FAQ

Membership, Courses and Equipment Use 

Do I have to be a member to use the equipment?

Yes. You can either join, take the appropriate class, and become certified to use the equipment, or you can hire us on a contract basis to do the work needed. Please also note that even if you are a member, you will need to complete our Orientation and Workshop Safety Training, along with our Machine Shop Safety Training, in order to take most courses offered by NextFab Studio.

How do I sign up for a class?

Go to http://nextfabstudio.com/classes/schedule-of-classes and select the class you would like to sign up for. If you are a new user and this is your first class, you will be prompted to create and authenticate a user account. You can then sign up for classes using your username.

Why doesn’t my NextFab Studio network login work for signing up for classes? or ... Why do I have to create a new username and account to sign up for classes?

The username provided to you upon joining NextFab is to access our server and our network. We use an external Web service for our classes and machine reservation calendar, so you will need to create your own, different account to use these Web-based services.

Can I take your laser cutting class (or Z-Corp class, or CNC milling class, or ... ) if I’m not a member?

We offer certain classes to non-members (all of our software and electronics courses), as the tools are readily available outside of NextFab, and there is little or no risk involved. However, for the safety of humans and machines alike, we require our members to take 4 hours of basic training before they are even allowed to take classes on tools that can pose a serious hazard. We ask members to make this substantial investment in training, and in return, we entrust them with fantastic tools they can have access to nowhere else.

Well... I already know how to use that machine. Do I still need to take a class? Are there exceptions to the rule?

If you believe you have sufficient experience with a particular machine, you can sign up for private tutoring. While private tutoring is $60 per hour, if you can demonstrate your knowledge in five or ten minutes, you will only be charged that portion of the hour. During this time, we will also instruct you on facility-specific procedures, such as how to begin and finish working, how to clean up, and other information, which is essential for safe and courteous use of our particular equipment and our shared facility.

What is the difference between expert members hours and general members hours?

During General hours, we are fully staffed and are able to teach courses, help you, answer questions, etc. Expert hours are open to any fully proficient on a machine. Please realize that we will not be able to answer any questions or help you with your project or with an issues that arise with the machine. If you are not fully independent with your machine use or would like to ask us advice on a project you are working on, please come back during our regular business hours when we will be happy to help you. Read more about our expert policy here.

Contract Work/Prototyping/Consulting

What’s the difference between design, engineering, consulting, and fabrication?

NextFab provides a variety of services, and large projects can involve both design/engineering work, as well as fabrication. For our purposes, we break these services down as follows:

Design, Engineering, and Consulting are grouped as services with a $100 hourly rate. These services involve high-level creative or evaluative work on your project. This might involve developing a concept from a napkin sketch to a product ready for fabrication, or testing and developing an existing design. Essentially, the client provides NextFab with an idea or set of requirements and asks NextFab to create a solution to meet these requirements.

These services typically will include gathering a set of requirements from the client and establishing a scope of work before proceeding with design and possibly fabrication.

Fabrication is a different category of service, with a $75 hourly rate. In this case, the client provides us with a complete design and asks NextFab to execute it to their specifications. This may be as simple as uploading to our Quotes page a file to be laser cut, or providing us with a drawing or CAD model to work from. For any work that falls under the fabrication category, NextFab staff are not actively evaluating, refining, or changing your design, but are simply producing your parts according to your specifications.

Larger projects often involve both design and fabrication services. When we agree upon the scope of work for a project, NextFab staff will clearly identify which parts of the work fall under design/engineering rates, and which fall under fabrication rates.

Do I reserve machine time if I want you to run the job?

No. If you hire us for contract work, we will take care of all necessary work.  Please only reserve machine time for work that you will personally do.
 

Facility Use

Can I bring in my own tools?

You can bring in your own hand tools if you like. However, you will need to obtain permission from a manager to bring in power tools or anything unusual. Please also keep in mind that if you are looking for a particular tool that we do not have, other members may also find it useful -- if you let us know what tool you want to bring in, we may decide to purchase it for the facility.

Where can I store items (project/sheet goods) that won’t fit in my locker?

As a general rule, if your project won’t fit into your locker, it needs to be transported to and from the facility daily. Unfortunately, we simply do not have the room for large projects to be stored here on a regular, ongoing basis. That said, there are exceptions, usually when there is a large project and the member is working on it continually over a few days. All exceptions MUST be approved by management, and we will want to know how many pieces you are working on, what machines you are using, and how long the material will be here. If it’s going to be more than a few days, it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to keep it here.

If you decide to store large material here and do not tell anyone, and do not get management approval, we reserve the right to remove it without compensation.

Can I order materials myself and have them shipped to NextFab?

No. While we do stock frequently used materials, including acrylic, wood and metal, we do not have the staff or time to take shipments from all of our members and we are unable to take responsibility for the accuracy, care, and security of any member shipments. If you would like to work on material that we do not normally stock, you have two options: you can source and obtain the material yourself and bring it into the facility, or we can order the material for you.

Why doesn’t your Web site tell me what items you stock or what your current inventory is?

At this point, we don’t have a set list of items that we always have in stock -- our inventory varies based on projects we are working on internally, materials that we order for contract work, and recent member purchasing trends. We don’t want to provide misleading information by stating that we always have certain materials in stock when it’s more likely that we don’t. Similarly, we don’t have a real-time tracking of our inventory, so we do not want our Web site to state that we have something in stock when there is a chance it is incorrect. If you would like to inquire as to whether or not we have a particular item in stock, please call us -- we will be happy to physically check our inventory and give you a correct and accurate answer.

Don't see your question here?  Call or write us anytime!