- Joined
- Nov 22, 2008
- Messages
- 1,506
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- 48
I'm not sure what people think of this idea, but here goes:
I know that on the forum we have a huge range of people, with access to different useful machinery and tools, through work, school or home, and I was wondering if people would find it useful to have a searchable list of people who are willing to do or volunteer their stock and services, from machinework to powdercoating, to LPM testing and soldering. If done right, the list could include location (so you can find someone local), prices applicable if any, times accessible, whether or not you could visit, what they'd need to build/work from, and contact information (protected from spammers, obviously). From there, if I, say, wanted to find someone with access to a laser engraver, I could use a Google map and see an overlay of my local area, or I could search the entire map for people with the more exotic services such as CNC high-precision machines, then email them for more information.
With some work I think that we could all benefit from this (especially ambitious builders), but as with anything, there are going to be some flaws and people who may abuse the system. Of course, the main flaw is that it's probably just easier to contact existing companies in your area, but in some cases, this may be too expensive, especially for building single prototypes on a low budget, whereas it's much easier for a student or machine-shop employee to put together a prototype. One is that people may just "leech" off the service and avoid putting anything back into the community effort. The last I can see is the potential legal ramifications.
What do people think of the idea? Any issues I may have missed here?
I know that on the forum we have a huge range of people, with access to different useful machinery and tools, through work, school or home, and I was wondering if people would find it useful to have a searchable list of people who are willing to do or volunteer their stock and services, from machinework to powdercoating, to LPM testing and soldering. If done right, the list could include location (so you can find someone local), prices applicable if any, times accessible, whether or not you could visit, what they'd need to build/work from, and contact information (protected from spammers, obviously). From there, if I, say, wanted to find someone with access to a laser engraver, I could use a Google map and see an overlay of my local area, or I could search the entire map for people with the more exotic services such as CNC high-precision machines, then email them for more information.
With some work I think that we could all benefit from this (especially ambitious builders), but as with anything, there are going to be some flaws and people who may abuse the system. Of course, the main flaw is that it's probably just easier to contact existing companies in your area, but in some cases, this may be too expensive, especially for building single prototypes on a low budget, whereas it's much easier for a student or machine-shop employee to put together a prototype. One is that people may just "leech" off the service and avoid putting anything back into the community effort. The last I can see is the potential legal ramifications.
What do people think of the idea? Any issues I may have missed here?
