “Silver Rule” to operate closer to the “Golden Rule” - it was clean when I came in, so I’ll clean it when I leave.
You can easily add even more value too - we have members that have donated lots of money [and tools worth lots of money], time to repair/maintain equipment, teaching classes, mentoring others, etc. Our “expensive” classes are still way below market value and add value to the Space even if “I” don’t benefit directly.
TLDR:: I’m starting to ramble…
I don’t want DMS to end up the way of TechShop, this requires members to volunteer [empty trashcans, pick up after themselves & others, teach classes, repair equipment, and manage/run IT, Finance, HR, Infrastructure groups, etc]. If no one volunteers, we cannot survive [especially at our price point]. By making monthly payments, you are signing up for volunteerism - the tools & toys are just side benefits.
3 Likes
Thank you for looking at it
3 Likes
Thanks for doing this. Was there another FEP film in the box when you replaced this one?
Aaaaaaaah I think so. I’m like 80% sure there was at least one more. I’ll be down tomorrow and i can double-check
1 Like
I’ll check tonight
2 Likes
There is more film. But I’ll order more just in case
3 Likes