The IBTC Router course is a 3-day intensive and practical course which covers the introduction to routers, router use and health and safety.
Course dates for 2025:
25-27 February 2025, 17-19 June, 28-30 October
The course is centred around building your own custom made router table (or mini spindle moulder), during which you will learn:
- Jig and pattern making
- Channelling
- Rebating
- Forming curved shapes and radius arcs
- Edge trimming
- Inline jigs for straight rebates
- Creating straight edges
You will also cover the use of a wide range of cutters both with and without bearing guides and their care and sharpening. The end result is a router table that is custom made for your own router along with the skills and techniques required to make comprehensive use of your router.
Throughout the course there is a strong emphasis on developing the inventiveness of the router operator when problem solving and customising patterns, jigs and the router itself to deal with a multitude of situations. It should be noted that though a router is a highly versatile tool that could be adapted for almost any situation, it is not always the most cost-effective approach, and sensible alternatives are suggested throughout the course.
Course requirements are that you have a router of ‘trade’ or ‘industrial’ capacity with a half-inch collet and fine height adjustment capability.
Students require no previous experience and as such we are happy to advise on choice of router purchase prior to the course. Do not hesitate to contact us for more information.
The course will be run by our joinery instructor P J Hummell and will be held in a designated area within our joinery workshop. Daily hours are from 8.00am to 4.30pm.
Today’s boat builder needs a wide variety of skills. You must understand the proper use of wood and G.R.P. (glass reinforced plastics), and must have an understanding of how engines, plumbing and electrics systems are installed. You must know how to cost your work. You must be aware of new technology and yet be able to repair or restore boats built fifty years ago or more.
Being able to build a boat beautifully is not enough. It may give tremendous self-satisfaction, however, at the end of the day, it must also lead to being able to provide reasonably comfortably for yourself and your family. It is for this reason that the IBTC, uniquely, ensures that its instructors are not only expert in their professions but also have real world proven, successful, experience in the boatbuilding business.
The IBTC Concept of Training Experience has shown that training opportunities limited to just two or three boats is totally insufficient – which is why the IBTC always has a wide variety of boats, both large and small, at different stages of construction at any one time. This ensures that there is always a boat available and at a stage which will enable trainees to build skills in a truly systematic and properly structured way. You do not have to wait for a boat to reach a certain stage of construction before you are able to move on, and you are always able to continue to the next stage of learning once you have satisfactorily completed each exercise. It is a very important concept of IBTC training that the boats built, repaired or restored as training exercises are only worked on whenever they present the opportunity for appropriately timed exercises for students. High standards of accuracy and finish are set from the start of each course. Our concept of training enables our students to cover and learn the wide range of skills in our training programme in the shortest time possible. It ensures, too, that by the end of their course, you will have the ability and confidence to build, repair or restore a boat. Almost all learning is through practical exercises, (learning by doing), with the essential knowledge element fed in by instructors at the relevant moment. This huge amount of practical experience is one of the many reasons why IBTC students remain head and shoulders above others.
Interested in our Boatbuilding course but not sure if you can commit for a whole year? Get in touch with us to discuss options for doing the course in agreed learning blocks over a timescale that suits you.
Bursaries of up to 50% are now open for UK citizens between the ages 18 to 40. To apply please fill in our bursary form.
Zone East