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The Foundry Will Soon be a Makerspace in Bellingham, Washington (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the maybe-one-day-we'll-have-4-D-printing-from-recycled-quantum-plastic dept.

The Foundry has people, tools, machines, and a place to operate. The only thing it lacks is insurance, and insurance is a problem because Chief Creative person Mary Keane's vision for The Foundry includes children instead of limiting membership and machine use to people over 18. Other makerspaces have managed to allow children, so it's likely that Mary will find appropriate insurance before long and get the doors open. Besides being a creative space for children, not just adults, Mary is excited about having The Foundry use recycled plastics in its 3-D printers, which hardly any makerspaces do right now, although many are surely interested in this way to lessen their impact on the Earth. (Alternate Video Link)

5 of 35 comments (clear)

  1. Why no under 18's? by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    Can't they have their legal guardians sign the liability waivers?

    1. Re:Why no under 18's? by westlake · · Score: 2

      Can't they have their legal guardians sign the liability waivers?

      The waiver won't silence the news of a child being severely injured by a laser, milling machine, etc.

      I don't know how you frame a waiver that will stand up in court if a child under your supervision loses control of an inherently dangerous machine he was clearly too young and inexperienced to handle.

    2. Re:Why no under 18's? by dbc · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It is driven by the insurance companies. TechShop has had various policies over the years I've been a member, all driven by the insurance provider. The day the insurance got turned on for TechShop #1, my daughter, (then 7 or 8 or so) and I went in to help demo drywall and so forth to start the shop build out. Later, the minimum age became machine-by-machine, and always with a parent/guardian present. Laser cutters and sewing/surging machines had a minimum age of 12 at one point, and at the same time the Bridgeports had a minimum age of 16. Not sure about other machines. Not sure what it is now -- it tends to change as the insurance carrier thinking evolves -- and insurance is, as you would imagine, a big line item on the expense side of the P&L.

      So, remember, we are talking insurance company thinking here, so normal common-sense thinking does not apply. The thinking is driven by statistical tables, recent legal settlement amounts, and the personal gut-check of the lead underwriter's visceral fears. Given all that, I think TechShop has had a reasonable experience with insurance, despite my daughter not being able to get at many of the machines for age reasons.

      Unfortuantely, there is no "brain check" that can work -- I used to each one of the safety-and-basic-usage classes (SBU's) for one of the machines. It is designed to make you safe to use the machine, and in my experience age has little to do with how safe a person is. There was one 50 year old mechanical engineer who had obviously been a paper-pushing engineer for 25 years, because during one incident the main thought going through my mind was: "Good God, man, can't you *hear* that is a *very* unhappy machine???", while other people with much less background were safer to be around.

  2. What? by Vokbain · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wtf is The Foundry? Wtf is Makerspace? Who cares about this? Why is this news? Usually postings at least have some sort of point to them, but in this case I can't figure out what that may be!

    1. Re:What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Makerspace" translates from Douche to English as "public or members-only workshop for DIY enthusiasts".