Enjoy the deep satisfaction of making with wood
Woodworking for Beginners
DIY expert instructor Steve Maxwell will help you develop the woodworking skills and knowledge to build beautiful, useful wood items for your home.
Learn woodworking fundamentals that will spark a lifelong passion
Steve Maxwell’s easygoing teaching style will help you feel comfortable using new tools and learning new skills.
6+ weeks of learning
Even if you have no tools, no space, and no woodworking experience, this 6-week course will get you started building projects you’ll be proud of. Learn how to choose the right tools for you, work in the space you have, and find the right wood for every project.
7 projects to build
Woodworkers learn by doing. The course includes detailed instructions to build 7 practical projects for your home, including a gorgeous entrance bench, a versatile footstool, and a rolling assembly cart for your workshop. Need a large, family-style picnic table? Follow along and learn to adapt project plans to suit your lifestyle. The ability to make things just right for you is a big part of woodworking.
Master essential skills
Woodworking for Beginners will develop essential skills that you’ll use in every project you make, for years to come. Learn to measure and cut accurately, join pieces securely, and finish wood to bring out its natural beauty. You don't need many tools to begin, either. The hand tools I recommend in the course are safe, quiet and effective.They will also serve you well as you grow in your skills.
By the time you finish this course, you’ll know how to:
- Design beautiful wooden items to fit your home.
- Select lumber that delivers more value for less cost.
- Understand when and how to use butt, dowel, biscuit and pocket screw joints.
- Choose tools that make sense as you establish a tool collection for woodworking.
- Use your skills to build woodworking projects—following the plans, instructions and teaching videos in the course.
Woodworking for Beginners doesn’t just teach you to build with wood.
This course teaches you to build with confidence.
Woodworking for Beginners combines video lessons, written content, project plans, illustrations and one-on-one instructor assistance to help you learn quickly. By the end of the course, you’ll have the skills and know-how to finish beginner- to intermediate-level woodworking projects—from cutting pieces accurately to applying a beautiful surface finish. You’ll also have a roadmap to build your tool collection the right way and turn your interest in woodworking into a lifelong passion.
When you understand the fundamentals of woodworking, you’ll have skills you can use to tackle many other do-it-yourself projects around your home.
Here’s what you’ll learn in this 6-week course
New course content is delivered to you each week.
Instructor-led, lifetime access & money-back guarantee - $179
Instructor-led, lifetime access & money-back guarantee
Detailed, downloadable plans for 7 projects
Each handsome, carefully designed project is selected to help you progress through a variety of woodworking skills. Plus, they’re all practical (or fun) to have in your home. You’ll be proud to show off your work to family and friends.
A simple entrance bench with optional carved detail. One project teaches dado, dowel and tenon joints.
A picnic table that helps you understand how simple structural choices add strength and stability to a project.
This boomerang design uses Baltic birch plywood to develop your shaping and sanding skills.
A solid workbench design that you can modify to suit your space. Build – don’t buy – this woodworking essential.
About your instructor,Steve Maxwell
Steve is an experienced carpenter, homebuilder, stonemason, cabinetmaker, welder, metalworker – and instructor.
His online courses, award-winning articles and videos have helped thousands of people develop practical, hands-on skills to improve lives since 1988.
For over two decades, Steve was technical editor for Canadian Home Workshop magazine, the country’s top woodworking and DIY magazine. He designed and developed hands-on projects for readers of all skill levels, and he worked with dozens of furniture and project designers to help them explain the best woodworking tips and techniques to readers.
Steve has also written for Mother Earth News, The Toronto Star, Reader's Digest, Family Handyman, Cottage Life, Canadian Contractor, and many other respected publications over the decades.
His growing course collection includes training on solar energy and off-grid power systems, woodworking, metalworking, rural living skills and more.
He and his wife, Mary, live in a stone-and-timber home they built themselves on Manitoulin Island, Canada.