The wood shop
David Bassham, Woodworkers President
If you have lived at Robson Ranch for any time at all you are probably familiar with the woodworking shop located in the Creative Arts and Technical Center. Still I am occasionally surprised when talking to long-term residents who don’t realize that we have a wood shop or that we do furniture repairs for our neighbors. The Woodworking Club continues to grow and currently has over 150 members, male and female.
Joining the club is simple. Everyone is required to take a two-hour safety course regardless of their experience or skill level. Dues are $50 per year and covers the cost of maintaining and operating the shop as well as providing most of the consumables such as glue, sand paper, nails and screws. The money raised through furniture repair, craft fairs and the contract pieces made for residents goes toward upgrading the tools and equipment in the shop as necessary. As such the Woodworking Club is self-sufficient and currently runs what we consider to be the finest community wood shop in North Texas.
While our membership includes many experienced and talented craftsman, we also have a lot of novice woodworkers. We offer basic woodworking classes to orient people to the craft as well as more advanced classes to help people apply the basics to more complex projects such as box making and inlay classes. For the more technically inclined we have also offered classes on the software that operates our computer-controlled router. There is also a lot of one-on-one teaching and mentoring as well as an overabundance of advice to help get people started in woodworking.
The Woodworking Club is also very involved in charitable activities and has engaged in projects for many organizations like the United Way and Ft. Worth Children’s Hospital. We also donate completed projects to Toys for Tots, Support our Troops and St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital to name a few.
If you have any interest in woodworking, come by the shop and take a tour. There is always someone there to show you around.