A makerspace is one or more shared community workshops and equipment. A good analogy is “Like a gym, only with lathes, a table saw, sewing equipment, 3D printers, and more”. Members pay a fee to collectively pay for the overhead (rent, utilities, sandpaper) and in turn, enjoy access to the machines, together with instruction and friendships! The general idea is to give people a way to create with things they can’t afford, don’t have space for, or don’t know for sure if they would use enough to buy themselves. But also, don’t be surprised if you realize someday your best friends are the people you talk to and work on projects with at the makerspace!

At this time we are most heavily focused on our woodshop, which is one of the best of its kind in New Hampshire, and also our prototyping shop, which has a wide array of superb 3d printers and laser cutters ranging from easy-entry to industrial. But we do have textiles equipment and are planning to reboot our bike repair shop this spring! No two makerspaces look alike as they are all started by different people with different areas of knowledge and resources.

You can sign up right on the website, picking the membership level that is appropriate for you. Discounts are available for veterans, seniors, students, families, and people joining for six or twelve months at a time.

Once you have paid your initial monthly fee we will reach out and schedule a welcome meeting where we have you sign forms, go over the most important rules for the shared space, and issue a key fob so you can come and go as you please. If you are able to print off and sign the member agreement and waiver ahead of the gathering this will save time, as will becoming familiar with the member manual in advance.

For most of the equipment, we ask you to meet with a shop lead to go over safe usage in a “check-out”. If you already know how to use a miter saw, great! That should make the process go that much faster, but we still need to verify you can operate it safely for the sake of your fellow members. Never used one before? Don’t worry, that’s part of why we are here. It’s one of our goals as a non-profit to make this equipment more accessible to everyone. Most of our certifications take place on Thursday nights, but if this doesn’t work with your schedule we can set up an alternate time.

We have lockers of various sizes you can rent and a few larger spaces large enough to hold an ongoing project or turn into a small studio. Please note the larger spaces are in a dust-free zone at this time.

Short-term usage of the machines doesn’t work well with our community and volunteer-driven model. If you already have a home shop you are proud of, perhaps even make a living from your machines, you probably feel ambivalent when the neighbor down the street you’ve never met before asks to borrow a tool, even if you know they have some sort of making business themselves, even if they offer you $20 towards wear and tear. What currently keeps us afloat is members paying dues over the long term, who we know because we spent time working with them know how to use the machines safely and also care deeply about the space.

However, it is also our mission to help small businesses flourish. We will be piloting a day pass program for our ShopBot CNC router, where people who have taken our proprietary class may reserve time and pay by the hour to use just this machine.

We hold an Open House every first Monday from 6 - 8pm. If you can't make that date and time, contact us and we'll work out a different time slot. Please do NOT just drop by or you will be disappointed as we are 100% volunteer run and do not have set open hours.

We started out in Concord and searched it extensively for our new location, vetting multiple possibilities and working up business plans.The new location had the virtue of only being five minutes up the road from old new one, as well as very supportive management and close proximity to I93. We remain members both of the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce as well as the Penacook Village Association. The Town of Boscawen has been very welcoming and we love our new location and think you will too!

That was actually us! This was a great place to get started, but we are now in a more industrial space with a dock door that supported the machine upgrades we wanted to make.

When the spirit moves us and we aren't too busy making stuff for ourselves. You'll find an event schedule on our Classes and Events page.

Unfortunately as much as we enjoy donations, this isn't what we're about. We're happy to empower you to learn the skills as a member, but our volunteers are all busy helping existing members and making the space better.

OK that was tongue in cheek, but thanks to our original awesome grantors we are in really good shape for equipment. A great place to donate used equipment is Habitat for Humanity who will sell it to help fund their work.

That would be awesome! We couldn’t function without volunteers, skilled or otherwise. Opportunities range from doing occasional cleaning and maintenance, to helping onboard new members or give tours, to writing marketing copy or raising funds or serving on the Board of Directors to help steer our future direction. While it is easier to help if you are a member, as this way you gain a better understanding of the needs of the space and have a keyfob, it is possible to help without being a member. Contact us at info@concordmakerspace.org if you would like to explore ways to get involved!

You will go through the process of an initial information session and receipt of a RFID tag to enter and use the space. From there there will be an invite to our Slack. In the Slack there is a checkout channel where you can make requests to be checked out on equipment. You'll also see announcements and other important information right in there. Once you've gone through checkout processes you'll be able to start using the proper processes to reserve equipment and start your creative process.