The biggest problem with this sort of thing is getting insurance coverage.
Try any local colleges or high schools that offer woodworking courses. Often you can sign up for a course and with the teachers consent, work on your own project. They mainly want to know you can use the tools safely.
Where is this located?
Mike Berger wrote:
Some company starting doing something similar here with cooking equipment. They provide the space, recipes, and ingredients, all chopped, sifted, minced, etc, and you prepare a week's worth of meals at a time.
Was very popular for a while, but I understand it's struggling now. I suspect the novelty wore off for the interested, and the market was shallow to begin with.
My high school shop had incredible equipment! I think it was pretty much all Northfield, but I don't recall seeing any nameplates. Northfield's plant is 40 miles away, so that would make sense.
The school had a 16" tablesaw, 20" planer, 8" or 12" jointer, at least 20" bandsaw, and a big shaper. The RAS was a 14" or 16" Delta. They also had a number of Delta lathes. There was a 14" Rockwell or Delta bandsaw. The nicest thing they had was the huge Timesavers wide belt sander.
The only problem was no money to fix the machines if they broke. The RAS was unusable for most of a semester due to a bearing that needed to be replaced.
This was back in the late 80s. I'm not sure the high school even has a woodshop today. The high school was expanded and remodeled top to bottom a few years ago and I wouldn't be suprised if the shop was removed.
Brian Elfert
Well guys, here is what I did. I moved to The Villages Florida. There is a Villages Woodworking Club that has an 8,000 sq ft shop. Just loaded with top notch equipment. Four tablesaws, six lathes, jointers, planers, etc. Everything that one could ask for. Membership is open to Villages residents only. Onetime innitiation fee of $100 and $25 a year threafter (no other charges). The shop is open 6 days a week for those with the urge to make sawdust. The club is incorporated and is non profit. There is a shop monitor and an office monitor on duty when ever the shop is open. Lumber is available from the club or members can bring their own wood in for projects. The members do a lot of volunteer work for Village residents such as furniture repairs or small projects. The club is also very active in building toys for local childrens organizations. Over 400 members now and still growing. Obviously everyone can't use the shop at the same time but it seems to work itself out so everyone gets a chance.
The place where I'll be moving to is pretty remote, so I doubt there is stuff there. Besides, I should have the means now to get a decent setup. 10 years ago struggling with a cheap contractor saw it would have been a nice option.
I was just thinking out loud in terms of what would be a neat business to run.
Jeff
Very interesting post. Thanks for sharing your experience. You are right about a sue happy jackpot society we live in. I wish congress would pass some kind of tort reform, but with a building full of lawyers, I doubt it would ever happen.
Jeff
Could you provide any more details about this? I live in Oakland and would love to check it out.
Damian
damian:
Always do a "Google" first (Sunnyvale, woodworking, school).
Popout -
Military only. The best shops are in other countries.
that's the shop I couldn't recall the name of...in Sunnyvale as I mentioned a few days ago. Nice shop area.
Dave
Yes. In my town (pop. 28,000) there is a business called "Your WoodShop" where you pay a monthly fee to use shop space. They have all the basic (large) tools. I'm fortunate that I have my own shop, but I can imagine a rented shop is a huge liability concern.
Well I did Google sawdust bay area, and sawdust san francisco.. anyway thx.
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