# A Wonderful Opportunity for Woodworkers in Portland Oregon Metro Area.



## NatalieM (Jan 6, 2013)

If you live in this area and haven't checked out the Oregon Woodworkers Guild, you are missing out, if you are a member or a former member, you aught to check in. The guild recently leased a fully decked out shop and it is available for members to use for a really great price! This is a real game changer for me. I am still in the process of deciding what equipment I am going to need and setting up my shop. I have quite a bit of wide lumber I would like to process and use, but a wide jointer and planer come with a hefty price. With this shop membership I have access to what I need plus other equipment that will make my work so much more productive. Here's a run down of the equipment.
The shop has an Italian made 16 inch jointer. The blades are sharp and it's kept in fine tune. 
They have a 24 inch planer, sharp blades and in tune. Sweet! 
There is a 42 inch---42 inch thickness sander! Who doesn't love that!
They have two bandsaws. One is set up with an inch and a quarter carbide tipped resaw blade. The other has a quarter inch carbide tipped blade. I recently did a resaw of a 10 inch wide board, and it was smooooooth. See photos. 
They have a sliding table saw with the scoring blade for cutting plywood. 
A Shaper and a router table with a router lift. 
There are two SawStop table saws. 
Drum sanders, edge sanders, disk sanders, and a drill press. 
There are 8 workbench spaces and a large assembly area. 
This is how the shop membership works. 
Buy Shop Time
To use the Guild Shop you must be a current member with paid up dues and you must subscribe to one of the following Shop Rental plans. 
• Heavy User: $360/year providing 96 time slots (384 hours at $0.94/hour)
• Moderate User: $240/year providing 60 time slots (240 hours at $1.00/hour)
• Light User: $150/year providing 24 time slots (96 hours at $1.56/hour)
Slots are 4 consecutive hours in the range: 9am to 1pm, 1pm to 5pm and 5pm to 9pm

Before using the shop, you must have taken the free Safety class, passed the Tool Safety Exam, have a Green Card and have a signed Liability Waiver on file.

I registered for the 150 level and if I were to use up that time before a year is up, I can buy more time. So far, it's not at all hard to get on the schedule, in fact, at this point there is usually only one other shop user along with the shop monitor. I'm sure that will change eventually, but there will be a limit of 10 users at one time in the shop.  I have been in a co-op shop before and even if the membership was at capacity, the shop was never used at full tilt to where I couldn't get a spot to do what I needed to do. And trust me, I paid A LOT more for that. I have been going to the guild shop about twice per week and I'm like a kid in a candy store. Like I said, this is a game changer for me in terms of my own shop set up. Without having my own jointer yet, I have a hard time getting off the ground with most projects. Now, instead of trying to save up for a 16 inch jointer/planer combo machine, I am going to buy an 8 inch jointer and a portable planer, and I'll be in business! I just got my bandsaw set up with a ½ inch blade and now I think I'll switch that to a ¼ inch blade and do all my resaw at the Guild shop.

I'm serious people. Even if all you used was the thickness sander, wouldn't that be worth 150.00/year!

Let me know what you think, and if you join the guild and the shop, tell them Natalie sent you.


----------



## darthford (Feb 17, 2013)

Wow those are some great machines, I'm just across the river in Battle Ground maybe I'll check out the guild. I have all my own tools but you never know when you might need a larger machine.


----------



## Kentuk55 (Sep 21, 2010)

Wow! Sounds like a slice o heaven on earth.


----------



## NatalieM (Jan 6, 2013)

Darthford, We have several members from across the river. The shop is located in Multnomah Village, just a hop/skip off of I-5.

AND BTW That photo was taken in my shop, the Guild shop is much cleaner!


----------



## Biff (Nov 19, 2012)

Have they got their website refined? I joined a couple years ago and it was just snoozeville with no activity on the forums. Also, it's Oregon Guild…but it might have well be Portland Guild. If you didn't live in the city then you were persona non grata.


----------



## Earlextech (Jan 13, 2011)

This is a great opportunity for local woodworkers, everyone should get involved. I visit co-op's and clubs year-round and find some of the happiest woodworkers there.

Don't miss The Woodworking Show this coming weekend in Portland also! See you all there.


----------



## 7Footer (Jan 24, 2013)

Definitely looks like an amazing shop, I'm thinking about joining after I get some work done on my house, right now shop time at all has been a challenge for me. But it looks like such a great place to have access to, and I'm only about five minutes away, I'm right down the road on the border of Tigard & Portland. Not only that, but this shop is also about 3 blocks from one of the best beer stores in Oregon! John's Market, after you get done making sawdust you can stop at John's and get just about any beer in the world!
There are a couple pics the shop on their website


----------



## NatalieM (Jan 6, 2013)

7 Footer, Thanks for the heads up about the market, yeah, I've been there. And thanks for reminding me about the photos of the shop, and posting a link to their site. Duh!

Biff, Yeah at least for the near future their web site is not the place to hang out and network with other woodworkers. The meetings are getting better in fact some are great. This Thurs night Mary May a nationally famous woodcarver ( http://www.marymaycarving.com ) is going to be there giving demonstrations. She is also teaching classes all weekend long exclusively for Guild Members.

Sam, I'll see you at the show. Any good deals I should prepare my bank account for?


----------



## stefang (Apr 9, 2009)

Time sharing on some big bad shop equipment is a great way to go Natalie, especially for those large platters and boards that need dimensioning and sanding and of course a host of other things outside the capacity of normal hobby shop equipment. The only problem is that you need a very populated area to support something like that.


----------

