Please Read Before Signing Up For A Class:
You must be a Guild member in good standing to attend classes.
Liability Waivers plus Equipment Operation and Safety Training must be completed before the start of class.
New Members that join the Guild on or after July 1st, and also sign up for the Habitat for Humanity Cabinet Build Class, will have their membership extended through December of the following year.
- Members of other recognized Woodworking Groups or Guilds will be considered Members for purpose of class registration.
- Non-members may join now. Join Now
- You may apply for tuition assistance from the Master Class Scholarship Program. Application Form
2025 / 2026 Class Schedule
Reindeer Class
Instructors: Wally Duncan and Douglas Cole
August 9th, 2025
10:00am-4:00pm
Cost $25.00
Class will be limited to eight participants.
Description:
This class will enable you to have a completed pattern for reindeer. You will have one completed reindeer when you leave.
You must be certified on the dado saw, drill press, the band saw, the router table and all of the Sanders minus the drum Sanders.
We will break for lunch at approximately 11:30 at staggered intervals
The instructors will provide patterns and the Wood to complete the project for each student. 100% of the proceeds will go to the Wood guild. We will lock down the dado saw and one router table for most of the day. We will have priority over the drill, presses band saws, and all of the Sanders minus the drum Sanders.
USE OF ALL PPE WILL BE STRICTLY ENFORCED
The fee for the class is $25. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class. Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Habitat for Humanity Cabinet Build Class
August 23th, 2025
9:00am-4:00pm
Cost $100.00
Each year the Guild builds kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities for a Habitat for Humanity Holiday House. This class will take you through the complete steps of building cabinets, from face frames, carcass construction, doors, dovetailed drawers, finishing, and installation in the home. You work in teams of 4-5 people and everyone gets to do every step of the project. Starting the end of August and finishing with installation mid December, the class will meet once or twice a month to complete the cabinets.
Prerequisites:
You must be trained and signed off on the following tools prior to first class on August 23, 2025. There will not be time during class for this training, so you need to get with a Guild supervisor for training and sign off prior to class. Items in bold are required for the first class.
Table Saw
Dado Saw
Miter Saw
Portable/Handheld Power Tools
Drill Press
Handheld Router
Router Table
Jointer and Thickness Planer are optional and only required if you opt to help with milling activities outside of the scheduled classes.
Class 1 - August 23, 2025 - Orientation and Face Frame Build
Class 2 - September 13, 2025 - Drawer Boxes
Class 3 - September 27, 2025 - Doors and Drawer Fronts
Class 4 - October 25, 2025 - Carcass Construction
Class 5 - November 8, 2025 - Spray Finish
Class 6 - November 22, 2025 - Attach Doors, Drawers, and Pulls
Class 7 - Early December - Installation of Cabinets at Holiday House
Class 8 - TBD - Holiday House Dedication
The fee for the class is $100. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class. Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
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Laser Christmas Ornament Class
Instructor: Henry Raymond
November 13th, 2025
8:30am-noon
Cost $35.00
Class will be limited to eight participants.
This Class is Full.
Description:
This class is open to anyone who is interested the how the Guild laser works, and how easy it is to make items or engrave items. No previous experience is necessary and there are no prerequisite for this class except you must be a member of the Alabama Woodworkers Guild. This is not a class to be signed off to use laser.
We will cover what a CO2 laser can and can't do as well as what materials are safe to laser. This class will discuss developing drawings in Lightburn, importing files into Lightburn software. We will utilize Lightburn and develop burns parameters for laser.
We will also cover the process for set up and steps necessary to use laser. Everyone will select from a list of different ornament designs, and at a time convenient to the instructor/student they will actually work one on one to cut that out at the guild. A few may be cut on that day but no guarantee that we will have time to cut them all out on that day.
The cost of the class and birch plywood material for one set is included. If you want other material or more than one set additional cost will apply.
The fee for the class is $35. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class. Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Laser Christmas Ornament Class 2
Instructor: Henry Raymond
November 23rd, 2025
4:30pm-8:00pm
Cost $35.00
Class will be limited to eight participants.
This Class is Full.
Description:
This class is open to anyone who is interested the how the Guild laser works, and how easy it is to make items or engrave items. No previous experience is necessary and there are no prerequisite for this class except you must be a member of the Alabama Woodworkers Guild. This is not a class to be signed off to use laser.
