Recently I described my wish for an inner city community based workshop resource. This would enable those of us living in limited city abodes to get workshop time on some cool machinery and thus exercise some creativity. Well it looks like something similar is already advancing well in the US and on a typically American scale too. TechShop offers its members shop-time on a wide range of equipment on a subscription basis. Furthermore it also offers classes and training to ensure that tools are used safely.
The range of the equipment is impressive and includes tools for automotive repairs, laser etching, plasma cutting, electronic engineering, and sheet metal work. Access to tools can be booked and memberships are managed with RFID tags. Memberships are reasonably priced at around £600 a year - which I personally think is pretty good - I'd rather join TechShop than some Soho members club!
The question is: When will TechShop cross the Atlantic?
1 comment:
might it not be worth looking into studio/workshop hire in the east end - its not like there's a shortage of them - then seeing about leveraging membership fees into equipment purchase...
I'd love a space just to work on craft projects so that my flat wasn't full of scraps of model railway trees and flocking...
a sort of tech allotment, really
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