{"id":6066,"date":"2012-01-30T12:54:36","date_gmt":"2012-01-30T06:54:36","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2012-10-04T10:21:43","modified_gmt":"2012-10-04T17:21:43","slug":"techshop-member","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/techshop-member\/","title":{"rendered":"TechShop Membership"},"content":{"rendered":"

TechShop<\/a> (previously reviewed here<\/a>) is a member-based workshop. They have one of every tool you could dream of — laser cutters, plasma torches, computer-control sewing machines, welders, 3D printing machines, you name it — plus piles of regular tools (drill presses, lathes, oscilloscopes, miter saws etc.), and once you are member and cleared for training, you can use them whenever you want. They have a big open tables, lots of room, and offer classes for various tool craft as well.<\/p>\n

TechShop sells day passes, week passes, monthly passes, or yearly membership. <\/p>\n

The big update is that they have expanded their locations from their original Silicon Valley station. They are currently in 5 US locations, with 3 more in progress, and are adding more each year.<\/p>\n

The idea is brilliant. Why should you purchase, maintain, and upgrade expensive shop tools that you might need only once in a while? It’s a whole lot better to join a co-op that buys, houses, and upkeeps the gear. You pay rent to use it — a price that will be a lot less than the cost of purchase. The downside, of course, is that you need to travel to the TechShop, which can be inconvenient. I’ve found 3 types of folks using it: 1) Those who have tiny apartments and no tools, or tool space, of their own; this is their workshop. 2) Those who are working on a prototype, or a big art project, for a specific period of time; this is their lab and office. 3) Those who own a decent typical workshop but want occasional access to a laser cutter, or 3D printer; this is their luxury.<\/p>\n

Here are some photos I took at the San Francisco location:<\/p>\n

\"Techshop2\"<\/p>\n

A cage of power tools.<\/p>\n

\"Weldingmachines\"<\/p>\n

Welding machines waiting to be used.<\/p>\n

\"Techshop3\"<\/p>\n

A work table with floating power cord, easily accessible from any side, but not in the way. The lockers are for members use.<\/p>\n

\"Techshop1\"<\/p>\n

A plywood bench made using tools on the premises.<\/p>\n

\"Techshop4\"<\/p>\n

Working at the laser cutter control station.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TechShop (previously reviewed here) is a member-based workshop. They have one of every tool you could dream of — laser …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[41,275],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6066"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6066"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6066\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7187,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6066\/revisions\/7187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}