Interested in founding a local “Maker Space” - any experiences?

[Phillip Mitchell]

I’m interested in founding / managing a local Maker Space in my small but active town. This is something that I’ve had rolling around in my head for a few years, but kept pushing aside because it seemed like such a hurdle, but I keep coming back to it.

What I’m envisioning is an ample sized shop space, ideally in a vacant industrial building close to the downtown area that can serve as a fully outfitted shop with communal access to large stationary machinery and have additional smaller spaces for individual bench spaces. There would be a “subscription” fee to gain access to the shop on a regular basis, likely tiered with basic access up to full access to the shop depending on which tier someone wanted / if they wanted their own permanent bench space. There are tons of little “shop rules” and other minutiae that could be discussed in this thread if folks have experiences from participating in communal shops that I’d certainly like to hear about, but that’s not really the main focus of this thread.

This could also be a place where classes or demonstrations to engage the community / budding woodworkers could happen which would not only have the potential to bring more folks into the fold of the shop, but also create a local “vibe” of creativity, productivity, and community.

I know that this exists in several places around the world already and is not a new idea, though there is currently nothing like this in my area for woodworking and never has been. I am acquainted with someone who does this very thing in Raleigh (state capital) and seems to do well between that pursuit as well as running his own design / custom woodworking business. I plan to reach out to him and ask more about specifics, but thought I’d ask here for more insight.

There is a local state university wood shop that you can only gain access to as a student, which feels different than what I’m thinking.

The big picture / creative talk could go on and on. Where I’m getting hung up are on the business considerations and potential insurance requirements / liability issues. I’m also interested in hearing input on how to pitch this idea to a potential “investor” as I don’t have the capital outright to make this happen alone (quickly while paying rent / mortgage on a building.)

Does anybody have any input or experience with this to share?

My main motivators for this are as follows:

To bring woodworking, creating and “making” into the local public eye in a way that becomes a staple of the local scene both artistically / culturally but also economically. Boone is a small mountain town that has (had pre-covid) a vibrant “local” downtown culture as well as Appalachian State and a lot of tourism from May - December from out of towners from all over who want to escape to the mountains.

To continue to build my dream shop and find a sustainable way to share it with others that have the same
passion for woodworking and quality tools. Over the past few years I’ve gone down the slippery slope of vintage machinery, (3 phase, heavy iron) and feel like that particular caliber of machinery had the ability to thrive in a setting like that and also be very attractive to other woodworkers who maybe don’t want to go through the trouble of acquiring and maintaining it on their own.

To do what I love as my job (don’t we all...) I’ve worked professionally both for myself in business and for others as a custom woodworker, timber framer, carpenter, project manager / contractor, as well as a custom band mill sawyer / sustainable, low impact logger prior to really diving into woodworking. I want to find a way to be in the shop everyday and surround myself with people who are interested and passionate about woodworking and get paid to do it. This very rarely happens in the trades and constantly trying to line up work as a custom woodworker / builder / etc really wears me down. I realize that a maker space wouldn’t be too much different fundamentally in the sense that there would need to be enough interest and actual “subscriptions” or other monetizations that would need to be there monthly or it would be just as stressful if not more so because of the potential overhead, but I’m willing to try and sort through that.

Ideally, I would manage said shop / maker space and be able to pay myself a salary of some kind that would supplement the custom / commission work I would continue with my own woodworking business (already in business currently.) The space would be my shop and also be a much more public / locally visible force than my current small basement shop on my own property (which is paid for, by the way...it is scary to think of creating monthly of a downtown shop space, but if the demand is there and the numbers work...)

Thanks any input!

[Matt Day]

There would be a HUGE upfront cost in doing this, unless you somehow have all the machines already. Besides that, liability will be a hurdle by itself.

Would you offer metalworking as well?

You’d need to come up with a good safety certification procedure - should t be too hard but will need all the documentation to OSHA or whoever that you tonight Johnny NOT to cut his finger off.

