Tool / Machine share ?

[flanajb]

I am a casual woodworker and only get to make furniture once in a while when time permits. Over the years I have amassed a fair tools / machines and I recently purchased a airpress vacuum pump. Given that my tools sit idle for sometimes weeks on end and the fact that I don't have a bandsaw / spindle moulder I was wondering there was any mileage in either part share of tools / machines or just a "you can borrow my ... if I in exchange can use your ..." approach.

Just wondering what other forumites think of promoting something like this to ukworkshop users.

Thanks

 

[doorframe]

Hi..

you are very welcome to borrow my Silverline Router, if I can borrow you Festool anything :lol:

Seriously though, as all my gear is very second rate only a complete novice with no tools would benefit, but would be very welcome to any of it as long as I didn't need it at the time.

Not so sure some people would be so willing to let their Festool power tools out of their sight though, and I wouldn't blame them.

Roy.

 

[dickm]

Don't want to sound like a mean old git (OK,OK, I am one...........) but I would be very reluctant to lend/share tools with anyone I didn't know well. Too easy for stuff to get damaged, possibly innocently or through ignorance, but whichever it is, the damage is done.
While most folk on this forum are probably reasonably skilled in tool use, and so less likely than average to misuse tools, there will inevitably be the odd occasion when the worst happens.
And there is also the question of liability. If the worst happens and someone gets hurt, who pays?

 

[miles_hot]

I have found people to be rather kind in their offers of assistance so I'd just make the offer and check you like / trust the person who asks. It all seems to operate on a karma basis
I doubt anything could be formalised due to all sorts of liability / insurance etc issues.
Miles

 

[jimi43]

Since most useful machines are generally immoveable...I would suggest that we could just request and offer when we need to do a job and then local UKW forum members could offer the services of their gear or do the work for the requestee.

I would not like to lend any of my hand tools if only for fear of losing them in the post! :O)

Jim

 

[Shane]

I agree with Jim, I wouldn't be at all happy lending tools out, but I'm more than happy to help forum members nearer to me at my workshop.

 

[TobyB]

I understand some of these "not sure" reactions ... but from practical experience Matthew has loaned out Workshop Heaven supplies to great effect ... I know he may have a "commercial interest" in this ... but on his "pass-around's" I've had bits of kit to play with that have been through half-a-dozen or a dozen others before me and have clearly been used, looked after and treated with respect by each and everyone.

Equally, I have experience of lending a bit of kit to another forum user who I've never met in person ... not a cheap item either ... put it in the post on trust ... it came back a while later clearly having been looked after in their workshop and in packing for posting back, the blade I had was used and shorter after proper re-sharpening, but it now had a new alternative blade as well ... thanks!

So ... clearly some bit's of heavy machinery need to stay in their workshops, and perhaps someone can turn something for a member without a lathe, or someone else can planer/thickness, scroll/band-saw or rout/spindle-mould an occasional piece ...

But equally, I wonder if more "specialised" things could be safely lent out ... an occasionally-used travisher or convex spokeshave for someone making something like a one-off chair seat, a locked mitre-joint or a decorative profile router bit for an occasional job, a toothed, high-angle (or otherwise unconventional profile) plane blade for a horrendously-grained piece of wood, a specialised jig for a particular task (commercial or shop-made), etc?

I, for instance, might find it incredibly valuable to borrow a vacuum pump and bag for a one-off laminating or veneering job ... if it worked out well I might go on to buy the proper kit for myself ... or might decide it wasn't some thing I wanted to do regularly and would avoid both the initial outlay and then the wasted dust-gathering or e-bay-flogging options ... and say if I damaged the bag through mishandling (say) I wouldn't dream of returning it without a new replacement ...

"Lending", "Passing-Around" or whatever ... I know (as a user) ... could be a "NO-NO" for many ... but actually, when you relax and think about it, could be just fine ... not for "treasures" or "everyday" items ... but for occasional, specialised, specific or the like ... take a chance maybe? And be rewarded in kind?

 

[Shane]

That's all very honourable in theory which is fine, but I'm not naive enough to think everyone on a forum shares the same respect as the majority on here. Say something goes missing/damaged 'in the post' who pays for the loss? and it gets very embarrassing and messy. I've lent things out to friends in the past and it's taken a dogs age to get back. It's asking for trouble imo, but I'm not a tighta**e and as said before I'll happily help someone at my workshop, wether they want to use my stuff or they want me to do it

 

[flanajb]

Maybe the solution would be to form regional groups where you actually get to meet the folk and and check out their setup so you can feel more at ease than just sending a tool in the post. Maybe I am too trusting

 

[jimi43]

You trust the Royal Mail!?

There have been events...like the ever-popular "Ye Olde Kent Bashe" which is entering the second year this May...people come from far and wide and share lifts etc....it is done...it just takes someone to organise it. Fortunately, two very kind people on the UKW arrange/host this event...I guess it can be done elsewhere....

But this is different...I think that anyone who randomly says..."I need x done" or "I need to find someone with a y tool" will have a load of fellow members saying "I'm near you - pop over and I will do it for you...". It happens all the time.

Jim