Author Topic: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace  (Read 14896 times)

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Offline codeboy2k

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace
« Reply #25 on: January 05, 2014, 04:43:40 pm »
Apartment by chance?

Don't have such a system in my house, so I keep a fire extinguisher next to the bench, just in case.

Yes, I am in a condominium now, but even my previous house (built in 2001) had a full house sprinkler system and a fire pump to feed it from the well.  My childhood house (which was built in the late 50's) did not have any such thing, so it's a recent requirement but one that I firmly agree with.
 

Online SeanB

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace
« Reply #26 on: January 05, 2014, 04:57:44 pm »
Aluminium alloys however do burn quite well, and you very rarely get plain aluminium, most is alloyed either with a little silicon, a little magnesium or other metals to improve properties. Aluminium aircraft do burn very well once you get the fire started.
 

Offline mrflibble

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace
« Reply #27 on: January 05, 2014, 05:10:21 pm »
Is that an engineer's exasperated sigh at a massive sensationalist oversimplification I hear @14:11 ?     

Just start at 13:50 and wait for it. ;D
 

Offline codeboy2k

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace
« Reply #28 on: January 05, 2014, 05:48:58 pm »
There's little that wont burn when hit by a piece of molten tungsten at 3422 °C
Anything flammable, that is... but after watching the video, something about the cause still doesn't seem quite right to me; according to them the capacitor bank was encased in an aluminium server rack, and aluminium doesn't burn - it melts. The spark gap would've been running when it threw the electrode and unless it was run unattended, wouldn't someone at least have noticed that, if not the loss of functionality? ???
Also, why is it that they are investigating the cause of the fire themselves?  I would think the law requires that the fire marshall be investigating, not the tenants...

 

Offline Monkeh

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace
« Reply #29 on: January 05, 2014, 07:32:08 pm »
There's little that wont burn when hit by a piece of molten tungsten at 3422 °C
Anything flammable, that is... but after watching the video, something about the cause still doesn't seem quite right to me; according to them the capacitor bank was encased in an aluminium server rack, and aluminium doesn't burn - it melts. The spark gap would've been running when it threw the electrode and unless it was run unattended, wouldn't someone at least have noticed that, if not the loss of functionality? ???

No, the MMC was not encased. That's the impulse generator. The MMC was an open framework of aluminium with the capacitors mounted on acrylic sheet.

If you think you'd notice the collision while the coil was firing.. well, it's a 200kVA coil. It's quite audible on the other side of the building.

Is that an engineer's exasperated sigh at a massive sensationalist oversimplification I hear @14:11 ?     

Just start at 13:50 and wait for it. ;D


No, I think that's related to the fact that he built that system and it all burned down over one loose screw.

Also, why is it that they are investigating the cause of the fire themselves?  I would think the law requires that the fire marshall be investigating, not the tenants...

I would think that you should check into actual laws rather than speculate (no, I don't know either).
 

Offline mrflibble

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace
« Reply #30 on: January 05, 2014, 07:35:58 pm »
Is that an engineer's exasperated sigh at a massive sensationalist oversimplification I hear @14:11 ?     

Just start at 13:50 and wait for it. ;D
No, I think that's related to the fact that he built that system and it all burned down over one loose screw.
Mmmh, good point. Maybe I was just projecting my  ::) when I was listening to that explanation.
 

Offline SparkyProjects

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace
« Reply #31 on: January 05, 2014, 07:38:48 pm »
Actually, they did have fire protection in the HVAC system which worked perfectly to shut it down, there iis a fire alarm system at the lab which is in the process of being installed, but this is being done volutarily by the alarm company, i'll let this vid explain the rest


As for detail on how it happened, check here
 

Offline pomonabill221

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace
« Reply #32 on: January 06, 2014, 01:44:22 am »
Frankly, I can't stand the guy (probably going to get flamed BIG TIME), but it is sad to see their complex get damaged.
I can see a big lawsuit or something similar coming!
That is sad to see!
 

Offline milktoast

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Re: Fire at The Geek Group makerspace | Chris Boden
« Reply #33 on: December 02, 2014, 04:28:09 am »
Frankly, I can't stand the guy (probably going to get flamed BIG TIME), but it is sad to see their complex get damaged.
I can see a big lawsuit or something similar coming!
That is sad to see!

So, in doing a little reading about other Hackerspaces I ended up here, and saw a few threads where questions of Chris Boden's character were called into question. Since I'm from the Grand Rapids / Kalamazoo area, and have spent a decent amount of time volunteering at TGG and being around Boden I wanted to share what I know and what I've heard.

Most of it is not pretty.

Its off topic here, so I'll respond in full over here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/chat/opinions-about-'the-geek-group'-on-youtube/
 


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