When I lived in Cleveland there were a couple maker spaces. I’d try giving a couple private ones a call and discuss their business plan and financials if they’ll let you.

It’s going to be hard to make money on, just like everything woodworking.

[Dave Sabo]

Where I’m getting hung up are on the business considerations and potential insurance requirements / liability issues.

You and everyone else that’s had this idea as a business. I’ll bet you a steak your buddy in the Triangle is subsidizing his “maker space” through his design and woodworking operations. No way he’s covering his overhead by selling subscriptions of hours of shop time to the well healed residents or Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill. Which, is far bigger and wealthier than Boone. Dollars to donuts he’s just supplementing his bottom line with the rented space. He’s gotta have the building and tools anyway for his other operations and most of his customers are probably using it after hours and on weekend - when his business has wound down.

Re: pitching the money men. If you’re asking how , you’re pretty much dead in the water already. Hate being blunt, but capital is a cutthroat biz. But let’s start here. How much do you need ? What’s your monthly overhead likely to be? How much are you going to charge per month and per hour? Based on that, how many makers are you going to need to commit each month to meet said overhead ? Can you realistically sell this many memberships in Boone ? What happens when they all show up next Saturday to make stuff and it’s too crowded for them all to work ? What happens when they then cancel their memberships nexT month / year because of that?

Now, with your membership shrinking or just changing , how are you going to pay the bills and service the debt ? And what happens when something like a global pandemic erupts and you can’t even have the space open for guys to come in for 3 weeks or a month. I’m still going to want my debt payment, and the PoCo and water bills are still due. How you gonna pay those ?

[stevo wis]

Phillip,
It is a great idea and it can pay for itself. Here in Madison, WI there is a very successful space called the Bodgery. I have only been a member for 6 months, but they offer a lot in metals, woods, machining, cnc, 3d printing, even fabrics etc. I dont know all about the starting up issues but I am sure if you search for the Bodgery and ask for information the board members would help. If you cant get anywhere, let me know and I will try to help.
Stevo

[Alex Zeller]

You might be better off approaching this slightly differently. Instead of you buying all the equipment, leasing the space, and needed insurance what about trying to form a woodworking club with the intent of having a common shop for all to use. Like coming up with a business plan you could come up with a plan for the club. Things like what pieces of equipment you think the shop will need right off, what pieces you think the shop will like in the future, how big of a shop will be needed, and stuff like that. You should be able to put a dollar amount to it and then try to find members and pitch the idea to them. You could find enough people with connections, say someone knows a cheap place to lease or knows of a good deal on used equipment. You might even find a company or two that will offer a great deal on new equipment in exchange for being able to show potential customers in the area the equipment in use. I think your idea has potential but it seams like it could take years to find enough people to make it viable.

[Jim Matthews]

http://covecreek.net/

[roger wiegand]

Many successful examples exist. I'd strongly suggest talking to the folks who run them to find out what works and why. The same folks either are or know people who have tried and failed at similar efforts; it's just as important to talk with them to see what didn't work and why.

There's a lot of demand and many pitfalls; the number of very successful examples suggests strongly that it's a very viable model. When it comes down to it I suspect the cost of machines and insurance will be among the least of your worries; successfully managing the needs, expectations, and issues associated with a fairly large number of users and benefactors is what will consume your days.

Running one of these places is, in large part, a fundraising job-- is that what you want to sign up for? If not, can you quickly find a partner who wants to do that aspect of the work? Chances are you won't have much time for woodworking in the first five years.

Look also at the model of Fablabs https://www.fablabs.io for maker spaces on steroids.

