Rangate Euro Tour 2017
Sun, May 14-27, 2017 | Germany
Our Euro Tour is an annual event which North American woodworkers and shop owners to Europe to get all-access tours of some of the continent's best window and door production shops. Each year, the TOUR concludes with a group visit to the year's largest woodworking trade exhibition. For 2017, this will be LIGNA in Hanover, Germany.
We have wrapped up our 2017 TOUR! Thanks very much to all of our attendees and hosts. It was another year of knowledge, new friendships, and the
General Information
We first began our Euro Tour to help our clients expand their operations to build high-performance windows and doors. For North American woodworkers, getting the opportunity to see the shop floors of well-respected European window shops is a valuable insight that can translate into significant process improvements back home. Shop owners and woodworkers often come home with new knowledge in topics including machine positioning and shop floor layouts, advanced joinery techniques, and equipment choices and strategy.
Shop visits aren't the only source of knowledge. With a group of woodworkers traveling and spending time together over 2 weeks, there's always a lot of exciting knowledge sharing, new connections, and great friendships being built over some 'shop talk' as we travel. Many attendees have gone on to collaborate on projects, build business relationships, and stay in contact as great friends when the group returns stateside.
Attendees are responsible for their flight arrangements to our prearranged meeting time and place in Europe- bus travel and accommodations while on the TOUR are handled by Rangate.
Alpine Germany
From May 15-21, TOUR attendees participated in our first-ever Alpine Germany workshop. The workshop days included both in-class instruction on advanced joinery techniques at Holzfachschule, and visits to the shop floors of well-respected woodworking shops in the region. During both the class sessions and shop visits, Rangate's team was on hand to answer questions and provide support. Many thanks to our host Michael Buecking for being a gracious and knowledgeable host.
About the Organizers
Alpine Workshop was originally established to bring European-style joinery techniques for high-performance windows to North America. Alpine has welcomed over 100 attendees from around the world to Ouray, Colorado for instruction in both intermediate and advanced shaper techniques, as well as comprehensive instruction on building North American as well as European (Tilt & Turn, Double Hung, and Lift & Slide) window and door styles.
Holzfachschule (Literal translation, "woodworking school") is a bridge between over a thousand years of European woodworking tradition and the most modern, high-tech woodworking innovations. What started 70 years ago as a school for sawmill workers is now one of the leading and most innovative woodworking schools in Europe. The school trains woodworkers of all levels, from apprentices and journeymen to the highest level of master craftspeople, certified as meister in Germany. Like Alpine, instruction is always hands-on and personalized, with the instructor adapting the content of the program to the needs and interests of the class attendees.
LIGNA 2017
Our Euro TOUR will conclude with a visit to LIGNA in Hanover, Germany. It's world's leading trade fair for machinery, equipment and tools for the woodworking industry. Held every other year, LIGNA features the most cutting-edge (literally) technology and innovation in woodworking and wood processing. Admission to the show is covered in the Euro Tour registration. Typically, our group enjoys walking the floor together and visiting some of the same booths, but these days do not have a formal structure and attendees are free to check out whatever they are most interested in seeing.
