This year’s seminars at the Woodsmith Store are less than a month away. As in the past, the first seminar which is on Thursday, Sept. 28th, will be open to the public free of charge. The seminar, "How to Get Started in Woodworking," was one of the most popular seminars from last year according to a poll taken at the end of the season.

Knowing how to get started in woodworking can be a daunting task. I heard a rep from Kreg Tools say that all you need to build most furniture is a table saw and a Kreg pocket screw jig. He was right in a way. But there’s more to it than that of course. For example, where do you put your shop? If your basement is unfinished, you can certainly set up there and gets lots of woodworking done. But you have to be concerned with dust and noise, so consideration must be given to limiting these factors so that you don’t end up having a fine film of sawdust all over your home.

A garage is a great place for a shop, but what do you do with your cars? Sure you can leave them outside, but anyone who’s spent a winter in Iowa knows that climbing into a nice warm vehicle on a January morning is a luxury that your spouse is not going to part with readily. The solution of course it to make your shop small and/or mobile.

Executive editor Doug Hicks will teach this seminar. It’s the first of the season, and it’s being held a week after the 2006 Tent Sale at the Woodsmith Store for a reason. Hopefully, everyone will come away from the Tent Sale ready to get their shop set up and start building furniture.

Some of you may know that Doug Hicks is a former shop and history teacher. He’s keenly aware of the need to reach young people early in their lives and he’s constantly striving to instill in them a love of woodworking. So, this year we’re doing something a little different. As usual, all students will be admitted free to the Thursday night woodworking seminars. Plus, we’re encouraging high school and middle school shop teachers to attend the seminars with their students. So starting with the Table Saw Fundamentals seminar on October 5th, all shop teachers will be admitted free when attending with a student. Just be sure to tell us at the door that you’re a shop teacher. We’ve already sent out an invite with a schedule of all the seminars to most of the schools in Central Iowa.