The Tool Shop is currently housed in garage number one located behind the Bimini Terrace building. It has a large table, counter space and a collection of community and individually owned tools. The tool shop intends to be open to all community members that abide by the guidelines and can safely use the tools. It is also used sometimes by management and folks working on building maintenance.
Goals of the space
- To have a usable, shared, workspace open to everyone.
- To share tools and knowledge about tool use.
The One Rule
The tool shop is a common space in the community so the Use of Common Spaces Agreement also applies there, it simply states:
Follow the policy to the letter and leave our spaces as you found them or better. Do all within your powers to make this happen in 24 hours.
Stewardship and access
Josh and Federico are the current stewards of the space (that means they organize and clean the space and keep the tools running). Any community member can have access to the space, simply request a copy of the key from one of them.
Guidelines and expectations:
These are not hard rules because there is some room for negotiation and for using your own judgement, but they can be helpful for new users. Give them a good read if you are planning on becoming a frequent user of the shop.
- Be considerate of our neighbors: remember that there are people living, working and sleeping nearby and working with power tools can be noisy. In general working/noise hours are: weekdays 8am - 8pm, weekends 10am - 10pm.
- Some of these tools are dangerous: you are responsible for your own safety and well being, use of personal protective equipment is encouraged. If you don’t know how to use a particular tool please ask for help, there are some very friendly and knowledgeable people around that would be happy to show you how to do things safely. Also remember there are often children playing in the vicinity, so if you are not present keep the garage doors closed.
- We discourage tool borrowing: too many tools have been lost to well meaning folks who intended to return them but never did, so the shop is not set up as a tool library. The goal is to have a usable workspace and it’s nicer when you don’t have to go around hunting for the tools you need. That said, the occasional need arises to use a very specific tool so if you absolutely must borrow it please leave us a written note with your name, date, and tool.
- We discourage storing of personal tools and materials: this is a shared shop with very little room to spare so it’s quite difficult to provide storage for all users while keeping the space usable. If you have personal tools or materials that you are willing to share we can find them a space, otherwise they are much safer with you.
- Available materials: if there are any unlabeled materials in the shop that means they are up for grabs. That goes for all the wood and metal under the main table, paints, fasteners, sand paper, etc.
- Ongoing active projects: there are times when you can’t abide by the one rule above (clean within 24 hours) or the character of your project means it’s difficult to clean everything up every day. Don’t fret! Remember it’s a shared workspace and we are here to help each other, simply leave a note with your name so other users know it’s an active project and they need to respect it.
Resources
- Waiver Document - use this document if you are conducting a workshop or similar event where liability is an issue.
History
The current space occupied by the Tool Shop (garage number one) was previously occupied by the Bicycle Kitchen and used to be named “the pantry”. When the Bicycle Kitchen moved to it’s current location -around the winter of 2004- the space was used for storing leftover bicycles and other tools and as a casual somewhat disorganized workspace. In the spring of 2010 it underwent a major reorganization to make it more usable and since then it has gained adepts and collected an array of tools.