Beginning Woodworking Syllabus
Orientation to shop
Design
- History of furniture
- The process of Building furniture
- The design process
- Finding Inspiration
- Creating preliminary designs
- Converting designs into plans
- Using cut lists
- Creating prototypes, models, scaled drawings
- Understanding Wood
- How trees grow
- How lumber is cut & dried & sold
- Movement, grain, strength, weight
- Lumber & Preparation prior to milling
- Grain selection for design aesthetic – thinking ahead
- Buying Lumber
- What do you need to know
The Milling Process
- What is milling & why do we do it
- Straight/Square/Flat & True
- Milling
- Introduction to Jointing* – Flat faces & edges
- Introduction to Planning* – Flat and parallel faces
- Using squares & tape measures
- Introduction to the Chop Saw* – flat and parallel ends
- Introduction to the Table Saw*
- Safe use/hand positioning
- Set up, alignment
- Blade selection
- Rip cuts – what are they, how to do them
- Cross cuts – what are they, how to do them
- Introduction to the cross cut sled
- Introduction to the miter gauge
Joinery
- Introduction to Carcass Joinery & Frame Joinery
- Butt joints
- Miters
- Rabbet, Dado, Lap & Bridle
- Mortise & Tennons
- Introduction to tennoning jigs
- Introduction to the router*
- Box Joints demo
- Dovetail demo if time allows
Constructing Projects
- Sanding
- Sandpaper overview
- Sanding techniques
- Hand sanding
- Scraping & smoothing planes
- Machine sanding
- Choosing and Using glue
Finishing Projects
- Coloring Wood
- Choosing Finishes
- Applying Finishes
*Introduction to Power Tools
The topics marked with an * can also be covered independently as part of the Introduction to Power Tools