[Alex Zeller]

I've seen it done with automotive repair shops. AKA you rent a space to work on your car and you get a bay and tools to use. The down side to woodworking is that everything wood working related has something that will wear out. With a table saw you can let the user put their blade on it and remove it when done but as you move to things like sanders belts are easy to change but a PSA disc can't easily be removed and put back on at a later date. Then you get into jointer and planer knives. They will need to be sharpened and then set back up. With people having different schedules (some working early in the morning and other late at night) are you going to be there or on call when a paying customer thinks the knives are too dull? With a club multiple members can do the work but if you own the shop then it's either you or someone you are paying (which brings up a whole list of other requirements).

That doesn't include machines that break. You'll want to be on top of doing preventative maintenance, keeping track of all the tools and hardware that goes with a tool, and doing the repairs. Also what happens when someone sends a board through the planer with a hidden nail? Do you try to make them pay? Most likely you are going to be the one who pays. If it's a mainstay tool you can't have it down too long as customers aren't going to like to come down to process a bunch of rough cut lumber only to find they can't and it'll be a week or more before the parts show up. There's lots to think about.

[Jim Becker]

Whenever this kind of subject comes up, the number one thing eventually becomes...liability. So in addition to the funding to set a business up including both accounting/legal/permitting/space acquisition, etc., there is the big insurance elephant in the room, especially in this day and age. But that's part of developing a business plan. There's nothing bad about the idea...it just need a whole bunch of planning, paperwork and funding to make it happen. Part of that is certainly ascertaining if there would be a demand.

I'd also suggest you go slow on this from a standpoint of getting something up and running because of current conditions relative to "shared space" including numbers of people, social distancing, etc. That's a business reality right now. But having the time to better define things could be an advantage so you can more when the time is right with "all your ducks in a row". Include contacting other maker spaces in other geographies to hopefully glean some input from their experiences in getting set up.

[Richard Coers]

Maintaining membership will be your biggest hurdle. The first year of members isn't too tough with the excitement of a new space. But year two will see folks upset about high demand during prime time for certain machines and if they really evaluate the amount of time they actually came to the space, renewals will be tough. Secondly is the trying to find the second wave of new subscribers. Marketing will take up a fair amount of your time.

[Ryan J Carpenter]

Just out of school I looked into joining several these spaces which are numerous in Portland. I loved the concept of gaining access to all the tools I needed and couldn't store at home. I was also eager to access community that I had in similar spaces in school. However, many of the monthly costs were pretty steep and it was cheaper to start buying my own used tools. One of the larger challenges was that many required expensive and time consuming safety courses that really added up to access all the tools I had used for years.

[William Chain]

In addition to the myriad insurance and liability issues are the two big obvious problems with your rationale - you're essentially saying you want your dream shop paid for by not you, and you really love the whole idea of a woodworking business, minus the business. I mean...yeah...


To continue to build my dream shop and find a sustainable way to share it with others that have the same
passion for woodworking and quality tools. Over the past few years I’ve gone down the slippery slope of vintage machinery, (3 phase, heavy iron) and feel like that particular caliber of machinery had the ability to thrive in a setting like that and also be very attractive to other woodworkers who maybe don’t want to go through the trouble of acquiring and maintaining it on their own.

To do what I love as my job (don’t we all...) I’ve worked professionally both for myself in business and for others as a custom woodworker, timber framer, carpenter, project manager / contractor, as well as a custom band mill sawyer / sustainable, low impact logger prior to really diving into woodworking. I want to find a way to be in the shop everyday and surround myself with people who are interested and passionate about woodworking and get paid to do it. This very rarely happens in the trades and constantly trying to line up work as a custom woodworker / builder / etc really wears me down. I realize that a maker space wouldn’t be too much different fundamentally in the sense that there would need to be enough interest and actual “subscriptions” or other monetizations that would need to be there monthly or it would be just as stressful if not more so because of the potential overhead, but I’m willing to try and sort through that.

Ideally, I would manage said shop / maker space and be able to pay myself a salary of some kind that would supplement the custom / commission work I would continue with my own woodworking business (already in business currently.) The space would be my shop and also be a much more public / locally visible force than my current small basement shop on my own property (which is paid for, by the way...it is scary to think of creating monthly of a downtown shop space, but if the demand is there and the numbers work...)

