Chris Collins

Tools · makerspace

Machine inductions and sign-offs

Induct members on a makerspace's machines — a checklist the inductor ticks with them, a shuffled quiz with a pass mark, and a dated sign-off that expires when the machine says — with a register of who is signed off on what, expiring and expired sign-offs, CSV export, printable sign-off cards and member passports, a machine page for QR codes, and an editor for the space file.

Added

Works with

How to use it

A shared workshop needs to know who has been shown how to use each machine, and when that runs out. This tool keeps a space file — your space’s machines, with their hazards, PPE, materials, settings and inductions — and a register of sign-offs, all in this browser. It opens on a sample space with nine machines (a CO2 laser, a CNC router, FDM and resin printers, a bandsaw, a table saw, a metal lathe, soldering stations and a sewing machine) so you can try it before writing your own.

How to use it

  1. Machines lists the space’s machines. Each opens its machine page: what to wear, the hazards and rules as safety signs, the materials allowed and never allowed, the key settings, who to ask and the manual. This is the page the QR codes on the machine cards open, and it is laid out for a phone.

  2. Induct walks through an induction:

    1. Who — the machine, the member’s name and yours (the inductor’s, remembered here). If the member already has a sign-off on that machine, it says when it was and whether it has expired.

    2. Checklist — go through each item with the member and tick it. All of them must be ticked.

    3. Quiz — the machine’s questions in a shuffled order, with the options shuffled too; a machine can ask a few questions from a longer list. Below the pass mark, the wrong answers are shown with the right one and why, and Try again reshuffles.

    4. Sign-off — check the date, confirm, and sign off. The expiry date comes from the machine’s re-sign interval (12 months, 24 months, or never). Print a sign-off card — credit-card size or A6 with signature lines.

  3. Register shows the latest sign-off for each member and machine, with how many are active, expiring in the next 30 days and expired. Filter by name, machine or status, or tick Show history to see the older sign-offs a re-sign replaced. Export CSV backs it up; Import CSV merges a file in and skips sign-offs it already has. Print expiring makes an A4 list of who needs a re-sign.

  4. Passport is one member’s machines and when each runs out, printable as a card or A6.

  5. Kiosk makes everything larger for a tablet by the machines and hides the editor.

The space file

Edit space changes the space’s name, logo letters and contact details, and each machine: its id (used in links), type, location, photo, manual, the signs for what to wear, hazards and rules, the materials, settings, notes, who to ask (roles such as laser steward, not people’s names), and its induction — checklist, quiz questions with the right answer and why, pass mark, how many questions each attempt asks, and how often to re-sign. It is checked as you type.

Space file exports and imports it as JSON. To share it, publish the JSON where a browser can read it — a file in a GitHub repository, a gist, or your own site — and put its address in Published at. Then a link such as /tools/machine-induction/#space=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/you/space/main/space.json&machine=laser opens that machine’s page loaded from the published file; the machine cards put that link in their QR codes. A GitHub file page or gist page link is turned into its raw file for you. Files from older versions of the format are converted when they load, and the page says what changed.

The space file format is described at the top of makerspace-core.js, which other makerspace tools share.

Related: the label maker for machine and bin labels, the laser test card, router feeds and speeds and printer calibration.

Works in any current browser. The register is saved in this browser’s storage: use the same device for inductions, or move the CSV between devices.

Privacy

Members' names, inductors' names and the register stay in this browser. They leave it only in files you export (the CSV) and cards you print. Space files hold no member names, and nor do the links and QR codes. Loading a space file from a URL fetches that file from the address you give and nothing else; it is fetched without cookies.

Runs entirely in your browser — network requests go only to the services named on this page.