I know of several folks in the community who have been members at other makerspaces, but I’m sure there are tons more that I don’t know about. Who all has been a member at other spaces? Which ones and where? I know we’ve got a bunch of former Dallas Makerspace and Tech Shop folks, along with many others. I’m interested to know more about the spread of backgrounds we have in the community.
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I was at the wood studio at the NC State Crafts Center before moving here. It was a wood shop and pottery studio run by the college, but open for the community to buy membership to for $300 per year. They’re a land grant university, so they’re supposed to host utilities like this for the community (though a lot of land grant universities don’t fulfill this, NC State is one of the good ones)
It was built over their old filled in pool deck, and was a slightly smaller wood shop than ours. They had duplicates of all of the high use tools (jointer, planer, table saw, bandsaw) and a radial arm saw for rough cuts, but missing a lot of the niche tools we have (resaw band saw, good CNCs, wide belt sander). Since it was attached to the school, they employed students on work study to serve as stewards so that there was always someone supervising.
Funnily enough, I ran into an ASMBLY member who was also a previous NC Craft Center member while teaching classes. Blanking on his name right now.
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I was thrilled to see one of my favorite instructors from Dallas Makerspace is now one of my favorite instructors here at ASMBLY! Shout out to @tomthm 
I was a committee chair for a short time and taught media classes at DMS.
The vibe here is a lot different due to the structure, but the people are just as awesome. Super friendly and everyone that I meet teaches me something I didn’t know.
Come for the tools, stay for the accidental masterclass in a niche you never considered!
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It was nice to see Dan again when he joined. He did a great job in his roles at DMS. I concur with his comments about both places.
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I was the first person in line to sign up for a membership when TechShop came to Round Rock. I live very close to that location. We purchased a lifetime family membership. Our kid also took summer camp classes there and loved it.
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I was a member at two other maker spaces.
OPENWORKS in Baltimore, Maryland. I am metal-oriented, so I used their CNC plasma cutter well. They had a really nice wood shop, textile, computer/software, 3D printing, and banks of small spaces for rent. You could use the spaces for storage or as workspace. They also had an independent coffee shop in their lobby.
FUSE makerspace in Albuquerque, NM. The space was an extension of the local
Community college. It also has some corporate funding. I used their CNC plasma and a nice setup for Oxy-acetylene welding. They have the usual 3D printing and woodworking equipment
and laser. They also offer jewelry-making classes and have an extensive jewelry-making classroom.
It’s been interesting to experience different approaches to maker spaces. They always provide a community of like-minded creatives.
Of course, Asmbly has the friendliest creatives.
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