Hannah Jilk
A workshop with a lot of equipment for making things and vacuum tubes for taking away dust.
Area teams now maintain the myriad tools and equipment at The Bodgery, spreading out responsibility.
As it approaches its 10th anniversary next year, The Bodgery has a new governing strategy designed to propel the makerspace’s evolution as a community workshop for “tinkerers, makers, hackers, educators, scientists, artists and crafters.”
That means The Bodgery is accepting new members again, regardless of skill level or experience. For a monthly fee of $50 ($25 for students, seniors, additional family members and some special cases), members receive 24/7 key-fob access to a woodshop, a metal shop, computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines, electronics equipment, laser cutters and 3D printers, as well as spaces for machining, jewelry making, glassworks and more.
“There are a lot more people getting apartments in Madison, and I think that trend is only going to increase,” says Timm Murray, an electronics, woodworking and 3D printing hobbyist who has been a member of The Bodgery since its founding in 2014 and most recently served as president of its board of directors. “You can’t run a woodshop in your apartment — or weld or use a laser cutter — because the neighbors will complain about the noise. So I think having an outlet, a place where people can make things whether they do it as a business or just a hobby, is very important.”
Madison is home to two other makerspaces: Sector67, which was founded in 2010 and calls itself a “hackerspace,” and the UW Makerspace within the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s College of Engineering, which is mostly student-run. There are also some smaller makerspaces that have specialized offerings.
The Bodgery was founded as a 1,000-square-foot space off Williamson Street by a handful of people wanting to share tools. It eventually moved to a larger space on Madison’s east side and finally to the former machine shop of the old Oscar Mayer plant in 2019. Since then, that space has expanded from 14,000 square feet to 22,000, and there is talk of relocating again.
As membership increased at The Bodgery (a nonprofit organization run by volunteers), board members and a small crew of others gradually took on more responsibilities — including orientation training for new members. That led to temporarily halting new memberships in February, when the number of members topped out at about 550.
“Training new members on all the tools was very taxing to our volunteers. We wanted to make sure they didn’t get burned out. Most of them have day jobs, and this is just something they do on the side,” Murray says, explaining the slowdown. Without the influx of new members, “those people who were overloaded could just take a breather. And that’s all we really needed.”
The Bodgery’s leadership also looked to the Dallas Makerspace for inspiration. As a result, each area of The Bodgery now boasts “area teams” of members who take a more active role in maintaining those spaces and orienting new members. That was more workable than hiring one — or more — persons full-time to train and keep up the space. “That’s not financially feasible. Not without greatly increasing our costs,” Murray says. “Keeping costs down was very important as part of our culture, and being able to spread out [the responsibilities] helps us do that.”
So far, so good. Murray expects The Bodgery to remain open to new members indefinitely, and it hosts tours on Fridays from 7-9 p.m.
“We just like being connected to the community,” Murray says. “I think it’s important for artists to show off their work, and this is how we can help.”