We will cover what a CO2 laser can and can't do as well as what materials are safe to laser. This class will discuss developing drawings in Lightburn, importing files into Lightburn software. We will utilize Lightburn and develop burns parameters for laser.
We will also cover the process for set up and steps necessary to use laser. Everyone will select from a list of different ornament designs, and at a time convenient to the instructor/student they will actually work one on one to cut that out at the guild. A few may be cut on that day but no guarantee that we will have time to cut them all out on that day.
The cost of the class and birch plywood material for one set is included. If you want other material or more than one set additional cost will apply.
The fee for the class is $35. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class. Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Comfort Bird Class/strong>
Instructor: Wally Duncan
November 29th, 2025
10:00apm-3:00pm
Cost $25.00
Class will be limited to six participants.
This Class is Full.
Description:
Comfort birds are generally made to give to another person as an act of kindness. This could be a homeless person, someone who has suffered a loss of a loved one or a great loss of any kind in their life, such as a natural catastrophe. Comfort birds are really great for people who have high anxiety, ADHD, and especially those with autism.
You must be certified on the bandsaw, all of the sanding machines along the north wall of the guild and the spindle sander. As with almost any wood project, there will be some hand sanding involved.
We will break for lunch for approximately 30 minutes at staggered intervals.
Use of personal protection equipment will be required and enforced.
The instructor will provide patterns and Wood to complete the project for each student. 100% of the proceeds will go to the WEC.
The fee for the class is $25. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class. Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Laser Christmas Ornament Class 3
Instructor: Henry Raymond
December 3rd, 2025
8:30am-noon
Cost $35.00
Class will be limited to eight participants.
This Class is Full.
Description:
This class is open to anyone who is interested the how the Guild laser works, and how easy it is to make items or engrave items. No previous experience is necessary and there are no prerequisite for this class except you must be a member of the Alabama Woodworkers Guild. This is not a class to be signed off to use laser.
We will cover what a CO2 laser can and can't do as well as what materials are safe to laser. This class will discuss developing drawings in Lightburn, importing files into Lightburn software. We will utilize Lightburn and develop burns parameters for laser.
We will also cover the process for set up and steps necessary to use laser. Everyone will select from a list of different ornament designs, and at a time convenient to the instructor/student they will actually work one on one to cut that out at the guild. A few may be cut on that day but no guarantee that we will have time to cut them all out on that day.
The cost of the class and birch plywood material for one set is included. If you want other material or more than one set additional cost will apply.
The fee for the class is $35. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class. Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Box Building Class
Instructors: Bill Newman and Gary Crosson
December 6th, 2025
9:00am-4:00pm
Cost $60.00
Class will be limited to six participants.
This Class is Full.
Description:
Bill Newman and Gary Crosson will present a box building class on December 6th, 2025 at
the Woodworking Education Center.
The class will focus on building a box with keyed miter joinery and glued-in top and bottom panels. Instruction will cover the topics of material selection, observation and matching of grain flow, cutting slots for and installing keys (sometime called splines), making rabbets for installation of tops and bottoms, making and installing a “slip liner” for indexing the box top, and a discussion/demonstration of application of veneer to the tops and bottoms of the boxes. Bill and Gary will address basic woodworking principles such as, direct measurements, use of hand planes for final fitting, and general techniques to improve the quality of outcomes.
The format of the class will be short lectures followed by demonstrations. Class participants each will make a box to take home. Material for the boxes will be provided to each participant. The discussions/demonstrations will include: general design considerations, milling of the materials, re-sawing, grain matching, milling grooves and rabbets, cutting mitered corners, gluing up the basic box, separating the top and bottom of the box, and making a slip-liner to index the top.
Class participants must be signed off on the Table Saw and Router Table prior to class.
The fee for the class is $60. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class. Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Laser Christmas Ornament Class 4
Instructor: Henry Raymond
December 6th, 2025
8:30am-noon
Cost $35.00
Class will be limited to six participants.
This Class is Full.
Description:
This class is open to anyone who is interested the how the Guild laser works, and how easy it is to make items or engrave items. No previous experience is necessary and there are no prerequisite for this class except you must be a member of the Alabama Woodworkers Guild. This is not a class to be signed off to use laser.
