ACEnet is excited to announce a newly installed spray booth in the Wood Manufacturing Center located in our Nelsonville Business Campus, funded through an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) POWER grant.
The 10’x10’x12’ spray booth will allow woodworkers to apply finishes to their products in a controlled, dust-free environment, thus enabling them to use less product. Priority sign-up will be given to Nelsonville anchor tenants, “but any community member who wants to do woodworking is welcomed to become an ACEnet client and operate from our facility,” said Chris Quolke, ACEnet’s Small Business Support Specialist and Trainer who oversees the wood manufacturing shared-use space.
Quolke said that for many woodworkers the biggest barrier to getting started is the prohibitive cost of the equipment. “From doing an inventory of the existing wood shops in the region, the spray booth was one implement that limited what our clients could produce in our space. So, we’re really excited at the potential to create higher value finished products from the same space, with the addition of this one new piece of equipment,” he added.
The booth, which should be up and running in the next 30 days, weighed in at over 3,000 lbs of freight, but Quolke said overall the installation went smoothly. “I figured when I saw 70 pages of instructions that it would take the better part of probably a week just to get that done, but our staff was able to install it in a day.”
Tim Martin owner/operator of Red Tail Design Co. and Ohio is Home, woodworker and long-time ACEnet tenant has offered to be an in-house trainer for the equipment.
The Wood Manufacturing Center also provides other shared tools such as a power feeder, shaper, planer, drum and belt sanders and band and table saws.
For more information on the shared-use Wood Manufacturing Center on our Nelsonville Business Campus contact Chris Quolke. ACEnet has additional space available for workers to rent as well as room for workers’ own equipment.
If you are looking to start or expand your wood business, ACEnet can help.
Check out this short fast-motion video if you want to watch the installation!
Community Update & visuals by ACEnet Multimedia Designer, Delia Palmisano
