I have been trying to work together with Education to get some silicone and epoxy classes together for about a year now. Leadership does not currently plan to have a finishing room. There is no other space where such a project is currently allowed.
The current status of what could become a finishing room is that it is a storage closet of stuff semi-related to asembly but owned by individuals. There was some thought that there might be a way to install ventilation in the room due to their being some ducts in the ceiling, but it has been determined that this is not feasibile. This has scrapped the idea of a “clean room” or “finishing room” in the eyes of leadership, as far as I have heard. Last rumor I heard was that some metal shop equipment might move in to try to avoid dust from the woodshop, but the reality is that there is no fire in anyone to do much of anything with that room at the moment. The project was slated to begin in January and yet here we are.
To me, it would be great to have a “wet room” or a room where wet things can cure or dry, and where there wouldn’t be a ton of dust, and where we can lay down silicone mats and butcher paper to allow for things to get a little bit messy. Currently, this sort of thing is ABSOLUTELY not allowed in any spaces like the electronics lab, multipurpose room, or textiles room, and woodshop is such an active and dusty space that it isn’t really feasible. I think it would be a beneficial space even without active ventilation. We currently have several resin 3D printers in a space without active ventilation, there is absolutely no reason why incidental epoxy projects would be any different, especially if a pressure pot is used, which is by definition and function air tight. Other projects that could benefit from such a space, even without significant ventilation, include painting with brush on paints, applying wood finishes, small and delicate gluing opperations, mold making, staining leather, paper mache, soap making, screen printing, and more.
Anyway, I’ll step down from my soap box. I am happy to be an active participant in making this room happen, as I have been willing since January.
Ok the change of plans only came to my attention yesterday, so I am putting together a proposal. Anyone interested in teaching classes in said space please DM me so I can add you to the proposal. Also if you are willing to volunteer time to make it happen, please reach out.
Absolutely false, as I said above. I will have an initial proposal that uses that space finished within a week or so. The machine shop desperately needs a new mill, and that area represents the only place to put it.
If you want to submit a different proposal in the same time frame, you certainly can; in that case the board will have to choose between them.
If we’re talking about a small scale, project based class to learn the basics of epoxy, could the mixing and pouring stage be done outside and then the pieces covered and brought in to cure on 7 day storage shelves for a couple days before demolding? Any issues in the finished product would be a good learning experience for why dust free space is important. The class would still learn a lot and I doubt anyone would expect professional quality results from their first project.
I’m totally fine with having, say, an imperfect wood and epoxy small serving tray/charcuterie board type thing after a class in which I learn how to do it the right way.
If it’s visibly flawed enough, it’ll match everything else I’ve ever made.
I’m excited to have this class live and to have the first session next weekend!
The way I’ve designed the class takes into account many of the great comments above and has a bunch of multi-stage pre-cooked blanks (ala the cooking show suggestion from Jon). We will be pouring deep pour (the blue in the coaster pic) and talking about mold making, stock prep, degassing, demolding, sanding, shaping and more. We will be pouring the white pigmented faster setting setting epoxy into the pre-carved text blanks and talking final surfacing, sanding and finishing. Through the magic of TV (aka prep work between sessions), we will not have to wait for any epoxy to dry to continue moving forward as each class member will go home from the single class session with a completely finished live edge and inlaid epoxy coaster (first batch is the pecan and blue epoxy coaster as shown in the class listing).
I appreciate everyone’s responses in this thread as it was a great help in putting this class together. I just looked and 3 of the initial 4 spots are already taken! The plan is to offer this monthly to start and potentially expand the class to 6 students as well.
The first class is this Saturday and is already filled up but we have already scheduled another session on 8/6 at noon if anyone wants to sign up for that.