Thanks any input!

[Andrew Joiner]

To bring woodworking, creating and “making” into the local public eye in a way that becomes a staple of the local scene both artistically / culturally but also economically. Boone is a small mountain town that has (had pre-covid) a vibrant “local” downtown culture as well as Appalachian State and a lot of tourism from May - December from out of towners from all over who want to escape to the mountains.


This may be your biggest downside. I live in an area that has a lot of tourism May to October.
Even before covid most businesses that survive here are dead in the winter. The same type business in Portland ( an hour away) is active year round. The bigger the population of your location the more likely you'll make it work. You may be able to draw year round business by having events set up year round to bring in customers from outside your area.

The sad news here is a few businesses that succeeded year round are closing. Probably covid related. The good news for here and maybe Boone NC in the future? People may move from crowded cities to smaller towns due to the virus.

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Hi!
I Googled your town. It is small.....
We had (temporarily closed pending relocation) a Makerspace. Honolulu has a bit less than a million people. A friend was a member. I think you are going to be targeting less than 1% of the population where you live. I think you'd need to have a sizeable population, just to get enough people that are even interested in WWing. Also, you would need a sizeable portion of those people, that live in townhouses/condos/high rises who don't have space to buy any tools whatsoever. As mentioned, many would rather spend a monthly fee on equipment that they own, providing one has the physical room for it. Our MS was pretty good from what I understand. You could do blacksmithing if you so chose. Unsure why they had to relocate. They were doing well. If my rapidly fading memory serves, the initial lease ran out and got tripled. Yet another problem one has to consider.
I wish you luck in your quest. We don't have enough of us wood workers. More would be better.

[Phillip Mitchell]

In addition to the myriad insurance and liability issues are the two big obvious problems with your rationale - you're essentially saying you want your dream shop paid for by not you, and you really love the whole idea of a woodworking business, minus the business. I mean...yeah...

Hah! Well I’m well on my way to having my dream shop (from my own finances slowly over time) that will continue to evolve independent of any maker space and I already have the woodworking business and some history with it.
It’s not as if I’m coming into this blind and empty handed and wanting someone to finance my entire operation. I’m simply seeing a business model that seems to work in other places and fleshing out of this is even a possibility in my area, which is a huge initial market research type question to answer.

It is extremely challenging to make a consistent living from strictly custom woodworking that is creative and small scale, yet this is the part of woodworking that I and so many others love and want to be involved in so much. Really all I’m doing in this hypothetical exercise is trying to harness that spirit and way of working and find a business model that can support it. Bringing it a bit more public and community / education oriented is a big plus.

I appreciate all the replies. I knew this would be a topic that garnered a good bit of cautionary and pragmatic responses, which is exactly what I’d like to hear.

[Dave Sabo]

Bodgery isn't going to be the best model to emulate for a business. It appears largely driven out of passion by the founders who have other jobs too. What does that tell you? Their first location was rent free if I recall . Last I heard they had 50 members paying $50 a month with a practical max of 100 members. $2500/mo. isn't likely to pay rent , utilities, and insurance - let alone service the debt you want to incur for the machines. You want to pay yourself a salary ? Good luck. $5k/mo. presents more options, but still isn't very realistic from an investment perspective. Madison also has 10x the population and double the medium income of Boone. Which means a lot more potential customers.

Insurance really isn't that big of a hurdle. You're just going to have to pay up. Which is part of your overhead. Liability is pretty easy to shield yourself from.

I seriously doubt the tourist crowd up there is going to contribute as part of the customer base. Might donate to your cause though. But it's been decimated this summer.



the number of very successful examples suggests strongly that it's a very viable model.
Roger - Could you list a few of the woodworking ones for me to check out ? And for the record, I don't consider a charity a successful business. We can disagree on that though. I don't view this as an entity that is going to work long term if the main focus is trying to regularly find customers or donors from fundraising. Especially in a town of 20,000. The numbers just aren't going to work.

