Router 101: Skills and Safety Workshop

Learn to handle, set up, and cut confidently with a router — one of the most versatile tools in a workshop.


POW Workshops
POW Workshops
4.9 (181)

6 hours

Class size 1 to 8 (public classes), 6 to 10

  £130 - £150 (Earlybird price of £130 applies if you book into a public session 14+ days ahead, otherwise £150 per guest when you book for 1 guest, £130/guest for 2+ guests) (PayPal Pay in 3 available)

Over a full day, you'll get hands-on time with two types of routers: the trim router and the handheld router. You'll learn how each one works, when to reach for which, and how to stay safe while still getting a clean, accurate cut. You will learn how jigs work, how to construct one for specific purposes, and the way to use them to introduce a router to your material. You will also make your own!
This is a skills course, not a single-project course. You'll leave with a small router skills sample board showing different cuts and a shop-made straight-edge guide jig you can take home and use on your next project.
Across the session, you'll learn to:
  • Understand router mechanics: how the motor, collet, and bit interact, and why feed direction is the single biggest factor in a safe, clean cut
  • Choose the right router for the job: the trade-offs between a trim router, a handheld router, and a router table
  • Set up a router: material position, fence, and bit height for repeatable cuts
  • Read and choose router bits: straight, profile, and spiral bits, and how bit choice changes the result
  • Understand jig design: registration faces, clamping, and guide bushing offsets — the principles behind every router jig
  • Build a straight-edge guide jig: a simple, reusable jig made from scratch during the session
  • Cut a template-guided recess: using a guide bushing and template to reproduce an identical cut safely
  • Finish a small sample board: combining trim router, handheld, and jig-guided cuts in one piece


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Save £40 when you book with a friend
What you'll get
All timber, tools, and finishing materials are provided.
Knowledge required
Suitable for complete beginners — no prior woodworking experience is necessary.
What to bring
Wear comfortable clothing and closed-toe shoes or trainers. No open-toed footwear is allowed.
Location

POW Workshops, Standard Road, London NW10 6HF

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

Router 101: Skills and Safety Workshop location
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Your teacher


Brandon Harrison is a fine furniture designer-maker with an international formation — trained at Sturt Craft Centre in Australia and Yacademy in Italy — and a practice built around heirloom-quality work where the construction is part of the design. Steam bending, wedged tenons, and exposed joinery run through his own exhibited work, recognised at Craft + Design Canberra, Vivid Furniture Design Melbourne, Clarence Furniture Prize and Wood Review's Student Maker of the Year. He brings the same depth of thinking to the workshop.




Your teacher

POW Workshops
POW Workshops

4.9 (181)
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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