Interested in possibly joining. You offer so many amazing classes! I have two boys interested in mostly woodworking, welding, blacksmithing, metalwork type crafts. They are both 16. They have some woodworking experience building jewelry boxes, small decor pieces in our home shop, and making rings. They want to expand (learning and tools) but I see many woodshop classes are 18+. How many classes would be available to them in these categories? Does anyone know of any apprentice opportunities for woodworking?
Thank you!
Deb
DMS (Dallas Makerspace) is structured into committees, and each of those are “areas of interest”.
Each committee has different rules on the equipment that can be operated with and without training for each age range etc. The area’s you’d probably want to look into are:
Woodshop
Machine Shop
Blacksmithing
Metal Shop
I’m not up to date on the latest rules for each area, but in the Metal shop, iirc (it’s been a few months since I taught the latest safety class) you would be able to allow them to use most of the tools at 16 providing you are present.
I’ll do some quick looking for rules and see what I can find for the other areas.
Edit: Unless things have changed, looks like one of our helpful board members created a post but it’s hidden until you’re a member, here’s a snippet from it that should tell you what you need to know
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As far as blacksmithing goes, we’d love to have your 16 year olds participate. I’ve had classes where a parent and the children participated together and they all had a great time. Blacksmithing can be very dangerous so I’d recommend that an adult always be present to supervise.
DMS is a wonderful place to learn, to make and enjoy making new friends. I’ve learned everything from knitting to ceramics, to sheet metal work here.
To clarify, minors are only allowed in woodshop under direct supervision of their parents and they cannot use any of the powertools there. The parents must have taken the woodshop safety & orientation class as well.
Ok, do I understand correctly that if we’ve all done safety courses, he would still not be able to use the tools under my supervision?
Thanks
Deb
Correct. He could use the festool sanders in the workshop area outside of the woodshop, alongside the handheld power tools, but nothing inside of woodshop.
Furthermore, inside of woodshop, if he is observing, you would be liable for any of his actions. @dwolf has more insight on these rules.
Same for metal and machine shop. Welding is actually relatively safe compared to a lot of things at DMS. But for liability reasons we want a guardian present for minors.
Alot of the tools in machine shop are very dangerous. Our rule is 18+ in machine shop for the bigger tools(the ones that can kill). But we have sherline machines which can only maim. Those have a lower age requirement iirc.