When we moved into our house on the East Side, the interior walls were all supported by 1 inch thick long leaf pine. A builder looking at the material during a site visit casually mentioned he would make something out of it. This peaked my interests and set me down my recent woodworking path. The only problem was that I didn’t have many tools.

This is a re-post of an entry I wrote for the house blog.

Through my life my dad always had a workshop, I’ve been building pinewood derby cars and cutting 2x4s on a table saw since I was a boy. I’ve got a modest collection of hand me down tools in a shed out back, but when my ambitions when from construction grade woodworking to finer things, I didn’t have the space, or the tools, or the cash to get started. Techshop solves these problems.

Located about 30 minutes North of where I live, they’ve got a ton of woodworking machines. A $2k+ saw stop tablesaw with an amazing outfeed table, drill press, bandsaw, chop saw, and what I really needed: a jointer and planer. In addition to woodworking tools they’ve got metal working, quilting, laser cutting, 3d printing, and pretty much anything else you can think of as being both DIY and expensive. So far we’ve built a kitchen table bench, and we’re working on a matching table.

The membership works like a gym. You pay a monthly fee and get access to everything. The only difference is that few things in a gym can maim you quite as quickly as the equipment found all around techshop. So to use a piece of equipment, you must first go through a training course. I took one for “basic woodshop” and one for “jointer/planer”. You can see classes listed here.

A good jointer would easily cost me $700, the tech shop ran a promotion for 3 months of membership with 2 free classes for $300. Not only could I use the jointer there and save $400, I got a class out of it and a fully stocked workspace with speed squares, clamps, and more. They also have these large tables you can use in the common area, they’re first come first serve, but i’ve never had a problem getting one.

View inside the woodshop:

It’s not all rainbows and unicorn’s, there’s some downsides to using a community workshop.

  • CON: The tools break. I’ve gone one or two times when the machine I needed wasn’t working. I often like to bring multiple things to do with me so it’s not a total waste, but at home I rarely totally break a tool.

  • PRO: They fix the tools for you. You don’t need to know how to maintain or repair any of the machines, it’s great.

  • CON: Sweat the small stuff. The small items like drill-bits are constantly going missing or were misused to the point they’re not functional. BYO-Drill-bits.

  • PRO: They’re literally connected to a Lowes, so if you forget anything it’s a 30 second walk next door.

  • CON: If it’s crowded you need to wait to swap between tools. At home, I can keep everything setup and swap as needed. In a community shop, I need to think about my workflow a little better. Also if you only need to make one cut on a machine, often someone who is using it for a large project will let you.

  • PRO: Company: When you’re tired, there’s usually people there doing cool stuff, it’s inspirational. You can ask others for technique help, but always take it with a grain of salt.

  • CON: It’s a 30 minute drive for me, and means I must store ALL of my lumber in my car. They’ve got overnight storage, but it’s costly at $20 a day.

  • PRO: It’s relatively close to “fine lumber” which is a great place to buy hardwood.

When it comes to tools for a project the “I just need one more” is always present. Next time you find yourself in need, consider tech shop.

If you like building stuff or reading about building stuff follow @schneems and @rubyku.