ToolShed is a member-run lending library for hand and power tools, with an open workshop attached. Borrow the thing you need for a weekend, give it back, and let the next person have it. Nothing here needs to live in your cupboard.
A tool library is not a hire shop. Nobody is trying to sell you a longer rental.
Members reserve a tool online, collect it from the counter during opening hours, and return it within the agreed window. There is no per-day price ladder and no upsell: the annual membership covers the borrowing, and the only charges that exist are for consumables you take away — blades, discs, abrasives, gas.
Everything is checked back in by a volunteer before it goes out again. Anything that fails the check goes to the repair bench rather than to a skip, which is how roughly a third of the catalogue arrived here in the first place.
Three days for hand tools, two for anything with a motor, seven for decorating kit outside the spring rush.
Anything needing a ticket or certificate to operate legally, and anything we cannot safely test on return.
| Category | Examples | Items |
|---|---|---|
| Cutting & shaping | circular saws, jigsaws, mitre saw, planes | 212 |
| Drilling & driving | SDS drills, impact drivers, bit sets | 264 |
| Garden & ground | shredder, aerator, long-reach pruner | 151 |
| Decorating | steamers, sanders, spray kit, trestles | 188 |
| Measuring & levelling | laser levels, moisture meters, gauges | 96 |
| Bench & hand | clamps, chisels, files, hand planes | 869 |
Second and fourth Thursday, 18:30 to 21:00. Bring the broken thing and someone will look at it with you — kettles, lamps, bicycles, garden machinery, the occasional sewing machine. We fix about six in ten; the rest at least leave with an honest answer about why they are not worth fixing.
No booking. Turn up, put your name on the board, make yourself useful in the queue.