I would pay for a membership if it is somewhere closer to my house and is clean. Most of the time I see labs very disorganized and is hogged by the know it alls.
[1] https://www.meetup.com/hackernights/events/286560187/ https://github.com/eatonphil
I still remember in the 1980's and 90's when I was a kid where we had a lot of repair shops especially for TV and radio/transistors. It was back when things were costly and people used to repair stuff. Now people don't have the skills to repair any more.