[Phillip Mitchell]

Unfortunately, I agree with everything you just said and those things and more has been what’s kept me from going down this rabbit hole too far in the past.

The reality of any business is that you either have a customer base or you have to find / make it. This area really feels too small and economical depressed / tourism dependent for something like this to work in a profitable business sense. I just wish I was wrong.


Bodgery isn't going to be the best model to emulate for a business. It appears largely driven out of passion by the founders who have other jobs too. What does that tell you? Their first location was rent free if I recall . Last I heard they had 50 members paying $50 a month with a practical max of 100 members. $2500/mo. isn't likely to pay rent , utilities, and insurance - let alone service the debt you want to incur for the machines. You want to pay yourself a salary ? Good luck. $5k/mo. presents more options, but still isn't very realistic from an investment perspective. Madison also has 10x the population and double the medium income of Boone. Which means a lot more potential customers.

Insurance really isn't that big of a hurdle. You're just going to have to pay up. Which is part of your overhead. Liability is pretty easy to shield yourself from.

I seriously doubt the tourist crowd up there is going to contribute as part of the customer base. Might donate to your cause though. But it's been decimated this summer.



Roger - Could you list a few of the woodworking ones for me to check out ? And for the record, I don't consider a charity a successful business. We can disagree on that though. I don't view this as an entity that is going to work long term if the main focus is trying to regularly find customers or donors from fundraising. Especially in a town of 20,000. The numbers just aren't going to work.

[roger wiegand]

Artisan's Asylum is the one in Boston I'm most familiar with, they've been going for 25 years now https://artisansasylum.com. Here's a similar one in Minneapolis https://www.mplsmake.com. As far as I can tell they exist in most major cities. Google 'woodworking coop' and you'll get many hits to smaller operations. Coops range from 3-4 woodworkers pooling resources to ones with hundreds of members. A common model is to have a small number of full-time resident woodworkers and then occasional use members who pay a monthly fee. Many incorporate teaching as part of their program. Many town libraries now incorporate a laser cutter and 3D printer among their services, some go beyond that to CNC routers.

I don't think liability is a huge issue, that's what insurance is for. Paying for that insurance may be a bigger issue, your revenue model needs to incorporate adequate funding for it.

[Eduardo Galindez]

When I had my shop located in Charlotte, NC a woodworker and I talked about that idea. The concept was not only to create an environment where "small" makers can run their own business, the idea also included a main show room where customers can see different kind of styles, making a healthy competition environment.

The project also supported the idea about marketing the Maker Space (cheaper for each one), mixing also metal workers, upholsterers, woodworkers and other artist related to custom furniture business. Even 4 woodworkers could coexist in same same space using different styles, scopes, products, etc.

So Phillip, go ahead! I consider that this kind of projects should by run across the country.

[Mark Gibney]

Phillip I checked out your website, you do nice work.
Do you feel socially isolated in your work, are you attracted to having more company around you during the work day?
I ask this because I can only imagine that running a co-op is going to take away from your actual woodworking.

Maybe start off by pooling resources with a few other creative people so you can all work in a larger shop space than otherwise and see how you like that first?

best, Mark

[andrew whicker]

I can see doing a commune type thing. I.e. you get a group of artists, everyone mostly gets along, and you feed off of each other's energies. Everyone splits the bills. That, to me, could potentially be a lot of fun.

For a little while, I joined a makerspace in SLC. It was kind of goal less. Had a wood shop, but not a nice one. Had a metal shop, but not a nice one. Had this or that, but nothing fancy. You'd obviously draw the crowd you're going for. All fancy woodworking tools, charge premium for select members capped at a certain amt. Or do it the general way described above. I didn't like the 'little bit of everything, but bad at everything' model myself, but I think a lot of apartment dwellers that want some DIY time really liked it.

