How popular would a "Men's workshop" be?

Betonhaus

Betonhaus

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Mar 30, 2023
What would it be like if you had a place in your city that's fill of woodworking tools or whatever where you could have a monthly pass or day pass and could drop in anytime to work on random personal projects? Like if you want to build a dog house or a handcrafted table or just some random thing? If you make arrangements you could do larger projects like a wood shed or a teardrop trailer, you could get supplies shipped directly to the shop and they would help make arrangements to get your projects shipped to your house. They could also have a metalworking section that has some manual mills and lathes and some welding supplies. Obviously you'd need to get safety training when you sign up and fill out a liability waiver, and some of the more complicated stuff you would need to get the staff on hand to assist with. But they could have space and tools that you wouldn't get at home, and you'd be surrounded by other guys doing similar projects you could talk to or collaborate on.

While fantasising what I'd do when I won the lottery (omitted) I realized that something closer to this men's only space might be something that would benefit the community.
 
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Really depends on the place. Friends sometimes do this. Get a warehouse and all hang out, or go to eachothers warehouses. Or garages. There's the hackerspace movement and people have extended it to metalworking.
After going to a few hackerspaces and politics being a big part of them, if you just want to work -or- be social, it seems like if you want to work then try to make it work within a company. Start one and make enough to keep the lights on then do fun stuff as you can, or if it's for social things then just try to make friends with people with warehouses.
Letting in anyone means you get some fckin weirdos, and they might drive away the sane ones.
 
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aromatic said:
Really depends on the place. Friends sometimes do this. Get a warehouse and all hang out, or go to eachothers warehouses. Or garages. There's the hackerspace movement and people have extended it to metalworking.
After going to a few hackerspaces and politics being a big part of them, if you just want to work -or- be social, it seems like if you want to work then try to make it work within a company. Start one and make enough to keep the lights on then do fun stuff as you can, or if it's for social things then just try to make friends with people with warehouses.
Letting in anyone means you get some fckin weirdos, and they might drive away the sane ones.
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generally I'd be hoping for a place that allows people to focus on their projects first with socialization secondary. That seems like something most suitable for the guys around here - the more social guys can go elsewhere. I think I'd like to avoid having any 3D printers or cnc machines, as guys who have their hands busy are less likely to be problematic. For safety reasons the signing up process would be fairly strict and there would be a high requirement for safe conduct - such as kicking out anyone who doesn't wear safety glasses around certain machines, for example. For this place to work there would have to be a policy of zero tolerance for sexual harrassment
 
Car Won't Crank said:
It sounds like you're describing a maker space with more industrial tools. I feel like there would be a lot of red tape to get it off the ground.
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iron tight liability waivers, awareness that people WILL get cuts and owies, and IMMEDIATE removal of anyone that refuses to abide by safety practices (with great big eStops everywhere to shut everything down if someone see someone doing something stupid). and the more dangerous equipment will be in a locked area that you need approval to access.

Also seasoning americans and *bergs/*steins/etc will find their applications will never get approved.
 
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Yeah I've thought something similar.

It might depend on the area and context, and how you went about informing people about it. There would be hurdles for sure but if we disregard all the technicals I think that would be really good for people, since it's kind of nonsense that unless you live on a larger property with the money to buy equipment you might only use a couple times, that you're expected to be totally helpless.
Even just the psychological effect of letting people take back some control can go a tremendous distance.

Trying to do stuff for regular people without it getting subverted by the usual self-interested parties seems difficult though, all it takes is one loud asshole for your humanitarian project to turn into a retard battleground. Nowadays it seems like having the money is the least of the challenges.
 
Betonhaus said:
iron tight liability waivers, awareness that people WILL get cuts and owies, and IMMEDIATE removal of anyone that refuses to abide by safety practices (with great big eStops everywhere to shut everything down if someone see someone doing something stupid). and the more dangerous equipment will be in a locked area that you need approval to access.

Also seasoning americans and *bergs/*steins/etc will find their applications will never get approved.
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As someone who has written liability waivers that have cleared legal, I try to inform people about them wherever they get brought up. Waivers are no magic bullet in court. They may help you. They may not. Their primary purpose is to prove to your insurance company and legal department that you have done your due dilligence in risk assessement/mitigation .and convince them that they should sign off on what you want to do. Their second purpose is to weed out the type of person who would be unwilling to sign it as they are an easily eliminated risk.

