The last reference I see was in August. The plasma was one of the main reasons I joined. If the cutter is up and running, I am willing to buy lunch for a one on one training session.
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The Fire Marshall said we have to have a vent hood installed before we are allowed to use the plasma cutter. We are spending thousands of dollars to have that done.
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Do you have a time table for when it will be available?
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I am not involved in Metal Shop management, and that information has not been made available to me.
I would like a status on the vent hood installation. I have projects with hard timetables and need to make a plan B if necessary.
What sort of deadline?
I’ve heard of talk of putting in the vent hood, but I haven’t seen any changes in months.
You should probably use your plan B. The plasma cutter has been down for months and I haven’t heard any kind of ETA.
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Chuck was working on something. I had some stuff lined up with professional engineers, my last guy suggested a few items & even offered a stamp.
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@mdtest The folks in charge of this task and the other fire marshal tasks are the board members. They should be your contact point for this issue.
Sorry for the delay @mdtest but its taking longer than I think any of us expected. The hardest part is finding an engineer to sign off on a design. I had previously called 4, with only 2 willing to come out an look at it. Neither of them were willing to sign off on it. Chuck, Lee and Tim were working on finding another engineer. I will follow up with them and ask them to post an update, but if you have any leads on an engineer that would be willing to design/sign off on the ventilation let us know. If anyone else feels they could help, please let us know.
We asked for help here as well https://talk.dallasmakerspace.org/t/registered-professional-engineer/4927
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Appreciate the info.
As an aside, a Professional Engineer cannot merely “sign off” on a design. The design work itself must be performed by the PE or under their direct supervision. I speculate that’s why they’re declining – they can’t ethically stamp a plan they haven’t pen-to-paper reviewed, and I’m guessing that’s not in the budget.
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It sounds like we need to have a meeting to get this underway.
I will be up there tomorrow around 6PM. Board Meeting is 7PM - 11PM, so if we can meet at 6PM, we can put anything that will need funding on the board meeting agenda. Overall though we need a PE to design and sign off on a design. If we have to pay them, that’ts fine. Right now we can’t even find one willing to accept the work.
Thanks for looking into this.
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Was a path layed out to have a vent hood ultimately installed? In the search for an engineer, there has to be other machine shops that have installed hoods. The could be contacted to find out who the engineer was. Plasma Cutter manufacturers may be able to provide a list of engineers in the area.
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About a week ago I met with another PE. We are expecting the quote by COB tomorrow. I honestly think he is the most promising one so far since he is the only one that has asked to see the roof. Once we know more I will make an announcement.
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If this falls through (again) can we have a down to Earth conversation with the fire marshal about the situation? This professional engineer stuff is getting ridiculous. The fact that most of the professional engineers we’ve reached out to don’t call back or won’t take it is a sign of how ridiculous this situation really is. What’s wrong with something like this or something like what the laser cutters have setup plus a hood?
http://www.ventafume.com/content/pages/place-a-vent
I think professional engineers are not calling back because it’s a waste of their time (and our time). If you can buy something on the internet to solve the problem then you probably don’t need a professional engineer. Am I missing something?
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That’s exactly what I pointed out in one of the threads. It is designed for that particular purpose. I wouldn’t see a reason why it wouldn’t work personally.
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