Allied Woodshop Woodworking Workshop: Sunday Club $60

Allied Woodshop's Woodworking Club is the cheapest regular way into a woodworking workshop in Los Angeles: $60 for a single Sunday class from 4:30 to 6:30pm, or $500 for a full season pass. The shop is at 4160 Whiteside Street, Los Angeles, CA 90063, in East Los Angeles near Cal State LA, and it is open by appointment only. Free parking is available on site and along the street. The club's fall season Sundays run October 11 through November 22.

A season of Woodworking Club lasts 10 weeks, and you can come to one class, all of them or anything in between. A single class is $60. The season pass is $500, about $50 a class, and it comes with automatic enrollment for all 10 Sundays. Because a drop-in costs only $10 more per night than the season average, the pass makes sense only if you expect to come most weeks.

Parents and children are welcome. Buy two spots if you and your child will each work on your own project and one spot if you share a project. The shop recommends children be 10 or older to work independently with sharp hand tools, and parents must supervise them at all times. There is an instructor in the room helping every student, so the format suits a family weekend as well as a solo hobby.

The practical difference between the two formats is the tool set. Club nights are about chisels, planes and saws you push by hand, in a two-hour block where nobody rushes you. The Intro day is six hours of machines, and you leave with a finished cutting board. Plenty of people take the Intro first for confidence on the table saw and jointer, then use the club to keep practicing cheaply.

For power tools rather than hand tools, the Intro to Woodworking class is $270 and runs 9am to 3pm. The next listed date is Sunday, December 6, 2026. You use the table saw, bandsaw, jointer, planer and drill press to make a hardwood cutting board, and instructors discuss how to select material, orient grain, mill wood and choose a finish. All materials and supplies are included.

There is also a Women+ Intro to Woodworking at the same $270, welcoming all woman-identifying, trans and non-binary people, on Saturday, December 12, 2026 from 9am to 3pm. Class size for that session is limited to 9 students. The format and cutting board project are the same as the general class.

One class takes the tools out of East LA. On Saturday, November 14, from 3 to 5pm, Allied teaches Craft + Beer at Arts District Brewing Company, 828 Traction Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90013, for $150. You shape a wooden flight board with professional woodworking tools, make the holes for the glasses to sit in, sand it and finish it with oil. A flight of four 5-ounce beers is included. You must be 21 or older, and no children are allowed.

Allied Woodshop is the classroom half of a two-part operation. Its sister business, Allied Woodworkers, is a community shop with member benches for professionals and hobbyists, in the large warehouse attached to the classroom. Memberships are Hand Tools at $270 a month, XS at $270, Part-time at $600 and Full-Time at $1010, and the Full-Time level is currently marked full with a waitlist.

The equipment list is serious. Large skylights and roll-up doors provide natural light, the large tools are cast iron and well maintained, the table saws are SawStops and there are many handheld Festool power tools. The shop is designed for domestic hardwoods. If you work mainly in sheet goods, softwoods or exotic woods, the shop says it may not be the best fit, though occasional use is allowed after talking to the shop tech.

The newest membership is the Hand Tools level at $270 a month, flagged as new on the membership page. All levels include project storage, while Part-time and Full-time memberships add dedicated personal space and lumber storage. Applicants submit an application, and the shop schedules a shop visit before deciding. The shop describes itself as a good place to build skills and get advice from colleagues without a large financial investment.

Kirtan Tom owns the classroom and co-owns the member shop. She is a woodworker from Altadena who fell in love with woodworking in New York, and she took over Allied in 2021 from its founder, Laura Zahn. Max Wilson, a professional furniture maker and designer, co-owns the member shop. Martin Hernandez is the shop tech, with 10 years of experience, and Ana Cho is the community coordinator.

Email hello@alliedwoodshop.com or use the contact form if you would like to visit the space, since the shop is open by appointment only. Allied does not accept woodworking job requests, so it is a place to learn and to work, not to commission furniture. If you want something built for you, the shop points you to its members directly.

The honest verdict: start with a single $60 club night before committing to the $500 pass, and book the $270 Intro class if you want to learn the big machines. Skip Craft + Beer if you want a serious skill day, because it is a two-hour social afternoon. The neighborhood around Whiteside Street is residential and industrial rather than a dining strip, so eat before you arrive and treat the visit as a self-contained evening.