Workshops – The Workbench

Woodworking Workshops

We offer evening, weekend, and summer workshops to meet a variety of interests and skill levels. See the tabs below for more information on each of the categories of classes we offer.

The majority of our workshops are hands-on classes that result in a finished project; fees for materials are included in the listed tuition for each workshop. We also occasionally offer lectures and demonstrations.

Open Shop allows you to pay for shop time and build your own project under the supervision of one of our instructors. You must have prior woodworking experience to sign up for Open Shop.

Look at our calendar to check dates and times of upcoming workshops. If you see a workshop you’d like to take that isn’t yet listed on the calendar, please contact us to see when we expect to post the new dates.

If you would like to teach a class or suggest a workshop, please call or email us with your ideas. At this time, we’re most interested in adding to our selection of weekend workshops and summer intensives, particularly in the area of arts & crafts.

Fine Woodworking

Our fine woodworking workshops are geared towards people who are interested in building furniture and higher-end cabinetry. Students will mill rough lumber to size, learn more complex joinery techniques, and gain experience with the proper use of hand tools. We offer evening, weekend and summer programs.

If you already have some woodworking experience and would like to start with Cabinetmaking or Level II you must either 1) take our half-day milling workshop or 2) demonstrate an appropriate level of milling skill to one of our instructors. This is for your safety as well as the consistent pacing of these higher-level workshops.

If you would like to jump right into Open Shop, you will be asked to demonstrate a range of skills on the jointer, planer, tablesaw and router. You may be required to take our half-day milling workshop.

Basic Woodworking

Our basic woodworking workshops are for people who want to learn how to use common home woodworking tools to build projects for the home or tackle home improvement projects. These classes teach you how to take pre-milled lumber and other supplies from your local lumber yard or big box home improvement store and turn them into something useful. We offer evening, weekend and summer programs.

Following the Adirondack Chair workshop, you may join us for Open Shop. However, you will be limited to the tools you learned how to use in your workshop. If you want to learn how to mill rough lumber, you should take our half-day milling course.

Turning

Our wood turning workshops provide beginning and intermediate instruction in the art of taking a block of wood and literally turning it into something beautiful and functional. If you’ve never taken any turning classes – or it’s been awhile – you might want to start with our 6 hour intro class. Or delve right into our bowl or spindle turning classes and then use your newfound skills on our lathes at Open Shop.

Open Shop

Open Shop allows you to build your own project, while utilizing our extensive array of tools. You get access to tablesaws, jointers, planers, router tables, chop saws and band saws, and a variety of hand tools as well as storage space for your work-in-progress. You provide wood and hardware for your project. Check with us for a few local sources for quality rough hardwoods. We provide screws, nails, sandpaper, biscuits and glue.

You also get access to an experienced instructor who can guide you through the process, as needed. However, we do expect that you can work independently and safely.

You are also welcome to use our lathes for turning. If you have no turning experience, we will require you to take one or more of our turning classes.

Open Shop hours are for hobbyists only, not for professional wooworkers. If you are a professional woodworker who requires the use of specialty equipment, please contact us for our professional rate.

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Private Lessons

We offer private woodworking and woodturning lessons for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students. Whether you just want to learn some basic skills, brush up existing skills, or learn something very specific, we’re here to help.

Private lessons cost $65/hour; we’re happy to negotiate pricing if you plan to purchase more than 5 hours. We can also offer semi-private lessons, if you would like to do this with a friend or two.

Please see our Private Lessons FAQ to see if we can accommodate your needs and then email us to set up an appointment.

Kid’s Classes

We live in an age where mass production is king and school vocational programs are disappearing. As a result, many young people have never had the opportunity to learn woodworking or even basic skills with hand tools.

That’s why we’re so excited about working with elementary and middle school boys and girls. We are in the process of revamping our school-age program, so please check back with us soon.