We will cover what a CO2 laser can and can't do as well as what materials are safe to laser. This class will discuss developing drawings in Lightburn, importing files into Lightburn software. We will utilize Lightburn and develop burns parameters for laser.
We will also cover the process for set up and steps necessary to use laser. Everyone will select from a list of different ornament designs, and at a time convenient to the instructor/student they will actually work one on one to cut that out at the guild. A few may be cut on that day but no guarantee that we will have time to cut them all out on that day.
The cost of the class and birch plywood material for one set is included. If you want other material or more than one set additional cost will apply.
The fee for the class is $35. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class. Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Bandsaw Box Class
Instructors: Bill Newman
January 10th, 2026
9:00am-4:00pm
Cost $50.00
Class will be limited to six participants.
This Class is Full.
Description:
Bill Newman will present a class on the basics of making bandsaw boxes. The course will consist of demonstrations by the instructor followed by an opportunity for the participants to make a bandsaw box.
Making bandsaw boxes provides an opportunity to make attractive items that encourage creativity on the part of the maker. The possibilities for design are limited only by the imagination of the creator. They can be puzzle boxes, boxes made from raw logs, boxes with drawers, a full-size mantel (an example will be shown) or any number of other designs. Reference material and step-by-step diagrams will be provided for some boxes to get the participants started on their own designs if they decide to pursue the topic further after the class.
Come prepared to have a fun day of making bandsaw boxes. The participants will need to be trained and signed off on the use of bandsaws and have practiced cutting curves on the bandsaw.
Class participants must be signed off on the Bandsaw prior to class.
The fee for the class is $50. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class.
Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Introduction To Scrolling
Instructors: Linda Simsik
January 24th, 2026
9:00am-4:00pm
Cost $65.00
Class will be limited to 3 participants.
Description:
A scroll saw project is one of the most pleasurable to create. The scroll saw allows you to cut different shapes and patterns out of wood. You can make toys, decorative items, quick and unique gifts or embellishments for other wood working projects. This class will cover wood selection and preparation,
pattern selection, blades, cutting, and finishing.
All materials will be provided, each student will leave with two completed projects, a dozen blades and any leftover wood.
You must be signed off on the scroll saw and drill press.
Class is limited to 3 people
The fee for the class is $65. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class.
Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Comfort Bird Class
Instructors: Terri Hjetland
January 31st, 2026
9:00am-2:00pm
Cost $25.00
Class will be limited to 6 participants.
This Class is Full.
Description:
Comfort birds are a joy to make and give away to people. These birds help calm anxiety and can be used in meditation or prayer. A variety of woods can
be used to make pretty and interesting birds.
This class is for anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of power carving. By the end of the class, you will create a comfort bird using only 2 tools: a bandsaw and power carver. Throughout the class, the instructor will discuss power carving basics such as types of power carvers, safety and bit/burr selection. The instructor will also demo proper compound cut and carving techniques.
You must provide your own wood blank (2” X 2” X 5”) and power carver. All burrs will be
provided for your use in class. Bring a lunch – we’ll break for lunch around 11:30.
Prerequisites:
You must be certified on the bandsaw before class.
Cost of Class: $25
The class cost includes pattern, the use of carving, sanding, and polishing burrs, and an
oil finish.
Instructor Provides:
1. Pattern
2. Carving, sanding, and polishing burrs
3. Oil finish
Participants Provide:
1. Power carver – Dremel, Fordham, or microcarver
2. Wood blank – 2” X 2” X 5”. Hardwoods are best. Cherry, mahogany, walnut,
and maple are good choices.
3. Dust mask
4. Dust collector if you have one (optional). We have several at the guild for your
use.
5. Light and magnification, if needed.
6. Notebook and pen for notes (optional).
Class is limited to 6 people
The fee for the class is $25. You must be a member in good standing to attend.
You may pay using the PayPal button below to reserve your place in the class.
Please respond via email at education@alabamawoodworkersguild.org with your name if you plan to take the class.
Cutting Board Group Build
Instructors: Henry Raymond
January 8th, 2026
8:30am
Cost Free
Class will be limited to 10 participants.
