TechShop To Open as Public Workshop on the SF Peninsula

San Mateo, CA (PRWEB) April 30, 2006

Jim Newton and Ridge McGhee announced this week that they are forming a project called “TechShop”, which will be an open-access public workshop located on the San Francisco peninsula.

“There are a lot of people on the peninsula who want to make things with their hands, including inventions, robots, and all sorts of things,” said TechShop’s founder, Jim Newton. “The problem is that very few people can put their own machine shop and fabrication facility together.”

That’s where TechShop comes in.

TechShop will provide members with inexpensive daily or monthly unlimited access to a full range of tools and equipment including milling machines, lathes, sheet metal equipment, welders, plastic casting and vacuum forming stations, electronic circuit design and prototyping tools, a 3D printer, laser cutter, automotive tools, keyway cutters, tachometers and torque meters, scales, and just about every other tool and machine you would ever need.

“We will also offer one-hour ‘Building Block’ classes to get you safely up-to-speed on a tool or machine, as well as longer term in-depth classes,” said co-founder Ridge McGhee. “We will also offer a range of programs for kids and kids and parents, including programs for home-schooled kids.”

“If people want to learn how to use a tool like a welder or a milling machine, they have to take a class at a local college or school, and take some extra lab time. But after the school-required project is completed, you no longer have access to the shop. Later when you want to use your new skill for a project of your own, you can’t get access to the equipment. TechShop turns this model on its head,” said Newton.

TechShop is scheduled to open in July of 2006 as a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Daily unlimited access is planned to be priced at $ 25, and monthly unlimited access is planned to be $ 100. Newton and Ridge plan to offer members access to the TechShop facility 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

TechShop is an open-access public workshop for people who like to work with their hands with metals, plastics, wood and electronics but do not have access to a shop or equipment.

More information is available at the TechShop web site at http://www.techshop.ws/.

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