Beyond the Makerspace: Making and Relational Rhetorics by Ann Shivers-McNair

Author:Ann Shivers-McNair [Shivers-McNair, Ann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: LAN009000 Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Published: 2021-06-07T00:00:00+00:00

Figure 6. Eric documents speed and power settings on project material

Page 77 →Eric had, the day before, found a strength-and-power combination that successfully cut through the practice piece, and he was now attempting to recreate that cut on a new piece. But the settings that had worked before were not working this time, and the puzzle pieces were not dropping free. Eric offered several reasons for this: the flooring piece could have a slight difference in thickness from the practice piece, or this piece (or the practice piece) could be slighted warped, or there might be a different amount of moisture in the air or in the material, or there could have been a temperature difference. “Too many variables to track and write down,” he added. “It’s easier to just get through it.” (Indeed, this was not an unusual philosophy of documentation in SoDo Makerspace.)

And this brings us to the little laser cutter fire that begins this chapter. Eric instructed the laser cutter (via the driver) to make another pass, this time at a slower speed, and after it began cutting, he turned away to set his practice piece (with the notes) on a nearby table. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flame on the laser cutter bed through the glass door, and I called Eric back. He grabbed his water bottle and opened the machine Page 78 →door, which automatically shut off the laser. The fire went out with the rush of air (Figure 7), and Eric removed the burned pieces. (Now that I’ve seen fires on the laser cutter, Eric’s “ready, fire, aim” metaphor at the beginning of this chapter has taken on a whole new meaning.) He speculated that the fire might have been caused by having the laser make another pass when the material was still hot from the previous pass, or perhaps the speed setting was too slow. He made a note on the burned pieces of the speed and power settings on the pass when the fire occurred (Figure 7). Eric then removed the cutting bed and opened a panel on the front of the machine, pulling out a tray full of bits of materials from previous cuts. He dumped the tray in the trash and grabbed a broom to reach further back into the machine to try to sweep out still more pieces. “It’s only gonna be as nice to me as I am to it,” he pointed out as he cleaned. One of Eric’s colleagues walked in and saw Eric crouched in front of the laser cutter with a broom. “Just a little fire in the laser cutter,” I said, and he nodded.

Two weeks later, in mid-February, I saw a printed set of daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance steps for the laser cutter sitting on the laser computer station, and I learned that Eric’s colleague with an engineering degree had produced them. When I saw the instructions, I was reminded of the now-defunct wiki instructions Lauren had shown me.

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