Ask HN: Help me brainstorm ideas for an Open Access Workshop

2 points by yellowbkpk 17y ago ↗ HN

I've seen several brick and mortar places like http://www.clubworkshop.com/ where you pay for a monthly membership to have access to tools and facilities to work on your DIY projects. I'd love to learn more about these types of businesses and perhaps open one up in the Midwest area (Milwaukee/Minneapolis corridor maybe?).

Have any of you guys visited a place like this? What was your experience? How busy was it? What types of people used it? Do you get the feeling that the cost is too steep for a DIYer?

Any insight at all from "great idea!" to "stupid idea! you missed..." would be interesting for me to hear.

Thanks!

1 comment

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[dead] many 17y ago ↗

I have no idea what you're on to, but it sounds interesting (er.. uh.. you sound enthusastic (if i can pull that through the radar))

You know, scrapbooking is fundamentally simple, and I can fish up an idea I had several months ago for scrapbooking. The notion is "like Etsy" but more interactive, where users can assemble their own stuff from stock materials, or other etsy-like users. I ran it by a serious authority and he said it could work. The stopping point at the time was a steep cost of developing a nice flash gui for the 'interactive (scrapbooking / jewelry-making) stuff"

I live in The Midwest Corridor, as well. Talk to me if we can work together.