If I were having my day dream moment, I'd definitely want the commune with other art friends model. Shared living spaces, kitchen space, etc. That would be very rad.

[Pete Staehling]

I always thought most of the maker space places were mostly not following the for profit model.

Our local one here in Tallahassee is called Making Awesome. I haven't checked them out in person or even closely on line, but they are at https://www.makingawesome.org if you are interested in checking out another example. I think they have a mix of woodworking and metal working stuff.

[Matt Lau]

Not sure if this adds, but have you thought of bootstrapping and starting small?

Particularly with COVID, having a tent/pavilion structure with lots of airflow makes a ton of sense.
Also, hand tools (particularly used ones) are lower liability and cheaper than say....a ginormous Laguna table saw/planer/etc.
As you grow organically, you can get other artisans to join.

That being said, I have a very hard time seeing this as a for-profit model....especially in this economy.

[Patrick Kane]

With your stated goals, my first suggestion is what others suggested--the co-op/commune shop. Ive seen a few of these work successfully where 4 guys go in on a space, tools, etc. Its one of the ways of justifying high end equipment for a one man outfit. No offense to the one-man outfits out there, but the majority of them are getting by with a 20-30 year old 66/unisaw, 8" jointer, 15" four post import planer, and generally hobbyist level kit. And a lot of them do great work! However, life is easier with a spray booth, a nice italian/german slider, widebelt, etc. On top of the machines, 4 guys can kinda work effectively out of the same space as 1-2 guys. The setups ive seen locally and across the country are in maybe 3,000 sqft and each guy has a corner of the shop for his work bench. This is a good setup if you just want to upgrade your space and machines(doesnt hurt to have an extra set of hands around for 15 mins here and there either. I work alone, i know). Theres no liability or safety training or holding hands or 45-50 separate people jacking up your martin t54. This method doesnt make you a profit, but it cuts your expenses by a tremendous amount. If i started my own shop, i would probably found one of these setups and have the lease in my name, my machines, and treat the other guys as subleases in a sense. That way you retain control and could make money off the other folks. However, it would be good to have other people around because some operations are dreadful when you dont have a third hand, like i mentioned.

The Tech Shop/Makerspace in Pittsburgh(2.4M people) went under a few years ago. They also went into a quickly gentrifying area next to a Google headquarters, and i dont imagine the rent was cheap. I considered signing up, but the initial required safety training was arduous. I couldnt get over the safety fee and 8+ hours of classes/training.

[Rick Potter]

Phillip,

As I understand this, you do have a woodworking business of some kind, and want to share knowledge and experience with other people interested in woodworking.

May I suggest that considering the area you live in, that you might be better off starting a WW school. Like many others, you could offer classes in certain areas, with guest teachers. Perhaps your area is conducive for tourism, which means you could work deals with local B&B's and the like, so the non woodworkers in the family could enjoy a week also.

If it works out, you could even buy some unused historic building to hold the classes in. Rent parts of it out to like minded people who want to run quilting classes or whatever. Next thing you know, you have a destination business, and become filthy rich. :D

Seems to work out in other areas.

[Dave Sabo]

roger - thanks. Artisan look like it's everything to everybody. I'm still skeptical about them making the numbers work on memberships only. I recognize one board member, a VC guy from his days at GaTech's incubator. Surely they've grown organically and didn't start off with all that equipment an space? Greater Boston is also populous and wealthy. How many members are there ? MPLS is quite impressive. So are their monthly fees. No way Phillip is going to get the mountain folk to pony up that kind of dough every month.

Eduardo, what happened to your idea/plan ? I'm assuming you realized it just wasn't viable as a business ? Or at the least, not as profitable as what you're currently doing.

andrew - there is something like that close to Boone and Phillip already. Pendland School of Craft. https://penland.org/

Pete - I can remember when Capital Circle wasn't even a circle, but Making Awesome is in a great location if you ask me. Capital City Lumber was a real gem especially for Redwood back when I lived there. I don't think they have the type of equipment Phillip was envisioning though. It's about the feel and scale that I think would be possible in Boone though. But not really as a business.

