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Comment by seltzered_ | Hacker News Reader

Might be worth searching for:

- TechShop and it's fall - I remember one person arguing hackerspaces may be better run as a nonprofit model.

- The rise of small-scale maker capabilities within public institutions like libraries. I considered signing up for a maker space last year and it made more sense to pay for a second library that happened to have a good maker lab.

- The rise of cheaper or more accessible prototype manufacturing (e.g. pcbway , sendcutsend, etc.).

- The other threads trying to save spaces, like this one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32245086 (2022)

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Yeah, my local library has a pretty decent makerspace in its basement, at least if you're making smaller things. These are the machines that are currently there:

* Prusa 3D Printer

* Hic Top CR-10 3D Printer

* Ender-3 S1 Pro 3D Printer

* Brother ScanNCut

* Silhouette CAMEO

* Silhouette Vinyl Cutter

* EverSewn Sparrow X2 Embroidery Machine

* Brother PE900 Embroidery Machine

* Carvey CNC Desktop Fabricator

* Glowforge Laser Cutter

* Sawgrass Sublimation Printer

It also has a lot of audio recording equipment with soundbooths, and a bunch of lighting and photography/video equipment.

Do you live in the wealthiest city in America? I've been to 11 libraries and absolutely none of them have anything on that list.

I live in a suburb of Chicago. We do directly neighbor one of the wealthiest cities in the country, though, but our city isn't particularly wealthy (it's doing fine though, and steadily growing).

Part of the reason we bought a house here is because it was close to some nicer suburbs without being terribly expensive itself (our home was just reappraised and it was determined to still be under the average existing house sales price in the US of $410k, even though it went up like 40% since last time).

We can drive twenty minutes and go to the same nice stores and restaurants that people living there can, if we wanted to.

I'm aware our local library is an outlier. There are other libraries in the area, including in that wealthy neighboring city, that don't have anywhere near as much equipment.

This sounds like Fountaindale Library in Bolingbrook. I lived there myself for 2 years, it's a great up-and-coming town, and the library is truly spectacular.

Here in Finland the libraries often have that kind of stuff, in smaller places maybe a little less, but larger cities have nice amount of stuff to use and/or loan.

Marry or adopt me, would you? ;D Finish passport is good as a Singaporean one.

I have a Prusa Mk3S+ with MMU, head improvement, and Bear kit.

Also have maybe 40 rolls of filament from glow in the dark, UV reactive, and more or less every color and an Octoprint with cameras and a power shutoff.

The only problem is my electronics lab is 60 Hz equipment. ]:

America is a third-world country in multiple ways. It's just most Americans don't have passports and don't know how bad we have it.

I believe most eligible U.S. adults have a passport. High-50s-percent.

56%, apparently. But how many are able to make use of it? what percentage of the population can just take off for two weeks to go visit India or Bali or Estonia or Switzerland or somewhere else, just to see how things can be different?

https://www.americancommunities.org/who-owns-a-passport-in-a....

recent push for higher-security ID has translated into more non-travelling adults with Passport IMHO.. its intentional

Not the commenter but my library is similar. I live in a suburb of Indianapolis that is quite well off for the area, though very low cost of living in comparison to many metro areas across the country. We also have a city funded makerspace more aimed at trades that offers home improvement seminars, a woodshop, etc.

It's probably worth noting the libraries I've seen that have a nice makerlab (to where the the tools are maintained and they facilitate trainings) usually have at least a couple staff librarians that are fairly enthusiastic about making things and using the tools themselves too.

That's my limited anecdotal experience, noticing there's also been libraries that might've initially offered 3d printing then stopped (possibly due to abuse, maintenance burden, staff changes, etc.)

Sound like a dream. I'd love to see a picture of that basement.

Yeap. Might be better not to have the expense and expectations of a brick and mortar that get in the way of associations of like minds. Dinner gatherings once a month and larger fairs once a year would probably suffice.

If municipality governments had any common sense, they would find ways to manage the risks and benefits of opening fix-it and make community centers.

For the last six years or so, our local Makerspace has hosted a weekly electronics and technology meetup on Thursday evenings. The electronics lab is pretty quiet most of the week, though as an arts/crafts-focused space, the fiber arts and stained glass spaces are much busier. On Thursday evenings, though, there normally 5-15 people who show up and hack on hardware/software, show off projects, or just chat tech. electronicsnight.com.

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