I’d like to check out a sledge hammer

Steve Fancler, left, speaks with Robert Bowles of the Northeast Portland Tool Library in Portand on Dec. 19. Associated Press photos

PORTLAND – If you need a table saw, a 10-foot pipe clamp or a 20-foot pruner, you’ve normally got three choices: Buy it, rent it or borrow it from a neighbor.

Portland is fast becoming a leader in a fourth way: checking it out for free at a tool lending library.

The city’s first nonprofit tool library, founded in 2004 in North Portland, is up to 2,300 members. Its second, in Northeast, has already drawn 800 members in 16 months and just expanded to a far bigger space. A third, in Southeast Portland, is scheduled to open this spring, which would make Portland the only U.S. city with a trio. More.

Would you like to see a tool library in our area?