Matt - cleaver idea, but the climate in Boone won't allow a tent for this endeavor.

[Alex Zeller]

There's plenty of up side to something like this. For example I've spend more than a decade doing glass work. Most of the woodworkers we sold glass to barely liked to touch the stuff. OTH we also sold to stained glass makers, glass blowers, and others who worked extensively with glass. I don't ever recall the two groups ever working together yet in a setting where woodworkers had access to plenty of other people they could make contacts. There was a glass blower near here who would take the left over melted glass and turn it into a sheet that had a look like the old glass you would find back in the revolutionary war days. He's moved but those sheets looked like they would have worked well in a cabinet door. Metal working would be another.

[andrew whicker]

I have a commercial space of about 1500 sq ft. I would love to have a different artist medium in there to feed off of. I know a lot of folks on here are strictly woodworkers. I don't consider myself a woodworker, but an artist. As such, I love to be exposed to different people w/ different ideas.

I am looking forward to doing some real collaboration with artists to create something that neither of could do on own.

[John Grossbohlin]

You might be better off approaching this slightly differently. Instead of you buying all the equipment, leasing the space, and needed insurance what about trying to form a woodworking club with the intent of having a common shop for all to use. Like coming up with a business plan you could come up with a plan for the club. Things like what pieces of equipment you think the shop will need right off, what pieces you think the shop will like in the future, how big of a shop will be needed, and stuff like that. You should be able to put a dollar amount to it and then try to find members and pitch the idea to them. You could find enough people with connections, say someone knows a cheap place to lease or knows of a good deal on used equipment. You might even find a company or two that will offer a great deal on new equipment in exchange for being able to show potential customers in the area the equipment in use. I think your idea has potential but it seams like it could take years to find enough people to make it viable.

I've been a member of a large woodworking club for 20+ years. The focus of the club is on teaching woodworking through hands on classes. Classes are taught by skilled members as well as "professionals." Various fund raising activities are undertaken including a big show each year. It took a long time to get to the point where we had a fully equipped large shop. For quite a while we had a large space that was heavily subsidized by the owner in the form of trivial rent. Eventually we lost the use of that space and had to find a space at market rates. We have several smaller shops for SIGS that are in donated space. One of those will be going away once the wife of the the donor passes... she generously allowed use after he passed. As that was happening the internet exploded with woodworking programming and easy availability of tools and consumables. Vendor and visitor numbers dropped significantly at the shows as expenses rose. To make it viable the show admission price and dues went up significantly. We are also loosing key members as they age out and/or pass away. COVID 19 creamed us this year as shows had to be cancelled and all the shops have been closed.

Being a club also means there are many people who have the notion of making something but don't know how to properly use the tools. As such, before a member can use a piece of equipment they have to attend training on that piece of equipment. That means volunteers need to be on site to monitor users and give the training. Staffing cannot be over looked in a place (whether it's a club, maker space, etc.) that potentially needs to be open 7 days a week in order to pay for itself.

I think it is a great club... many people have learned a lot and made good friends. Me personally... I taught classes, gave many presentations at the shows, and served as chapter treasurer for about 12 years. That said, looking at the club through my organizational researcher lens, given the above, I'm wondering how long the club can continue to remain viable... If it fails I have my own well equipped shop so access to tools isn't an issue for me. However, I do and will miss my club friends. I will also miss going out to dinner with the professionals in the evening during the big show--those dinner conversations were invaluable.

In my town there is a small maker's shop that is a few years old. I don't actually know anyone who uses it. My club also collaborates with a wooden boat school in my town where classes are taught--this is good for both organizations.

