Introduction to the Router

Learn how to use and maintain the most versatile tool in the shop: the router. With a router you can cut precision joinery, create edge profiles, and make perfect duplicates of furniture parts. In this one-day class, you'll get hands-on training using stationary and plunge routers as well as the router table while learning essential router techniques and safety. 

You will learn how to make basic cuts, including edge-forming, plunge cuts for making mortises, and making jigs for door hinges. You'll also practice the dado cut, a joinery cut essential for basic cabinetry. You'll also walk away with an improved understanding of the variety of routers available on the market and their strengths and weaknesses through hands-on experience.

This is a skills-based class, so you will not make a finished product, but instead focus on edge shaping, plunge cuts, layout of lines, and making jigs. We recommend using class time to take notes on the tools needed and best practices for making reliable jigs for accurate cuts. We encourage you to bring your portable router to class, if you have one.

Date: Sun., Feb. 9, 10 AM to 4 PM
Instructor: Max Smith
Class size (max.): 8
Attendance (min.): 4*
Skill level: basic
Prerequisites: none

Registration
Household Member & Above: $165**
Individual Member: $173**
General Public: $191
Register By: Jan. 29

*Classes that do not meet the minimum attendance number may be cancelled or rescheduled. If so, you will receive a full refund, or class credit, regardless of the cancellation date.

**We encourage students to become members (for as little as $30/year) to receive 10-15% off class tuition. You must be a current member on the date of registering to receive your discount. Please login to activate your member discount. To become a new member, please sign up here, or call 845-338-0071.

Instructor: Max Smith is a multidisciplinary craftsman with ten years of experience in woodworking in various forms, stringed instrument repair and making, piano tuning and repair, boatbuilding, cabinetmaking, and as Maintenance Coordinator for the Beacon Sloop Club. He teaches Introduction to Furniture Restoration and Foundations of Woodworking at the WBS and has participated as a skills demonstrator at the Eric Sloane Museum in Kent, CT. Max lives in Kingston, where he frequently sails his 15' Goat Island Skiff, inviting friends and teaching them the basics of sailing.