An interesting article in today's Wall Street Journal -- The WSJ link and a link to a copy of it follow.
(MakerBot, mentioned near the end of the article, has an inexpensive 3D printer kit like at )
It mentions several so-called "hackerspaces". Eg, A2 Mech Shop in Ann Arbor, where "tinkerers pool tools they own". Eg, TechShop in Menlo Park, CA, "a for-profit workshop ... members who pay $100 a month are milling iron... Founder Jim Newton tallied a list of all the tools he could imagine needing. Now TechShop, opened in 2006, has $500,000 worth of lathes, laser cutters and other equipment."