I am not any sort of legal expert nor risk assessment expert, but this is how it has been explained to me and it has been my personal experience.
 
The problem men's spaces is that men inevitably use them to network, networking leads to business opportunities, and courts have deemed such things to be discriminatory against women. Doing something like this violates a woman's sacred right to bust in where she's not wanted and start nagging everyone.
 
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That sounds like a Maker Space/Hacker Space, which can be found in a lot of cities. In my city it's owned by the local college and only students can go there.
Seems like it would be best if a group of friends could rent out their own space for it, as it would be a wonderful opportunity that could be easily ruined by morons.
 
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break these cuffs said:
As someone who has written liability waivers that have cleared legal, I try to inform people about them wherever they get brought up. Waivers are no magic bullet in court. They may help you. They may not. Their primary purpose is to prove to your insurance company and legal department that you have done your due dilligence in risk assessement/mitigation .and convince them that they should sign off on what you want to do. Their second purpose is to weed out the type of person who would be unwilling to sign it as they are an easily eliminated risk
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It would be combined with secondary safety systems, such as having tables saws with a safety brake, forbidding touching the cutting bits, blades, and drill tips of any tools unless they are unplugged and the battery removed, having red painted spots where you must NEVER put your fingers in, having dangerous equipment locked up requiring special permission or trust to use, etc.

I wonder if i could make a case to an organization such as the Mormon temple to help set something like this up...
 
Betonhaus said:
It would be combined with secondary safety systems, such as having tables saws with a safety brake, forbidding touching the cutting bits, blades, and drill tips of any tools unless they are unplugged and the battery removed, having red painted spots where you must NEVER put your fingers in, having dangerous equipment locked up requiring special permission or trust to use, etc.

I wonder if i could make a case to an organization such as the Mormon temple to help set something like this up...
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Setting it up through an existing oganization would be by far the easiest logistically and it will still be hard. Look for non-profits that do adult and community education as well. The ones that do cooking classes and take people out on day hikes and whatnot. Local colleges might have such programs. You can sometimes already find trade related ones there. These are places that already (should) have the types of systems in place you would need to make what you propose workable and while they're likely risk averse as institions, they've shown some ability to bend already.
 
I can't say I see the appeal but I've a pretty full and stocked workshop in the garage. The biggest issue I can see would be a combination of theft and people trying to use it as a impromptu homeless shelter or halfway house.
 
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There are a lot of things that can go wrong with it. But if i can account for them it could work. a camera system (probably required for safety reasons) could monitor for theft, machinery could be made difficult to remove, people could have secured lockers to leave materials in (but ideally don't need to have their own tools). Due to safety reasons the barrier for access would have to be high, which can also restrict using the place as a shelter. I should probably attempt to work with OSHA or whatever the local one is in the planning stages of the mens workshop.

It would be neat to have areas for different trades, in a sense. you could try some smithing in one area, glassblowing in another, etc. That's would have to wait until the core concept is proven though. I just want it to function as a man playground of sorts, if that makes any sense.
 
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As said earlier in the thread, it's gonna be taken over by faggots that are more or less a thing between a troon and a man and be all like "Masc for masc, only real men!"

Whole idea sounds like a nightmare.
 
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When a homosexual Canadian wins the lottery, they don't blow it all on a lavish lifestyle full of fast cars, big houses, hard drugs, and expensive liquor like a normal person. No, they blow it on dumb shit like this. Like Brewster's Millions, but much more retarded.
 
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They call them maker spaces now, but at least in Canada groups like the Elk's Lodge and Masons would have shared workshops/garages for members. At least the ones in the area I grew up in did.
 
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Running costs might be a problem. Ignoring injury I've learned that people aren't exactly gentle with other people's property, which includes rentals. You'll likely look at a higher than expected amount of wear and tear on equipment and the replacement costs might eat into any long term financial viability.
 
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OutInTheRain said:
They call them maker spaces now, but at least in Canada groups like the Elk's Lodge and Masons would have shared workshops/garages for members. At least the ones in the area I grew up in did.
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I'm worried that if i treat it like a maker space, I might attract a crowd that is too young or too liberal and the place will become unsafe.
 
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