Shared Space for Wood Working in Rhode Island

[Alex Ouellet]

I have a garage I rent in Coventry Ri to do my woodworking and it is not heated so I am looking to move. Found a great place that is 1250 square feet for only $875 a month. A little too steep for me so I was wondering if there is anyone in this community looking for space that might want to share. Anyone have any experience with shared spaces??

[Mike Heidrick]

I am curious to hear all shared space stories too. Also curious what are the going rates for doing that. I have my own so this idea is interesting to me.

[Bill Adamsen]

At some point I would want to join one of these spaces ... so I too will follow with interest.

[Peter Christensen]

I shared space with a buddy of mine in the basement of the rented house he was living in at the time. We're still good friends after close to 40 years. Worked out well for us as we each had complementary tools and took care of the others stuff when we used it. At this point in life I wouldn't want to share space with a stranger since you don't know if they will respect your things and make good on damage or wear. You also have no idea if you'll come to the shop and find everything gone. A communal shop where you pay to be there might be better if you have a good lockup for your tools and materials or you take them home for safe keeping.

[Ray Newman]

Peter Christensen: BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Peter Christensen]

Peter Christensen: BINGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cool! What do I win?

[Bill Adamsen]

Every once in awhile I see a posting for shared woodworking space in certain cities around the country. Brooklyn, Providence, Worcester, Seattle come to mind. Interestingly, they seem to be the shortest "published" ads on Craigslist ... meaning they must get rapid qualified responses and immediately take down the ad. Then there are "community workshops" such as the CT Hackerspace in Watertown, CT. I've seen similar in LA and other places. I suspect I would much prefer to be in a community workspace which offered some dedicated private assembly area. I'm probably just not in a high enough population density location to make that happen. I do have several friends that share commercial shop space, and judging by the fact they've been doing it for 15 years, it seems proven that it works.

If there are folk on this forum involved with setting up and operating community workspaces I'd love to be in touch with you to better understand how it is setup and how you manage risk.