# How to start a makerspace A comprehensive guide to getting a makerspace off the ground and links to additional resources ## Starting a makerspace isn't as hard as you might think So, maybe you're here because you're determined to create a valuable resource for your community, or because a few of you have been sharing somebody's garage and it has stopped fitting. Or maybe there's nowhere within an hour of you to weld something and you've had enough of that. You might be thinking, I'm going to need a lease, and a shop full of machines, and don't get me wrong, all of those are a good thing to have. But to start out, it might be easier than you think. A few people who'll offer their time and skills, and the gear that's already in somebody's garage, is enough to start. Here's what we recommend to prioritize first. ### 1. Find the people before the room You need a small group who'll offer their time and skills, and the experience they've already got. Make: says the Noisebridge founders started with a Google group and Tuesday nights at a café, and they were meeting in people's apartments before anyone signed a lease. A lease signed by three enthusiastic people is a much bigger commitment than it looks. ### 2. Start sketching out the framework You can start out simple with things like who can use which machine, who is allowed to sign somebody else off on it, how long a project can sit on the bench, what happens when something breaks. You might want those in place if you have bigger tools like a welder. Maker Ed's playbook has a safety plan, signage and shop rules, with templates. Maker Works says to buy machines with the safety features built in, and then to keep saying the same things about dust, noise and floor clutter forever. The library makerspace policies further down this page (Nebraska, Ravenna, Norfolk, Boulder, Moncton and the rest) are real adopted documents with the matching release forms beside them. These are all great resources to look at if you're looking for inspiration. You'll want insurance, even while the machines are still in somebody's garage, and the insurance on your house probably doesn't cover a shop or people coming over to use the tools. Local insurance brokers are probably the best bet to help you find custom coverages for situations like this. Make: has a piece on what landlords ask for, and how people have found a broker. ### 3. Create a catalog You might've already run into this issue, where someone asks if anyone has a lathe, because it's not written down anywhere. This might be okay for a small group, but your community is still paying a cost where they might not even start something because they don't know anybody who has something, or could help teach them, even if that person is in the group and would be totally willing to help out. To solve this problem, you can use a variety of solutions like a simple spreadsheet, a task tracker app, or even full-fledged shop catalog apps, but these all come with downsides that might not be obvious at first glance. For the spreadsheet, this either requires listing contact info next to the machine which could easily get abused, or lots of manual work syncing the internal tool list with the external tool list. For the task tracker app, this could work, but you will still run into the public info and syncing issues, and perhaps other issues if the task tracker app isn't suited for your workflow. Finally, the centralized shop catalog provides a great resource for your community, but they're primarily meant for centralized catalogs which means you may need to constantly keep it updated, and it's not easy to check who owns which tool. ToolPool.Garden was created because we had this exact problem with our own group that wasn't big enough for a centralized catalog, and wanted to include items on loan from individual owners as well. ToolPool.Garden lets your community crowdsource all the tools that they are willing to lend and skills they're willing to teach. And it doesn't even have to be tools, it can be board games, knitting supplies, camping, whatever. All without needing to publicly attach their name next to it. Be picky about stuff coming through the door, especially if it isn't working. Broken tools might look like a deal, but unless you've got the time and energy to spare, they can end up costing more than you might think. ### 4. Tell people, and make stuff Getting involved in community events, advertising on places like bulletin boards, or local interest groups can help. Online ads might work, but they're usually only worth it if you have money to spend or can get Google's nonprofit ads grant. Usually the best method is to talk to people that you want to help, and they may be able to direct you to the people and places you'd want to share it with. ## If you want the fancy stuff ### A 501(c)(3), or a fiscal sponsor You might get to a point where you want to take donations, or need a bank account that isn't in one person's name. Starting your own nonprofit will get you those. If you want to take donations without starting one, you can sign an agreement with a fiscal sponsor whose work and mission is