Education Center

Alabama Woodworkers Guild, Inc.

In 2006, the Alabama Woodworkers Guild started a project to acquire a physical facility and equip it with woodworking machinery not normally found in a home shop, with the goal of making such a facility available to our membership.

While the Guild was still searching for a suitable facility, we were fortunate to receive a grant in late 2006 that allowed us to purchase our first pieces of machinery - a Bridgestone 12 inch jointer, SawStop table saw, Grizzly 20 inch planer and Bosch 12 inch compound sliding miter saw. Through the generosity of members John Lawson and Jim Lee, the machinery was housed at John and Jim's shop and available to the membership for use.

Things really started happening in 2007. Through discussions with Habitat for Humanity, an unused schoolhouse in Maylene, AL was offered to us with very attractive leasing terms. The schoolhouse was used to store unused materials, and was still under a multi-year renovation project. We signed the lease and immediately invested hundreds of man-hours cleaning out the building, painting, refinishing floors, upgrading the wiring and plumbing, installing a security system and building storage units. Of course, our equipment was moved in along with several other items that were purchased to complement the shop. The result is in the pictures below. Our grand opening ribbon cutting ceremony for the media was May 2, 2008 and for the general public on May 3, 2008. Our first woodworking class at the Center was held on May 16-17, 2008 with Glen Huey teaching "Inlay and Construction Techniques for Period Furniture".

Membership in The Alabama Woodworking Guild is open to anyone with an interest in woodworking, even if they do not own any woodworking tools or have a shop. Click here to download a membership application. Our meetings are held on the third Saturday each month at the Woodworking Education Center on the third Saturday at 10:00am. Click here for more information on meetings.

What we started with - September, 2007 Move in day - March 14, 2008

The first toy making workshop was held at the WEC on August 22, 2008. The gang made 392 toys in just one day. Here's a couple of pictures from the workshop. Click here to see see all the toy workshop pictures.