Beginner Joinery Workshop: Frame Joints (2-Day Weekend Course)

The joints that hold everything together. Two days that will change how you see furniture.



2 x 6 hours

Class size 1 to 8 (public classes), 6 to 16

  £275 (£290 per guest when you book for 6+ guests, £275/guest for 6+ guests)

This is where your woodworking journey gets serious. Over two full days at POW Workshops in London, you'll learn the core joints used in tables, chairs, frames, and carpentry structures of all kinds. The same joints that have been the backbone of furniture making for centuries.
No experience needed. You'll start from the basics of measuring and marking, and by the end of the weekend you'll be cutting mortice and tenon joints, the single most important joint in woodworking. Along the way, you'll develop your sawing, chiselling, and marking skills to a level where you can execute joints with real precision. You'll put it all together by building a trivet that incorporates the joints you've learned.
Here's what you'll cover:
  • Halving joints (half-lap joints): the foundation, and a joint you'll use again and again
  • Bridle joints: an elegant frame joint used in table and chair construction
  • Mortice and tenon joints: the single most important joint in furniture making
  • Tool sharpening, learning to maintain a sharp edge on your chisels and plane irons
  • Precision marking and layout, the skills that separate good work from rough work
  • Posture and body mechanics: how balance and positioning give you more control than brute force
This course is modelled on the structured approach used by London's best furniture-making schools, adapted for a weekend format so you don't need to take time off work. With a maximum of 8 people per class, you'll have plenty of time with your instructor.
Whether you're a complete beginner or you've done our Joinery Taster and want to go deeper, this course is for you. If you've already got some experience with hand tools, you'll find the structured approach fills in the gaps and sharpens your technique.
What you'll get
A completed trivet built with joints you've cut yourself, plus the core skills to take on Intermediate Joinery Workshop: Dovetail Joints and more ambitious woodworking projects. All tools and materials are provided.
What's next?
Intermediate Joinery Workshop: Dovetail Joints. You'll learn the joint that every woodworker wants to master: through dovetails, half-lap dovetails, and mitred dovetails. Together with Joinery 1, these two courses give you the complete foundation for furniture making.
Build a Stool: Using the theory of mortice and tenon joinery you've learnt in the Frame course, you will learn how wedges make the joint incredibly strong and why they are often used in chair construction. You will leave the course with a three-legged stool crafted from English Ash: the classic chair-making timber.
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Knowledge required
Suitable for complete beginners — no prior woodworking experience is needed.
What to bring
Comfortable clothing, shoes/trainers, and no open-toed footwear.
Session repeats

This class series runs over 2 consecutive days.

Location

POW Workshops, 41-43 Standard Road, London

Entry is via the driveway to the left of the red and white building, next door to Carrara Marble

Beginner Joinery Workshop: Frame Joints (2-Day Weekend Course) location
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Your teacher

POW Workshops
POW Workshops

4.9 (152)
female Women-owned

POW is a not-for-profit open access workshop that provides aspiring and experienced makers, product designers, carpenters, model makers, furniture makers, tailors, engineers, artists, sculptors, and everyone in between, with an affordable and high quality space, equipment and learning to be able to ideate, innovate and create.
We offer space, tools and machines to craft, and run workshops and training for hobbyist looking to get away from the day to day, or experienced artists and makers trying to improve their craft or grow their businesses
We started POW, to reduce the barriers of space, cost & stress for people trying to make and create
Our vision is simple:
Give everyone the chance to make it.
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