similar to yours. Donors give to the sponsor, who holds the money, and you ask them when you need to spend some. Share Starter has sample sponsor agreements. A library or a rec center that already has a room is worth asking too, because if they'll let you use it, you aren't the one signing a lease. ### A room People can keep the machines where they already live until a leased room would actually help. Maker Works has a list of what to check in a building before you sign. ### What it costs once you have a lease If you're sharing what people already own, you might not have costs yet. Make: says a budget has to cover more than rent, in Make: creating a business model (linked below). ### Who decides For a membership space, settle who votes and who gets a key, and whether anybody can bring a guest. As an example, Double Union in San Francisco wrote Arooo, and it runs the applications, the members' vote on them, the tiers and the dues. ### Doors and lockout Once there's a key, and a saw that shouldn't start for somebody who hasn't been trained on it, you'll need fancier software for that. Fabman does the whole job commercially. MemberMatters is the open source version of the same thing, and Google's makerspace-auth is the badge reader and Raspberry Pi hat if you'd rather build it yourself. ## Guides The longer guides, the templates, and the parts that depend on where you live. - [Nation of Makers: Starting a makerspace](https://www.nationofmakers.us/starting-a-makerspace) Nation of Makers' page of starting links. - [Maker Ed's Makerspace Playbook](https://makered.gitbook.io/makerspace-playbook) Space, tools, safety, sample waivers, and templates. - [Make: Build a Makerspace](https://makezine.com/projects/build-a-makerspace/) Dale Dougherty on putting a space together. - [Maker Works' makerspace resources](https://www.maker-works.com/makerspace-resources) A long list of starting links, including legal and insurance. - [How to start a hackerspace (Adafruit / Eric Michaud)](https://blog.adafruit.com/2013/02/01/how-to-start-a-hackerspace-money-and-resources/) Money and resources, from someone who ran one. - [How to create a hackerspace (Make:)](https://makezine.com/article/maker-news/how-to-create-a-hackerspace/) Noisebridge, Hive13 and NYC Resistor, from people who ran them. ## If you need documents for how you run it - [Make: acquiring insurance](https://makezine.com/article/education/making-makerspaces-acquiring-insurance/) What landlords ask for, and how people have found a broker. - [Make: creating a business model](https://makezine.com/article/education/making-makerspaces-creating-a-business-model/) Income, costs, and where insurance sits in the budget. - [Library Innovation Studio drafted policy](https://nlc.nebraska.gov/libraries/maker/LISPolicyforLibs.pdf) A sample makerspace policy from Nebraska. - [Library Innovation Studio release of liability](https://nlc.nebraska.gov/libraries/maker/LISReleaseofLiability.pdf) The matching release form. - [Ravenna Public Library's makerspace policy](https://nlc.nebraska.gov/libraries/maker/RavennaMakerspacePolicy.pdf) Ravenna, Nebraska. - [Ravenna Public Library's makerspace release](https://nlc.nebraska.gov/libraries/maker/RavennaMakerspaceReleaseofLiability.pdf) The matching release form. - [Nebraska Innovation Studio policies](https://innovationstudio.unl.edu/membership-pricing/policies-eligibility/) Studio rules and eligibility, Lincoln. - [Norfolk Public Library's makerspace policy](https://nlc.nebraska.gov/libraries/maker/NorfolkMakerSpacePolicy.pdf) Norfolk, Nebraska. - [Norfolk Public Library's use and release agreement](https://nlc.nebraska.gov/libraries/maker/NorfolkMakerSpaceUseRelease.pdf) The matching release form. - [Powers Memorial Library makerspace policy](https://www.palmyra.lib.wi.us/makerspace-policy/) Palmyra, Wisconsin. - [Pikes Peak Library District makerspace policy](https://ppld.org/makerspace-and-studio-use-policy) Colorado Springs. - [Boulder Public Library makerspace policy](https://boulderlibrary.org/about/rules/makerspace-policy/) Boulder, Colorado. - [Moncton Public Library makerspace conduct policy](https://monctonpubliclibrary.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/makerspace_conductpolicy.pdf) Moncton, New Brunswick. - [Weston Public Library makerspace policy](https://www.westonpubliclibrary.org/main/wp-content/uploads/20240212_Makerspace_Policy.pdf) Weston, Connecticut. - [Newport Public Library maker lab policy](https://newportlibraryri.