The vending machine at Metrix Create:Space in Seattle has a few geeky items in addition to snacks and drinks. Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Visitors to Metrix Create:Space in Seattle can avail themselves of the hacker space’s many amenities: 3-D printers, work benches, hand tools, power tools, oscilloscopes, and 50 Mbps internet.

If you need something more than that for your project, there’s a good chance you’ll find it in the shop’s vending machine.

Alongside such vending staples as candy bars and bottles of water, this machine dispenses USB cables, LCD displays, LEDs, breadboards and Arduino kits.

The machine also contains MREs (military “meals ready to eat”), an open-source breathalyzer kit, solder tubes, servos, DC motors and ShamWows, among other things.

Metrix is one of several Seattle-area hackerspaces, and it’s one of the newest. It was started by Matt Westervelt, and unlike many hackerspaces, which are run as quasi-anarchist collectives, Metrix is Matt’s business.

Hanging out at Metrix and using the copious bandwidth is free, but you’ll pay an hourly rate to rent the space’s many tools. It’s just $5 an hour to use any of the basic tools, $15 per hour for the soldering room, and higher rates for the laser engravers, Makerbot and other specialty tools.

And, if you should find yourself short a part or two, there’s always the vending machine.

Metrix Create:Space is at 623 Broadway East in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.