- Sawdust Studios is a community wood shop that I came up with.

As a contractor I had people asking for tools and also I saw the need for people to learn woodworking.

So I combined those two to come up with this idea that seemed really crazy, but when I told my wife about it, she didn't think it was crazy.

The idea of a community wood shop really seemed like something that people needed and wanted.

And based off of that we were able to grow and like expand the idea.

And then we started, this wood shop and it's actually worked.

I started woodworking from a young age.

I'm basically self-taught and actually never expected myself to be doing this.

It was just something I like to do on the side.

I never took a shop class, but my dad does work in construction, so I always had access to some rudimentary woodworking tools and I couldn't stop myself from stealing his saws and his leftover wood and just putting together like little projects.

And as I got later into my 20s, I really enjoyed doing it and it became almost therapeutic for me.

And so I started doing more research and just practicing my skills and it's just something that, it's kind of part of who I am.

I've always been good at it.

For me, it just seems like it's so much a part of humanity and like we were meant to work with wood and I want everybody else to be able to do it.

- This is fun.

- If you want to join the shop, you have to take our safety course, Which is a couple hours.

Me or an instructor will guide you through using all the tools safely and you'll start with a piece of wood and you actually get to physically learn how to safely operate the tools.

And then you're pretty much ready to go.

The shop is yours, as long as you're using safely, we're fine with you coming in anytime you want to use the space.

For the most part, even people that are coming in at two in the morning, they aren't being unsafe.

Everybody is following the rules.

There's cameras in here, so I think the fact that like big brother's kind of watching is enough to keep people honest, but it's really, it's been nice.

There's people that want to come in at six in the morning.

I don't wanna be here at six in the morning.

I'm fine with you coming in and starting on a project like if you're just gonna sand, why would I stop you?

If you're just gonna make a few cuts.

For the most part, it's just hobbyists coming in and they're just trying to knock out a thing or two because this is what they love to do and they're trying to squeeze it into life.

So having it open 24/7 allows them to make the time for it.

Instead of trying to squeeze into my schedule, they can squeeze it into their own schedule.

We wanna make it where anybody can come in and use the shop, even if it is for just a two hour class.

I want a mom to come in and feel like she made a cutting board and I don't necessarily want or need her to want to come back and be a member of the shop.

I just want her to have used the shop and had a really good experience and walk away feeling like even for that two hours that she was also a woodworker.

Teaching woodworking is extremely rewarding because there's like a sense of, like I said, having somebody come in in two hours makes something just as good as the thing that they've assumed is like, unreachable for 'em is really cool cause it's just showing people that really anybody can do this.

It really is for anybody.

And I don't know, it just, it makes me really proud to like be able to like kind of give that to people.

But it also makes me really proud to like let them, to see them realize something in themselves that they didn't know they could do beforehand.

- [Female Voice] So here is the finished product.

- Having a community wood shop, like Sawdust Studios is extremely valuable because I think in a society where people know how to use their hands and build things is a much stronger society.

Woodworking isn't going away anytime soon.

Having things made out of wood is part of humanity.

We're always gonna have things made out of wood and I think it's important to know where things come from and it's important for us to be part of the things that we're putting in our home.

Instead of them having them shipped from China or from other country where you have no idea what the working conditions of the people that are doing it are.

I think it's beautiful to be able to not only know where they came from, but to be part of the process of making something beautiful that's gonna go into somebody's home, especially your own home.

And Sawdust allows you the opportunity to create something beautiful and be proud of it.