I'm not sure what the ideal model is today for shared well equipped shops, but I do think that an educational component is needed. I've known too many guys who "built shops" and collected tools but never really made anything after that as they didn't know how... I am sure however that turning someone with no training loose on a machine, that could delimb them in less than a heartbeat, isn't a viable model.

[Phil Mueller]

I’ve looked into makers spaces in my area and after this Covid thing, may get more serious about it. The most promising one is located about 45 minutes away...not the most convenient, but not a deal breaker. The thing I like about this place is they offer a daily rate of $45 or 10 visits for $300. Individual memberships are around $1100/year and I can’t justify that. Being able to use a band saw for resawing or a jointer to prep stock from time to time would be nice. In other words, I don’t need a full shop, just a few specific machines now and again. My income to them would probably be in the $100/year, plus whatever they charge to test/certify my use of a machine.

Hopefully they will survive the pandemic and I can look into using them later in the year.

[Pete Staehling]

I’ve looked into makers spaces in my area and after this Covid thing, may get more serious about it. The most promising one is located about 45 minutes away...not the most convenient, but not a deal breaker. The thing I like about this place is they offer a daily rate of $45 or 10 visits for $300. Individual memberships are around $1100/year and I can’t justify that. Being able to use a band saw for resawing or a jointer to prep stock from time to time would be nice. In other words, I don’t need a full shop, just a few specific machines now and again. My income to them would probably be in the $100/year, plus whatever they charge to test/certify my use of a machine.

Hopefully they will survive the pandemic and I can look into using them later in the year.
I hadn't looked into the prices of maker spaces. I really can't see myself shelling out that kind of $$$. I got started on about what a year's membership apparently is for a maker space. With those few tools I worked out of a tiny corner of my basement. When I moved to a larger home with space for a bigger shop, selling my work (lutherie) paid for machines and hand tools. When I didn't have indoor space decades earlier I built a few small boats outdoors with very few tools.

I may not fit the typical profile here since I am not the typical woodworker. I have funded my shop building travel sized mountain dulcimers. I tinker with a lot of other projects, but don't typically build furniture. I might turn a few segmented bowls or make some little boxes in a given week. I have built some outdoor furniture when I needed it. I build other stuff when the mood strikes me. I seldom build big projects, but may build a boat again some time.

I think I'd be inclined to just make do with a bag of hand tools before I'd shell out $1100 a year to work in a shared shop space. On the other hand, hours that allowed working at night with power tools or at least at the crack of dawn with no worries of noise complaints might go a long way toward selling me on it.

A modest fee for limited access might tempt me just so I could use things that I might not have like a full size metal lathe, weld shop, etc. The daily $45 or 10 days for $300 may leave me just farming out those kind of jobs to a local welder or machinist even for jobs I have the skills to do myself.

Sorry for rambling on.

[Dave Sabo]

I wholeheartedly agree clubs, co-ops shared space ect....things are fun , worthwhile, and and have an audience.

Problem is , those don't really fit in a "business" framework. Especially when you need to raise capital out of the gate to get one off the ground.

Pete illustrates my view on why they just aren't viable long term , especially in small population areas:


I really can't see myself shelling out that kind of $$$ & A modest fee for limited access might tempt me

I'd say he represents a target customer - modest knowledge and equip., but could utilize a few bigger or larger pieces once in a while. But........ money is always a factor.


Steve, what would you feel is a modest fee for access ? $45/hr with no other commitment or obligation seems pretty reasonable to me. Go to your local Depot or other tool rental center and see what you can rent for $45/hr. that's comparable to the space you have access to . I'm not picking on you, merely using your comments as validation of how I think a lot of potential customers for these things look at the value proposition of them.

The only thing that seems to get any kind of traction is the social component or just plain ol' space for well healed city dwellers. Even then, the ones mentioned and that I've seen that are sustaining all seem to have some sort of outside revenue stream keeping them afloat. Which means as a startup business they're stinkers in cities and downright losers in most of the rest of the country.