Obviously you have no interest in hackerspaces then which is fine. The community is half of the equation though, if there's zero value to you from the community

Obviously you have no interest in hackerspaces then which is fine. The community is half of the equation though, if there's zero value to you from the community then a more sterile TechShop-esq place is obviously your place to be. I was lucky enough to have visited both the Austin TechShop and ATX a few years ago while I was in town. Both places were great for different reasons. I'm pro-hackerspace but I was also very interested in seeing a TechShop first-hand. I was surprized how much community involvement was required to keep TechShop running despite being a commercial place. There were multiple tools that were pointed out on my tour that would "become available" once a volunteer had more time to get them running and develop a class. The sad thing though was just how expensive all the classes were. At ATX I heard that a number of members also paid for memberships at TechShop too. It was heartening to see that both places could co-exist without competing for funding/memberships.