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I must confess that I still see makerspaces as much more commercial and vacuumed hackerspaces, so I cannot be very sad they are not that profitable (as I think

I must confess that I still see makerspaces as much more commercial and vacuumed hackerspaces, so I cannot be very sad they are not that profitable (as I think it exists only to profit off of the idea of a hackerspace without any of the culture). Am I missing some crucial context that makes them good to have around?

jjoonathan 4y ago
Making physical stuff using modern techniques requires access to several machines that cost tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars each. It would sure be nice to rent & share. How do companies do it? They either CAD up the work and contract it out to a machine shop (expensive and unfulfilling) or they are a machine shop (and understandably don't want to moonlight the same thing as their day job). Occasionally a university or corporate R&D lab will have decent machines on site. When this happens, it is magical. If you have access, you are a very happy person, and when you lose access you become a very sad person who wishes they could rent access again.
michaelt 4y ago
In my area, hackerspaces are full of broken machines. I assume because they have loads of beginners (a good thing) who make beginners' mistakes causing problems they can't fix (which is to be expected) and the skilled volunteers couldn't fix things fast enough (again, understandably). Places that can afford full-time employees have someone keeping the machines and equipment in fair condition.