Membership 101: Safety
Safe making practices are of the utmost importance here at Phoenix Forge. With our growing and diverse community of members, it takes all of us at the makerspace adhering to a high standard of safety to ensure that everyone has a productive and enjoyable experience.
The equipment at Phoenix Forge ranges from basic hand tools like screwdrivers to advanced machinery such as laser cutters and CNC routers. Respecting these tools and understanding how to use them is essential to preventing accidents and maintaining working equipment. Additionally, ensuring everyone feels safe and respected is as important as maintaining physical safety. We expect members and our staff to treat everyone with kindness and consideration, regardless of their background, identity, or skill level.
In this blog post, we’ll go over the four ways we ensure safety at all levels of the makerspace experience, and give you a preview of some our safety standards.
An Experienced Staff
All of our teaching and technical staff are skilled craftspeople with professional experience in their area of focus. Many are accomplished artists and artisans, credentialed specialists, and/or longtime teachers. Our staff wear many hats: designing and facilitating classes, keeping equipment functioning properly, and most importantly, making sure they are operated safely. We maintain a low staff-to-student ratio to ensure that they can perform each of these duties while also providing ongoing, one-on-one support to all of our members.
If you are ever uncertain about the correct operation of a tool or machine, have a question about materials, processes, or our policies and procedures—just ask!
Advanced Safety Infrastructure
From the design of the building to the design of our classes and workshops, safety is built into the entire experience of the makerspace.
- Ventilation: We all know that making can make a mess—and sometimes, create harmful or hazardous byproducts. Throughout the makerspace, our heating and cooling system operates with a 100% air exchange, pumping in fresh air at all times. For our wood shop, metal shop, 3D printers and laser cutters, we have additional high-powered ventilation systems and filters to keep the air clean.
- Tools & Technology: Many of our machines feature a fail-safe to prevent accidents and reduce the risk of human error. For example, we use a SawStop table saw in the wood shop that automatically shuts down when it comes into contact with anything carrying an electrical signal, such as nails, staples, or fingers.
- Security: The doors to Phoenix Forge operate on a badge or buzz system to prevent unauthorized entry, and ensure sure that visitors, members and their guests can work in the space safely. Additionally, a security guard is stationed inside the makerspace during business hours to observe and report to campus police.
Comprehensive Policies and Procedures
A communal working environment with a wide variety of knowledge and expertise involves risks that require additional safety precautions. Prior to using our equipment, all members must take our work area orientation courses to familiarize themselves with the practices and policies at Phoenix Forge. These include:
- Personal Safety (Example: PPE usage or clothing requirements)
- Machine Safety (Example: the use of push sticks, and other blade safety rules)
- Material Safety (Example: restrictions on the type, source, and quality of materials)
Each of our areas—and in many cases, each piece of equipment within them—has specific guidelines for safe use, material restrictions, and required PPE. These will be covered in depth once you become a member and take each orientation course.
A Welcoming and Inclusive Environment
Phoenix forge membership is made up of members from across the valley from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences: young and old, experts and first-timers, students and business professionals, engineers, entrepreneurs, artists and more. As a staff, we are dedicated to fostering a strong sense of belonging for all—regardless of race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, and religion—and we understand the value each individual contributes to a diverse community.
Maintaining a safe work environment for all is an active and collective process. If you have any questions or concerns about our approach to safety or our policies and procedures, or have suggestions for how to make Phoenix Forge a safer place, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
