November 11, 2022
Our Winter/Spring Fundamentals I and Fundamentals II courses are posted and will start in February!
In addition, WE WILL NOT HAVE ANY CLASSES THE SUMMER OF 2023. We plan on knocking out some long-planned shop renovations that will help us expand our class offerings and open the space up to rent shop time. We plan to resume classes the last week of September.
Dante, Back Channel School
Our summer sessions are wrapping up soon and Fundamentals I and Fundamentals II will start up again at the end of September. We’re also running our week-long Basic Cabinet Making class from September 12-17.
In addition, we plan to add a few shorter classes to the fall lineup, so stay tuned for that!
May 16-21 we’ll be running Basic Cabinetmaking in a new format. It will be 6 consecutive days, Monday-Saturday 9am-5:30pm. This class is better-suited to this new format.
Also, the Summer 2022 schedule is up! We’re doing our Basic Veneering class, as well as Fundamentals 1 and Fundamentals 2.
With covid cases down, we’ll be looking to add some other classes, too.
We’ve got our fall schedule worked out and the Fundamental classes for the Fall have been finalized.
Thus far we’ve got Fundamentals 1 scheduled for Mondays and Wednesdays, starting September 20th and Fundamentals 2 on Tuesday and Thursday evenings starting September 21st.
The Budget Bench will proceed at the toward the beginning of September, mostly weekend days with a few Tuesday evenings peppered in to try to make sure we get everything done.
We look forward to seeing you in the shop!
The Wednesday evening session of Fundamentals 1 sold out!
We’ve added a Monday evening session, that starts the week after the other two sessions.
Boy that was fast! In just a few hours (WOW!) the Tuesday night session of Fundamentals 1 sold all 8 spots! Hopefully, a good sign.
We’ve therefore added a Wednesday night session. I don’t expect it’ll be gone quite as quick, but get it while it’s hot!
We’ve had a number of inquiries into when, or if, we’ll be doing classes this summer, and with vaccinations proceeding steadily we’re ready to announce that we’ll be starting classes at the beginning of June 2021!
We’ve made a couple of changes, including a price increase to our Fundamentals classes to make sure we can keep going. We will also continue to require students wear their masks, in accordance with CDC guidelines.
Thus far we’ve got Fundamentals 1 scheduled for Tuesdays, starting June 1st and Fundamentals 2 on Thursday evenings starting June 3rd. As usual, if we fill up the scheduled Fundamentals 1 class, we will add on sessions to meet demand.
We look forward to seeing you in the shop!
With the end of the Fall Fundamentals classes, the Fall 2019 session has come to a close for us at the Back Channel School.
Looking forward to 2020, the first class on our schedule will be Machine Maintenance oriented for those of you with power tools at home that want to make the most of them.
As the season begins in earnest, the next class on the docket will be the Budget Bench the first two weekends in February.
For those of you interested in decorating your work with exotic woods and expressive patterns, Basic Veneering will begin shortly afterward.
The second week of February will bring the start of the Fundamentals 1 and Fundamentals 2, for those either beginning, or continuing to work with solid woods.
Closer to the end of February, we’ll begin our Cabinetmaking classes starting with the Intro to Cabinetmaking class, followed by the Basic Cabinetmaking.
Come March, the session will be in full swing, but still with more to come: Windsor Chairmaking starts the first week of March.
Midway through the month, we’ll have a short class on Setting up Shop with Fine Woodworking’s Mike Korsak.
Still to be added to the schedule is a String Inlay class with John Randazzo, and a few more classes with Mike Korsak.
The schedule for Fall 2019 is now available! See it on the Calendar, starting in September.
This write-up is pretty long, so we’ve also prepared a class list with dates and times as a pdf.
You should already know that just over the horizon, coming up in August will be a short and sweet Krenov-style Smoothing Plane class with former Krenov student Jon Holmes.
Also coming very soon are a couple of one-day weekend classes, the first on how to build a Cigar Box Guitar with Danny Williams, who will also teach a class on building a dulcimer later in the season.
Then, we’ll show you how to tune up and maintain your power tools in a Machine Maintenance class led by local cabinetmaker Mike Long.
The Fall season starts officially on September 9th, with 4 nights of Furniture Touch-up and Repair also from Mike Long.
The same night will also begin a restructured Intro to Veneering class, now titled Basic Veneering. The first half of the class will be much the same with the latter portion covering variations of Parquetry and the simple matching up to variations on the four-way match. Each student will have a tool kit that will enable them to practice the class exercises and other patterns of their choosing at home (on the dining room table if necessary).
Come the weekend, we’ve got Budget Benchmaking returning over the weekends of September 14 & 15, and 21 & 22. When we ran this class in February we tried to complete the bench in two days but most students needed 3 to 4 to finish. This time its scheduled for 4 days but priced for 3. Plus, the bench will be ready to use in time for the other classes.
The end of the month will bring with it the start of the next session of Fundamentals classes, returning the last full week of September, with Fundamentals 2 on Monday evenings and Fundamentals 1 on Tuesdays this time around.
As the clocks tick into October, local lumber supplier Don Phillips is hosting a one-evening lecture on how to mill and dry your own wood on the 2nd. Anyone who attends will also be invited to tour his sawmill and kiln on Saturday Oct. 12th.
Next you’ll have the opportunity to lay the groundwork for making Windsor chairs in the Windsor Stool class with Craig Smith, filling the weekend of the 12th & 13th.
Then, on the 16th Jay Nicolella is starting a 4-evening Chip Carving class, showing how to make beautiful traditional wood art with minimal tools.
The same day, Mark Mooney will start an Arts and Crafts Picture Frame class, also requiring minimal tools, and perfect for showing off the art that you already have.
Our core classes continue next with Intro to Cabinetmaking occupying the weekend of the 19th & 20th. After that, Basic Cabinetmaking continues on Sundays starting October 27th till November 24th.
At the start of November, John Randazzo will be back to show you how to create incredible veneered designs in his Marquetry class starting the weekend of the 2nd and 3rd, continuing on Saturdays until the 23rd.
Rounding out the year, on the first Saturday in December we’ll show you how to make Bandsaw Boxes, a perfect gift just in time for the holidays.
As always, we hope to see you in the shop.
The local Community Development Corporation did a video on us! Check it out!