Public Workshop | |||||||||||||||||
[This isn't an original idea, seeing as how there's one in Menlo Park, CA. I'm putting it on here because I believe we need more of these.] A public workshop: for a membership fee (or less?!), you get access to all sorts of tools, powered and manual. The shopkeepers are available for lessons, tips, or help with large jobs. Through communal tool-sharing, everyone has access to a virtual garage--it's like high school shop all over again, except that now you choose which projects to work on.
nayhem, Sep 22 2006
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Copyright © Barry Nalebuff & Ian Ayres
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I would love to have access to such a facility but I have heard that the insurance costs are considerable since the accidents around power tools can be very bad.
They're charging $100 a month ($30 a day), which apparently accounts for such considerations. There are the usual safeguards, such as required primer lessons on unfamiliar equipment. I suppose physically separating the machinery by threat level would be useful.
There is a metal shop in Albuquerque, NM where you can rent time on lathe, mills, cutoff saws, ...
They are also called "tool libraries"
This is something I've thought of before, following the gym membership model. How I wish one existed in my town!