Comment by keerthiko | Hacker News Reader

Comment by keerthiko | Hacker News Reader

I used to live in Berkeley, CA circa 2013. They had a tool library, which was part of the local public library system, and tools were free (!) to rent. I miss it everyday, as it was a godsend for broke new grads who still wanted to do some quick but heavyduty DIY.

I now live in NYC, and my local Home Depot rents out power tools for $20-30/day. The typical tool would pay for itself in 2 days at these rates, but it's still worth it to me as these 2 days are often 2-3 years apart and I'd rather not store these tools in my cramped 1BR.

What I would love is a community-run tool rental service where we can donate a tool + pay a nominal membership fee, and borrow tools for free. I am happy to donate a $120 circular saw/impact driver if I can rent 10x different tools once each for $5/mo for the next year. The closest thing I have now is my local hackerspace, which is great, but I often have to work on my projects at the space, which limits the kind of home DIY I can do.

Minneapolis/St Paul has at least one tool library (with multiple locations). MN Tool Library. Mentioning it in case someone in this thread is interested and lives nearby. Worth it, especially if you know have projects coming up. Lots of tools, indoor and outdoor, and some space for using the tools at their space , and lots of know-how from the staff/volunteers.

Edit: in the same vein, Minneapolis also has a Toy Library that is pay what you can for annual membership and absolutely stocked with toys for every age, and includes outdoor stuff like trampolines and bikes (small sizes) and board games and such. Very worth it for kids that only maintain interest for 2 hours and helps them learn how to give up a toy before getting a new one (similar to adults learning to return a tool…)

Thanks for taking time to share it!

The Brooklyn Public Library in Green Point has a tool library, although it isn't very large if that's close to you at all. I'm not sure if it's available at any other library locations but the one in Green Point is fairly new and has great programming.

Thanks for sharing this! I think we'll add a list of existing tool library so it will be easier to find the ones near you.

We have a large ~20K person BuyNothing community in my area (also NYC), and a few of us have thrown the same idea of a tool library around. We always hit a wall on the discussion of liability & liability insurance. Any ideas on how other organizations solve this?

Oui, la question de la responsabilité revient souvent. Certaines communautés utilisent des décharges de responsabilité, systèmes de dépôt, et/ou assurances.

On aimerait vraiment collaborer avec votre communauté pour comprendre les besoins et mettre en place quelque chose avant le lancement de notre service de location. N’hésitez pas à me contacter à julien@patio.so si vous voulez en discuter !

That's a really good idea. A community-run tool library with donations + a small monthly fee could be a game changer, especially in dense cities. It makes DIY more accessible without the cost or storage hassle. We'll certainly think about how this model could be implemented!!

There's a successful one running purely on donations in Berlin: Resi https://www.resi-ressourcen.org/

Awesome!! Thanks for sharing :)

There was one running in Frome, UK but unfortunately these community things are hard to keep going and it has now closed. The issues are cost of storage space, insurance, staffing etc.

You can see the requirements they needed to keep it going here: https://sharefrome.org/save-SHARE-together/

Thanks a lot for sharing, yes even if there is a lots of need, there is also a lot of issues when it comes to tool rental. I'm sad to see another one that might end up closing but or goal is to create a platform that will help these community to grow by simplifying their work.

We have one in Baltimore which also offers classes and workspaces: https://toollibrary.org/

Thanks for sharing! One of our goals is to support initiatives like this and make it easier to start and operate them. We truly hope to help make tool libraries more common in as many cities as possible!

Portland OR has a system of free-to-use tool libraries (you pay 'library fines' if you return tools late, but checking them out is free), each quadrant of the city has one (and you can only use the one in your section of the city). For example[1]

1: https://www.neptl.org/membership/

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