Absolutely not! We don’t want the uninitiated wandering the halls for a couple reasons.
Firstly, safety. The space is not the safest place to be, and certain zones are especially hazardous. Having uncontrolled access to these spaces is not a good idea.
Second, we want to share things about the space you wouldn’t glean from a quick unguided tour. A lot of tools and opportunities available aren’t immediately obvious unless you know what you’re looking for. There are so many gems hidden around the place. Also we want to make it clear that we are a community, not a product.
As for “try before you buy”, most classes offered on the calendar are open to non-members, and if you have a one time project you wanna try out, a qualified member can invite you in with them and you can work on it together (with the member handling the tools). We recently had a whole gaggle of cub scouts come through for a pinewood derby project.