Machine Tools Fundamentals

A five-day introduction to machine tool woodworking and furniture making.

Machines extend what you can do in the workshop. They prepare timber faster and more accurately than hand tools alone, and they open up joinery and construction possibilities that would be difficult or time-consuming to achieve by hand.

But machines require understanding. Used well, they are precise, efficient and safe. Without they are not.

This five-day workshop is an introduction to machine tool woodworking, covering the safe and accurate use of a core range of static workshop machinery. You will prepare timber, cut joinery, and build a workshop stool with angled mortise and tenon joinery, a piece that is simple in concept but demands accuracy and introduces you to some of the more demanding aspects of machine work.

You will leave with a finished stool and a working knowledge of the machines that made it.

Machines covered

  • Bandsaw

  • Surface planer (jointer)

  • Thickness planer

  • Mortiser

  • Router and router table

  • Drill press

  • Panel saw and table saw

Workshop details

  • Duration: 5 days

  • Location: Mount Egerton VIC 3352

  • Group size: Maximum 4 participants

  • Experience: Open to all levels, from complete beginners to self-taught machine users wanting to build a proper foundation

  • Price: $1,500 per person (materials included)

  • Dates: Dates announced to the EOI list first, register your interest below

Mount Egerton is located on Wadawurrung Country in Central Victoria, approximately 90 minutes from Melbourne and 30 minutes from Ballarat. The studio is easily reached from Melbourne's west and from Geelong, Daylesford and regional Victoria.

Who this workshop suits

This workshop suits anyone who wants to use workshop machinery properly and make furniture with it. It is appropriate for complete beginners, for self-taught machine users who want to fill the gaps in their knowledge, and for hand tool makers who want to add machine skills to their practice.

It is a prerequisite for the Make a Chair and Chair Design workshops at Moonlite Studios.

Hand tools and machine tools together

The natural progression in furniture making is to develop hand tool and machine tool skills together. Each does things the other cannot. Machine tools prepare timber quickly and accurately. Hand tools refine, fit and finish to a standard machines cannot achieve.

Many participants combine Machine Tools Fundamentals with Hand Tools Fundamentals to build a complete foundation for woodworking and furniture making practice.

About the teaching

Ross Annels has been working with workshop machinery for over 25 years in professional studio and teaching environments. Machine safety at Moonlite Studios is taken seriously, the studio holds current safe operating procedures for all machines and all participants work within a structured safety framework.

The week is taught in a working studio, not a classroom. The emphasis is on understanding what you are doing and why, not just following a set of procedures.

Express your interest

Dates for this workshop are announced to the interest list first. If you would like to be notified when bookings open, contact Ross directly.

Register your interest

Where this leads

Machine Tools Fundamentals opens up the full making program at Moonlite Studios. Participants who complete this workshop are well placed to move into:

  • Make a Chair, a 5-day workshop in contemporary chair construction

  • Chair Design, a 5-day guided process of designing and prototyping a chair of your own

  • Hand Tools Fundamentals, a 5-day deep dive into furniture making with hand tools, if not already completed

Moonlite Studios is a working furniture making and creative practice based in Mount Egerton, on Wadawurrung Country in Central Victoria. Courses and mentoring are offered year-round in small groups within a studio environment.

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