I’m not really sure what could be done about it though since the machines and floor space is inherently quite expensive. Seems like something that should be somewhat government run like libraries to promote socialising.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bdws0rrfK6I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p1mQvyA7NE
others have a central interest (bookbinding | restoring ferries) and get grants based on the projects they undertake.
In the Australian rural district I'm in the local Men's Shed is more of a community shed (plenty of women using the space, doing related work, etc) with a lot of the equipment and land being pooled from the fully and semi retired who use the shed.
I have a tangential computer IT support|consult involvement, donate a bit of free time to give advice, and gave them a 48 TB NAS for pooling DVD collections of days gone by.
Also drones, gps, tractor hacking, etc.
Maybe start a system where people could lend their devices to the space, so they could earn some money on them long term. Depending of the initial cost of a device, I'd pay 10EUR-20EUR every time I'd use a special device. 10% of the profit goes to the makerspace, 90% to the device-lender. With 50-100 uses, you'd start making money. I could see something like this work.
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On that note, if anyone knows of good potential locations for a large Makerspace in Brisbane, Australia... "Hackerspace Brisbane" (HSBNE) is looking for a new home:
https://www.facebook.com/HSBNE/posts/pfbid0iAakLGAK39h8qDA7N...