FREE?!

Welcome to the Free Online Woodworking School!

It’s so great to have you here.

Among many other things, gappy joints, torn out surfaces, and blotchy finishes are the number one causes for frustration in woodworking. I am here to help.

Because I believe that everyone should be able to make things with their hands.

This school offers a risk free step by step program at no cost to you. You’ll find lessons on purchasing equipment, cutting joinery and making your own beautiful woodworking projects.

Be sure to sign up to my mailing list to receive notifications when a new lesson or project is live. You have the ability to come out of this school with a whole new set of skills. So don’t let skipping a lesson be an excuse for not achieving it!

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and never miss a new lesson again!

Theory #1

What Tools Do You Need?

It's very easy to feel overwhelmed when walking into a woodworking store for the first time. The seemingly endless variations of tools, the different price points, and brands eager to sell to you can be a minefield.

This section guides you through that confusion and helps you make the best choices possible. We will cover topics such as:

What Planes do you need?
What Saws do you need?
What Chisels do you need?
What tools do I recommend?

If you're unsure of what tools you need, this section will massively help you!

Practical #1

The Basics

Now you've got your carefully selected, high quality tools, we're going to jump straight into it and get your hands dirty! In this section, you will learn:

How to Sharpen a Chisel
How to Sharpen a Plane
How to Setup a Plane
Sawing Techniques
Chiselling Techniques
Planing Techniques
Marking Gauge Techniques

Start here and lets start replacing those bad habits with good ones!

Practical #2

Material Prep

In this lesson, you're going to learn the fundamental skill of preparing material both by hand and machine. You will learn:

How to Plane Wood Flat
How to Square an Edge
How to Thickness Timber
How to Square Endgrain
How to Prevent Tearout
Setting up and using Machinery

The days of bent, twisted timber are long gone!

Practical #3

Beginner Joinery

Now that your tools are sharp, your material is prepared, and your brain is loaded, lets get cutting some joints! In this section, you will learn how to layout, cut and refine joinery for maximum strength with zero gaps. The essential joint's we will be covering are:

How to cut a Lap Joint
How to cut a Cross Halving Joint
How to cut a Dovetail Joint

These joints will be used in the upcoming projects so be sure to put in a lot of practice. When I started learning, we practised these for an entire month before even beginning our first project!

Theory #2

Material

Before getting into any projects, its very important to have an understanding of the material you are actually using. An awareness of how the material grows, how it moves, and how it can be cut will drastically improve your making skills! Not to mention your designing skills too. In this section, you will learn about:

Wood species
Cutting / Converting timber
Wood movement
Sustainability

I know it seems boring at first glance, but this section will open your eyes to things that other people don't notice.

Project #1

The Dovetail Box

You've got the tools, you have put in the practice, and you're now ready to get started with the first project; the Dovetail Box! This is a great beginner project as it doesn't call for much material, it covers a lot of skills, and makes a great gift! The techniques and processes you will learn in this project are:

Dovetailing
Assembling and Gluing
Edge Jointing
Rebating / Rabbeting
Mitring
Sanding and Finishing

This project is a great introduction to the world of woodworking and is an essential skill to future projects. Let's get stuck in!

Practical #4

Intermediate Joinery

Now that you have learnt the basics and applied them to a project, it's time to start practising more difficult joints! These joints tend to have very specific applications such as chair making, carcass construction and drawer making. This makes them essential learning for any fine woodworker. You will learn how to:

Cut a Bridle Joint
Cut a Mortice and Tenon Joint
Cut a Lapped Dovetail Joint

Being able to produce these joints accurately is essential to completing the upcoming projects where we focus on carcass joinery.

Project #2

Cabinet

In this project, you will learn how to make a cabinet with a traditionally fitted door and drawer. This develops your carcass buiilding skills as well as fitting hardware. I will demonstrate techniques and skills such as:

Lapped Dovetails
Cutting Grooves / Dados
Frame and Panel Doors
Hinging a Door
Constructing a Drawer
Fitting a Drawer

This is a big step up from the box project, but the processes learnt are invaluable. Lets get stuck in!

Practical #5

Advanced Joinery

You have learnt the basic and intermediate joints and now it's time to move onto even more challenging stuff! These joints can be very useful when constructing complex carcasses and also develop your layout and accuracy when marking out. You will learn how to:

Cut a Mitred Dovetail Joint
Cut an Angled Dovetail Joint

Being able to produce these joints accurately is essential to completing the upcoming projects where we focus on concealing grooves within a box, and constructing traditional angle fronted drawers.

Project #3

Toolbox

As a woodworker, it's very easy to get caught up making things for other people. Well it's time to change that, lets make something for ourselves for a change! In this project, we'll make a small toolbox to house your planes, chisels, saws and marking equipment etc. You will learn skills such as:

Mitred Dovetails
Separating a Lid
Hinging a Box
Tounge and Grooves
Piston fitted trays
How to fit a lock

Of course this project isn't limited to storing tools, you can use it for anything!

Project #4

Curved Table

In this project, you will learn how to make a beautiful curved front table including mortise and tenons, angled dovetailed drawers, and complex carcass construction. I will demonstrate:

Mortice and Tenons
Tapering Legs
Constructional Dovetails
Angled Dovetails
Lipping, Veneering and Crossbanding.

While this project looks like it may rely on machines at first glance, I will be showing you both the hand tool and machine methods for each process. This is my favourite project to teach and I can't wait to take you along with me!

Theory #3

Designing your Own Projects

You have completed the main projects in the online school and have learnt all the fundamental furniture making techniques! Sharpening, cutting joinery, layout, carcass construction, drawer and door fitting, and finishing to name a few! It's about time you got designing your own pieces using the process taught in most design based courses. We will cover:

Researching existing designs
Generating initial ideas
Developing ideas
Creating technical drawings by hand

I will be designing my own piece of furniture in this section and you will be able to follow the process every step of the way. At the end, you can follow along with me as I make the piece. Or you can design your own furniture!

HAVE YOU GOT THE #1 WOODWORKING BOOK?

The Collins Complete Woodworkers Manual helped me tremendously when beginning woodworking and I've been recommending it to my viewers and students for years. I'm yet to hear a bad review from them.

WAIT. WHAT?