Great news! I am motivated, have a project, have taken the orientation and qualifying classes for the tools I wish to use (metal shop/lathe/mill), and am ready to fire up a membership for the first time and get cracking.
Bad news! I took those classes the last time I was motivated… in late 2023/early 2024. I know there’s been at least a new mill and a shop rearrangement since I was last in.
The classes were not my first exposure to the machines themselves; I took then TA’d a machine shop course back in college so I’m not too worried about the nuts and bolts of machine operation, but have there been any changes in policy or procedure I should be aware of?
Hold the chips. Asmbly has specific policies regarding this, but I haven’t been able to find them on the wiki. I know that Asmbly policy states that absence of more than a year requires some classes to be retaken, but I don’t know which classes this applies to and whether exceptions can be granted (and how if so). @valerie , do you know where our policies on this are available online?
Sounds like a checkout would be sufficient for you for the mill and lathe, and it would be cheaper and easier, assuming we can arrange a time in the next week.
There’s two issues: not running afoul of any official policy, and just catching you up in general. Assuming we are OK with the former, which I need an external answer for, given the experience level you say you have, I would be fine with you signing up for just a Mill Check-out, and then covering everything then.
Retake any relevant safety classes (i.e. Woodshop Safety, Metal Shop Safety, and/or Ceramics Safety [we have ceramics now!])
As Ethan said, we do also offer checkout classes for the others (metal lathe, mill)—they’re condensed sessions intended for members with prior experience. The regularly scheduled class will be more thorough, but I’m happy to arrange a checkout if you’d prefer.