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Maker-lab.pdf) Newport, Rhode Island. - [Share Starter's document library](https://sharestarter.org/tools/) The same paperwork, if the shop also lends. - [Hackerspaces.org wiki](https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/) A directory of spaces, and pages on starting one. ## If you want door and machine software ToolPool.Garden is mainly for peer-to-peer tool lending that you can also use for your official shop items, but that just handles tool lending. If you're looking for software to help you manage the rest of what you do as a makerspace, here's some other software that can help you manage users, work with keycard access, gate access tools, and maybe take in dues. - [Fabman](https://fabman.io/) Paid software that does the whole job: card access, machine lockout, who has been trained on what, and billing for the minutes a machine runs. - [MemberMatters](https://github.com/membermatters/MemberMatters) Open source. Members, dues through Stripe, and one set of permissions behind both the door cards and the tool interlocks. - [CiviCRM](https://civicrm.org/) Open source. A CRM for member records, signups, dues and events. Other access-control software can use its member data to decide who may use a machine. - [strichliste](https://www.strichliste.org/) Open source. A digital tally sheet for drinks and snacks: members select their name and what they took on a shared screen, and strichliste keeps a running balance. No logins needed. - [RevBank](https://revbank.nl/) Open source. A prepaid bar tab for drinks and snacks: scan the product, then type or scan your name. Balances are separate for each space, and the shared terminal assumes everyone using it can be trusted. - [Google's makerspace-auth](https://github.com/google/makerspace-auth) A badge reader and a Raspberry Pi hat that keep a tool powered off until a trained member swipes, and log who ran it. - [Seltzer CRM](https://github.com/elplatt/seltzer) A small PHP app for member records: contact details, membership levels, dues, and which RFID key belongs to whom. - [Arooo](https://github.com/doubleunion/arooo) Membership applications, the members' vote on them, tiers, and dues. Double Union in San Francisco wrote it for their own space. - [Snipe-IT](https://github.com/snipe/snipe-it) Asset tracking for the gear the shop itself owns: what there is, who has it out, and a printed label for each one. It was written for IT departments and their laptops. - [Hackerspaces.org: Hackerspace Software](https://wiki.hackerspaces.org/Hackerspace%20Software) A comparison table of the apps other spaces run, with who uses each and when it was last worked on. Further down, what they use for accounting and for the open-or-closed sign. ## On ToolPool.Garden ToolPool.Garden is how you start sharing shop tools with the people you know. You put the gear up here, and people borrow it from each other. The first month is free, and so is any month the pool is up to 20 members and up to 250 listings. [Sign up](https://toolpool.garden/users/register) [Create a pool](https://toolpool.garden/pool/new) Search the pool, post a request or list a skill, and a borrow is a 1-on-1 chat with a discussion checklist. - [Add ToolPool.Garden to Slack](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/add-to-slack) - [Add ToolPool.Garden to Discord](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/add-to-discord) - [Connect Claude to ToolPool.Garden](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/connect-claude) - [Connect ChatGPT to ToolPool.Garden](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/connect-chatgpt) - [Connect Grok to ToolPool.Garden](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/connect-grok) - If the shop owns tools as a group, keep those on one shared account. [How do I share group-owned tools?](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/shared-account) None of this is legal advice from us, and ToolPool.Garden doesn't provide a waiver or insurance, or set your group up as a nonprofit. This tutorial was last updated on August 2026. Is there a link that we're missing or need to change? Please let us know at [support@toolpool.garden](mailto:support@toolpool.garden) and we'll try to update things as soon as possible. ## Other tutorials - [Connect Claude to ToolPool.Garden](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/connect-claude) - [Connect ChatGPT to ToolPool.Garden](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/connect-chatgpt) - [Connect Grok to ToolPool.Garden](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/connect-grok) - [How to import tens of resources easily with AI](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/import-with-ai-chat) - [How to import hundreds of resources easily with AI](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/import-with-ai) - [Add ToolPool.Garden to Slack](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/add-to-slack) - [Add ToolPool.Garden to Discord](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/add-to-discord) - [How to start a tool library](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/start-a-tool-library) - [How to add your community to the tool pool](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/add-your-community) - [How to add a tool inventory to your website](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/embed-tool-library-inventory) - [How to manage requests without making it complicated](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/manage-requests) - [How do I share group-owned tools?](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/shared-account) - [How to 3D print a multicolor sign](https://toolpool.garden/tutorials/3d-print-a-multicolor-sign)