TechShop
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| Founder | Jim Newton and Ridge McGhee |
|---|---|
| Founded at | Menlo Park, California |
| Legal status | For-profit corporation |
| Purpose | Open-Access Workshop |
| Headquarters | San Jose, California |
| Services | Classes, events, access to workshops equipped with tools and state-of-the-art equipment and design software |
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CEO
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Dan Woods |
| Slogan | Build your dreams here! |
| Website | http://www.techshop.com |
TechShop is a chain of membership-based, open-access, DIY workshops and fabrication studios that welcomes people of all skill levels to come in and use industrial tools and equipment to build their own projects. As of 2017[update] they have ten locations in the United States: three in California, one in Arizona, one in Arlington, Virginia (near DC), one in Michigan, one in Texas, and one in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as well as three international locations. In October 2016, the most recent location opened in St Louis. Plans for another location in Brooklyn, New York, were announced in late 2016.
TechShop offers safety and basic use training on all of its tools and equipment in addition to advanced and special interest classes and workshops. For most equipment, a safety and use class must be completed before it may be used. Membership is available yearly, monthly, or daily. Student, family, military, and corporate memberships are also available.
TechShop is affiliated with the maker culture and participates in annual Maker Faire events in the San Francisco Bay Area and around the world.
TechShop was founded by Jim Newton and Ridge McGhee. Jim Newton originally wanted to establish a place with tools to work on his pet projects, like building a digital clock, which he has still not gotten around to building. Newton, who'd been a science adviser to the TV show MythBusters and a College of San Mateo robotics teacher, was also motivated by his students' frustration with lack of access to equipment. Ridge McGhee, a resident of Atherton, California, was upset by the loss of American manufacturing capability to other countries. After a highly successful donation drive, the first TechShop officially opened to the public on October 1, 2006 in Menlo Park, California, in the heart of Silicon Valley.
In October 2013, TechShop moved its original location from Menlo Park to San Carlos, and later to Redwood City.
A location in Metro Detroit opened on May 4, 2012 in a 38,000-square-foot facility in the suburb of Allen Park. This facility was launched in a partnership between Ford and software company Autodesk, and is the largest TechShop facility to date.
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