Workshop Access

[Normy]

Hey All,

Currently, our uni does not allow students after hours access to the FSAE shed which is really annoying. They have not shown us concrete evidence (ie uni rules/legislation/etc) to prove to us that we cannot gain access to the shed.

I know some of the other Aussie universities allow this and I was wondering what rules/guidelines/procedures/etc that they have to go through to be allowed to work on their car on weekends and after hours.

Any info would be great.

Cheers.

[Normy]

Hey All,

Currently, our uni does not allow students after hours access to the FSAE shed which is really annoying. They have not shown us concrete evidence (ie uni rules/legislation/etc) to prove to us that we cannot gain access to the shed.

I know some of the other Aussie universities allow this and I was wondering what rules/guidelines/procedures/etc that they have to go through to be allowed to work on their car on weekends and after hours.

Any info would be great.

Cheers.

[Wright D]

You might want to talk with your risk management department. They are the people who call all the shots at our school.

[Chuck Dean]

We have access to a lot of expensive equipment. As soon as something (any small something) is stolen - all access is taken away.

That's the way it goes.

[kozak]

we have free reign of a machine shop/welding area on campus, and i am currently getting access to the machine shop lab used by the university for classes. basucally it has always been like that for us.trying to get the uni to change it's policies is almost impossible i've tried. try to negotiate times that you want to be in there and talk to them about you guys taking safety courses to put their minds at ease. OR THEY MIGHT HAVE TO HAVE A PAID EMPLOYEE BE A KIND OF TOOL CRIB ATTENDANT.

[Mike Claffey]

Our access is in a similar catagory to after hours computer labs. We have a key to that lab and that lab only, and if dodgy stuff happens on campus we generally get the blame. No workshop facilities outside of 9-5 which is a bummer... one of the reasons why there is alot of carbon on the car.

[Jersey Tom]

Its all about liability and risk management. If some student gets injured pretty badly off-hours with no one supervising.. someone is gettin in big trouble.

Our FSAE-specific area is pretty limited.. pneumatics, TIG welder, oxy/acetylene, and a rickity mill I don't want to bother with.

I am paid to run a CNC machine shop on campus, which is very convenient. Because of that, and that its crunch time, I JUST got access for this weekend to our Mech E machine shop. I'm the only person our dept. head is letting use it, and for good reason. Doesn't want blood sprays all over the walls.

I know there's some schools that have stuff lined up such that a handful of people who are very proficient at machining, and have gone through some sort of training, have access to campus facilities after hours.

You just gotta convince em you have the need, and convince them person X, Y, and Z are qualified to do stuff after hours and no one will get hurt. A lot of students do silly things..

Running machiine spindles backwards..

Taking aluminum to grinding wheels..

Leaving wrenches on mill drawbars..

[james17]

We had our faculty advisor come up with the same thing at one point, only access during working hours, we basically put a proposal together with him and the machinest on campus that any student on campus afterhours would have to attend a saftey course and sign wavers, thereby making us look responsible and removing liability from the school, the huge sums of money we raised didnt hurt either...

[Blake_DFSAE]

we have less access

almost all the shop time is dedicated to 5th year projects, so until some team members are in fifth year we not only can't work past 5, we can't work when others need space

[Scott Sinclair]

Geez Normy...no after-hours access would make it a bit tougher.

One car build I was involved in, the workshop (according to the webcam) was unattended for only 2 hours out of 272 straight.

That's equivalent to 34 days of 9-5 building the car or just 11 days using all 24 hours.

Come Novemeber thats pretty important...although your probably aware of this already.

[Wright D]

In 2004 we only had access to our shop from 8-5, and the car ran in March.

In 2005 we had 24/7 access, and the car did not run until April.

There is so much work that goes into being a successful fsae team that does not involve cutting and grinding. Use your nights and weekends for that. http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_wink.gif

We found that only having day time access to the shop allowed, no, forced us to use our time wisely. This made us plan the build of the car much better. When we had 24 hour access there was a LOT more wasted time. In fact; I am willing to wager that of the 168 hours possible in a week, less then 40 of them were useful.

It is just part of human nature, when something is limited you value it more, and so use it more diligently. When given free rain, it is devalued and so neglected.

But of course we will never give up the all hour access now that we have it. Besides, we love those 2:00 am way to tired laugh fests.

[Dr Claw]

do you guys ever find yourselves breaking into your own stuff?

we just did tonight...and i got sorta reamed by security. we popped open the recently locked door to the building that has our lab in it and security was right there...they have my student number and they are gonna fix the doors now..

moral of the story: dont get caught.

[Jersey Tom]

I don't think anyone would post publically "oh yea we break into stuff all the time!"

Our engineering building and lab are 24/7 tho.

[Mike Cook]

raise your own money, buy your own machines...I think it is one of the best investments you can make. We have an older graziano lathe. It had no collet holder, only a 3 jaw, and no tooling. We raised some money, bought new insert tooling, made a collet holder for it, set up a cooling pump, and now the thing rocks. Best thing we ever did. I don't know how people build cars on an 8-5 schedule.

[Jersey Tom]

Our budget is TIGHT. Whatever machine tools we get always wind up getting used by basically anyone who walks into our shop when we aren't around. Even a couple grand towards a lathe.. too much IMO. Money better spent elsewhere.

Never winds up being 8-5. Wind up getting access to the ME shop over the weekend.. or I use my machine shop 24/7.. use our limited facilities whenever we can.. you do what you gotta do

[RonBurgundy01]

OUCH, that must suck not having after hours use.

We have a pretty good relationship with the security guard who looks over the engineering department at our uni. He always pokes is head in just to make sure "nothing sus" is going on. We have 1 key to the workshop which opens a door on the outside of the building so therefore we don't actually get access to the inner part of the engineering wing.

Perhaps you could try having a chat with whoever handles the university secuirty. It may be an outside company the Uni has hired or it may be in-house security, just find out (it shouldnt be too hard).

If that fails maybe have a chat with the head of the engineering school. If you explain to him/her that you really need to have after hours access to make the project a success they should go for it. Even if you have to make a few sacrifices to keep them happy, it's better than no access at all.

If worst comes to worse you might have to bite the bullet and buy some tools then hit someones shed. I know that we will probably do a bit of building 'off site' this year due to a re-arranging of the engineering building.

Hope to see you guys at the comp this year http://fsae.com/groupee_common/emoticons/icon_smile.gif

[Normy]

Thanks to all who responded to this thread. I have some good information and now I just have to write a proposal to the faculty.

Wish me luck...