The Hobby Shop

The Hobby Shop is a fully equipped metal and wood working shop with a variety of machines and hand tools for a diverse array of applications. Our space is split into the Hobby Shop Wood Side and the Hobby Shop Metal Side.

Hobby Shop Wood Side Machines:

• Band Saw
• Bridgeport Mill
• Drill Press
• Glue-Up Table
• Jointer
• Miter Saw
• Mortising Machine
• Planer
• Table Saw
• Sanding Equipment
• Shop Buddy CNC Router
• Techno 3-Axis CNC Router
• Wood Lathe
• And more!

Hobby Shop Metal Side Machines:

• Band Saw
• Bridgeport Mill
• Cold Saw
• Drill Press
• Haas Mini Mill 2
• Laser Cutter
• Menig Micro Mill
• MIG Welder
• Prototrak Lathe
• Prototrak Mill
• Omax Water Jet
• Sanding Equipment
• TIG Welder
• Vacuum Former
• And More!

The Hobby Shop is open to MIT students, staff, faculty, and alumni. In order to join, you must have a current, up-to-date MIT ID. Memberships are available for one or two terms or for the entire year (three consecutive terms):

• Fall: September 1 through January 31
• Spring: January 1 through May 31
• Summer: June 1 through August 31

Whether you are a beginner or have a high-level skill set in making, we all share one space to create. Orientation helps everyone understands how we operate.

To become a member, you must complete a two step orientation process:

1. Request an invitation to our online scheduling service, Bookkit
2. Complete a one-hour, in-person orientation

Orientations are held most Wednesdays 1 – 2 p.m. and Fridays 3 – 4 p.m. If needed, special class or group sessions can be arranged.

In the 1937-38 academic year, Vannevar Bush, then-Vice President of MIT, granted a group of 16 MIT students permission to use a room in the basement of Building 2. With equipment they found around the Institute, they set up a wood and metal shop in the 16 x 22 foot area. The club members chose the name “Hobby Shop” based on their belief in the philosophy that the well-rounded individual pursued interests outside their profession — hobbies.

For MIT students, hobbies involved making things, and with their imaginations and talents, a well-equipped shop opened up limitless possibilities. The original Hobby Shop constitution stated that the shop was only to be used by students for non-academic work. The shop operated as a club with a student foreman and members starting as apprentices and progressing to journeymen, and finally, master craftsmen.

During World War II, a staff shop master was hired to instruct students and maintain the machinery. The first shop master, Joe Macalister, worked only until the end of the war when Bob McCadden took over. Starting in his early twenties, Bob remained shop master until he retired in 1972. During this time, the shop expanded several times and finally moved to its longtime location in the basement of W31, formerly a World War I armory, on the corner of Vassar Street and Massachusetts Avenue.

Membership was expanded to faculty, staff, alumni, and their spouses. While wood and metal remained, many other hobbies were added, later spinning off as separate clubs — electronics, photography, printing, and throwing pots, to name a few.

By the time Ken Stone arrived at MIT as a student in 1968, the formal club aspects had been lost. There was no student shop foreman or member classifications given, but the shop was still busy. The printing press had been given to APO and potting was now in Student Art, but there was still a black and white darkroom along with the wood and metal shop. George Pishenin, a technician in Material Science Department and longtime shop member, took over in 1972 as Director. Eventually, the darkroom was removed for space and because Student Art had a better facility.

In 1991, Pishenin retired, and Ken took over as only the fourth shop master, and the first who was also a MIT graduate. During his time as director, the Hobby Shop expanded its mission to meet the needs of a new generation of students. MIT had many shops when Ken was a student at MIT, including student shops in all engineering and many science departments. Most of these shops had been closed by 1990, and the ones that remained focused on work for specific classes. At the same time, secondary schools were closing shops and sending fewer students to MIT with hands-on experience.

Today the Hobby Shop is run by Ken’s successor, Hayami Arakawa, who arrived at MIT in 2006. As director, Hayami has helped to grow the Hobby Shop’s robust membership, ushered in the next generation of MIT makers, and oversees the day to day ongoings of the shop in our brand new space on Massachusetts Avenue, at the site of the old MIT Museum.