Boost Your Boxmaking Skills

Buying a new machine, jig, power or hand tool can be the start of using new woodworking techniques. However the knowledge of how to safely and effectively use your new purchase doesn’t really come in the box as well. For this reason, investing in related training can save a lot of time and materials and therefore money.

Col Hosie and Pam Corrigan took over the manufacturing and retailing of the Gifkins dovetail jig in 2011. With 25 years experience teaching industrial arts, Col was well placed to better serve the interests of their clientele by providing boxmaking courses and in-service workshops for Gifkins jig users. As a trained teacher he also understands how to structure a learning experience that will adapt to differing needs.

Above: Easy when you see how – Col explains the initial set up of the Gifkins jig.

Boxmaking courses are open to a maximum of two participants and therefore intensive in nature. ‘They come away with their heads so full of information and they go home with two partially completed boxes which they can work on and then retain as templates, if you like, for the process of building them’, explained partner and co-owner Pam Corrigan. ‘Col is a natural teacher and absolutely loves sharing information’, said Pam.

Explaining how the spacers work.

Classes are intensive but enjoyable for all concerned.

‘Flexibility is important’, said Pam. ‘Col feels that if people are going to make the effort to attend a workshop in Coffs Harbour we should do our best to customise the content and timing to make sure they get the maximum out of it.’ Courses can run for one, two or three days for a cost of $350 per day including materials, morning tea and lunch.

As well as a teacher, Col is an accomplished woodturner and woodworker whose work sells in galleries and via the Gifkins Dovetail website. He has an eye for design and for using native species to create contrasting and appealing boxes and turnings.

All the boxes shown here were made by Col Hosie from a variety of timber species.

For more information phone 02 6651 9513, see www.gifkins.com.au or email sales@gifkins.com.au.