Intro to Power Tools Series Jeff Zens | 5 Wed. (every other) starting Oct. 13 2-4pm | $200 or $50 ea.

This lecture series introduces you to the basic power tools in a wood shop. Learn safety, set-up, and use in these informative short classes. Get practical information that will save you time and make every cut safer. Take all the lectures or pick your favorites to learn the tricks for efficient and safe use of these
tools.

The band saw is the most versatile machine in your shop. It can mill logs, rip boards down their length, resaw panels and veneers, cut circles, ovals, and a variety of shapes, as well as cut accurate joinery. Learn how to tune up your band saw for safe and effective cuts. Watch how to check the balance of your wheels, set your guides properly, choose the right blade, and track it accurately. Get some practical know-how that will make your band saw cutting better.

The table saw is the center of all cabinet shops. Learn how to use one safely and effectively for a variety of jobs. Get set-up tips, patterns for your own push sticks, and practical advice on how to cut safely. Learn how to make a simple riving knife for any saw. Watch how to turn this milling workhorse into a precise tool capable of ripping, tapering, and accurate crosscutting.

These two planing machines will flatten out the twist, cup, and bow in your lumber. But they can also turn your rough lumber into unusable shingles or just chunks of unflat stock. First learn how to tune your machines properly. Then learn how to read rough lumber to get the best yield from your boards. Get tips on how to safely and effectively flatten stock. It’s all in the grip and knowing what you have. These two machines may look like insensitive chunks of iron, but they require more finesse than you’d think. We’ll show you to get the best results from them.

The router is capable of a variety of jobs. Learn about buying and using them. What difference horsepower makes for your cutting as well as which bits, jigs, and accessories work. Learn to cut simple joints like dados and rabbets to more complex joints like dovetails, finger joints, and mortises and tenons. Also learn how to use your router table and a plunge router effectively for a multitude of cuts.

Spend the afternoon learning the ins and outs of these very important, yet often overlook, power tools.  You’ll discover how to get the most out of these machines on their own and in combination with the other tools covered in this lecture series.  While practicing safe techniques, learn efficient set-ups to make your work flow more productive in the shop.

Intro to Power Tools Series

Intro to Power Tools Series $200.00 Band Saws: October 13 $50.00 Table Saws: October 27 $50.00 Jointer/ Planer: November 10 $50.00 Routers: November 24 $50.00 December 8th, 2-4pm $50.00

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Intro to Hand Tools Series Jeff O’Brien | 5 Wed. (every other) starting Oct. 20 2-4 pm | $200 or $50 ea.

This series introduces students to a variety of hand tools essential for woodworking. Learn the basics with each group of tools and get some valuable hands-on experience using them. Discover the potential for the tools you already own or want to buy.

Learn how to successfully use your tape measure, marking knife, combination square, rule and marking gauge to lay out joinery on your work. These tools are critical to your success. Learn the right ones to buy and the right ways to use them. We’ll lay out a mortise and tenon and some dovetails.

Capture a cutting edge in a body and you have created one of the shop’s most useful tools. The hand plane has the ability to shave off a paper’s thickness of wood. This can make the difference between a good fit and a lousy one. Learn to make this tool an essential part of your tool kit. Practice planing an edge with our sharp planes.

If you know how to use a chisel, you can conquer the world, at least in a woodworking sense. Some folks use them to open paint cans, but what if you could chop mortises, pare dovetails, chamfer edges, and inlay hinges with them? Chisels are the most essential of woodworker’s tools. Come and chop a mortise with us and learn why.

The first time you use a sharp scraper is a revelation: a tool that can cut in any direction without tear-out! Scrapers can clean up glue; remove milling and file marks, level surfaces, and smooth wood so that sanding is nothing more than a wipe down. Learn how to tune and use this tool, and your work will be transformed.

How many times do you walk across the shop to make one cut on the chop saw? You could stay at your bench and saw quietly, efficiently, and accurately. Learn techniques for sawing with crosscut and rip saws. Learn how to cut joinery accurately, and you’ll save time and enjoy your work more. Cut a dovetail joint and discover the joys of sawing.

Intro to Power Tools Series

Intro to Hand Tools Series $200.00 Measuring and Marking Tools: October 20 $50.00 Hand Planes: November 3 $50.00 Chisels and Mallets: November 17, $50.00 Scrapers: December 1, $50.00 Saws and Sawing, December 15 $50.00

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Setting Up Your Shop | Jeff Zens | Sat. Nov. 6, 9am-4pm| $150

What tools are essential in a woodworker’s shop?  For some it’s a full set of hand tools while others want the power and accuracy of power tools.  No matter your bent, there are 5 essential power tools, 5 hand planes, and a score of other measuring and marking tools to own.  Get tips on buying new and used tools and how to set up, maintain and keep your shop in good working order.  Learn layout strategies, dust collection methods and more in this informative lecture on the modern woodworker’s shop.

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Purchasing Hardwoods | Jeff Zens | Sat. Nov. 13 9am-4pm | $150

Have you ever felt mystified by lumber pricing or lumberyard lingo? Ever wonder how much wood a ‘board-foot’ really contains. Have you been puzzled by grading abbreviations like ‘SAB’, ‘FAS’, or ‘1C’, and how these might affect your wallet?

Join us for a relaxed and informative day split between the Studio and a lumberyard while we discuss these and other lumber mysteries. Learn how to read a board for defects and which defects to really worry about. Discover methods for checking lumber for cup, warp, twist, and bow and learn quick methods for figuring how much you’re buying.
We’ll spend the morning in the shop, discussing the information you need to make your lumber-buying trip productive and economical. After lunch we’ll get together at a local lumber retailer, where we’ll put into practice the lumber selection techniques we learned in the morning session. Bring your pickup truck or trailer if you want and stock up for your next project. Bring knowledge with you the next time you visit the lumber yard and your visit will be much more productive.