Makerspace systems

I built most of the Makerspace’s systems, so makers can book classes, learn the machines and report problems on their own. The rest of the team ran budget, safety and incoming requests.

• SharePoint home base: built and rebuilt two or three times. It started bare-bones, with just class sign-ups and orientations, and grew into a page for each skill area with its instructors, the class booking site, and Report, Submit and Request buttons on the homepage
• Machine consoles: each station’s computer set up with its software and accounts, with files kept in OneDrive
• Records: instructors and orienters log each orientation and class sign-off (398 in the record book) so we can track new makers, plus an equipment list of 61 entries. Project submissions are how we measure use
• Equipment error reporting: a maker reports a problem from the homepage or a machine’s QR code. Maintenance marks the ticket in progress while diagnosing, contacts the maker with questions, and updates the ticket when the fix is done. Every ticket feeds a maintenance page
• Incident and near-miss reporting: a submit-only form, a staff-only list, and a Power Automate alert to staff
• Project gallery and Project Recipes: makers submit projects; recipes document example builds, with the piece in the display case
• Library: 74 guides, software pages and tutorials, and an instructor and Supermaker directory with card views per area
• Maker Store: single items from bulk orders, ordered by QR, with proceeds to charity
• Laser Settings Estimator: starting power, speed and passes for the Laser Lab, by laser, material and job, plus a test grid to download for LightBurn.

The Makerspace Hub

A web app to replace the SharePoint lists and Bookings. SharePoint has limits, and our team has room to experiment. It has a 43-table database with row-level security, magic-link sign-in, a page for every machine reached by QR tag, problem reports and service logs, classes, a library, a maker directory, the project gallery, recipes, materials, the store and events. It already holds 389 makers, 421 orientations, 584 class records and 103 projects.