Hello. My name’s Jake and I live locally. I often require messy workshop space for wood projects - both hobby and business work. I am intrigued as to whether work needs to be personal/not for profit or whether commissioned work can be carried out in the workshop? Many thanks.
Hobby or business or both?
Hi Jake,
We do not prohibit business use of the space and tools. In fact, there’s a large project currently being built:
However, there is no special consideration given to commercial work. Hobbiests and tinkers get equal time on the tools!
While we haven’t codified it (yet), we frown on “excessive” commercial use of the space. For example making 100s or 1,000s of something on the laser cutter. If you’re a “manufacturer” rather than a “maker” you should probably use a commercial service or buy your own tools!
Hi Tom. Many thanks for your reply. I am a maker on a small scale and occasionally get commissions, so wouldn’t be intending to exploit the facilities. I wanted to check that business use was not forbidden. I’d like to visit and see the space in person. I’ll check the website to see how to go about this. Thanks again. Jake
Sounds perfect 
Best time to visit is Wednesday’s open evenings. Every week from 19:30, the doors are open and there are dedicated members on hand to give you a tour and answer questions.
I would say that if you’re making commercial use of the space there might be an expectation that you give a little more back - financially, through volunteering time, by donating tools that you use so others can too, by running workshops - clearly you’re a skilled maker in some field.
As Tom says, we haven’t codified this yet and as long as everyone feels things are working then there might be no need to.
But bear in mind that we’re not a commercial service, things break, things take time to fix, and please don’t start thinking that your business activities in any way have a higher priority than our hobbies!
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