This class was held on Sept 24-29 at his facility near Asheville North Carolina

 I first decided to take this course by Greg because already took a couple of festool end user courses including the cabinet class. I wanted to try a different instructor because each instructor has his own approach to teaching and i wanted to see another instructors approach and instruction.

I recently retired one of my goals was to take woodworking classes from different people, not necessarily just festools but woodworking in generalon different subjects.

 This was a combo course combining cabinet making with doors and drawers. I have not taken  doors ad drawersbefore.

But I have been woodworking for approximately 25 years and have built many cabinets and door and drawers throughout those 25 years.

I have complete Festool shop except for the tools that Festool don’t make.  A Makita bench top planer and a Jet 6” jointer and a few other bits.


When I first met Greg, I was really impressed with his casual attitude but quickly realized that he knew what he was talking about. I quickly learned that Greg does not only totally understands and knows these tools but He actually uses them in his business.

 Greg’s approach to instruction is based on that approach. That is his approach was not only covering the areas Festool required to be taught in their classes but using a real-world perspective in presenting the material.

I felt like I was in a mini apprenticeship rather than a woodworking class.

What I mean by that was he went back to the very basics in his instruction.

I have been using Festools since 2010. The basics he taught were not only the very back to the beginning  He taught me micro portions of techniques that I didn’t think of which I should of but didn't My bad habits".
Prime example is cross cutting on the MFT with the TS 55.
Normally after using the parallel guides to rip plywood into manageable widths, I would set the material on my MFT make sure it is set tight against the fence set hard against the flag stop with no wood chips etc on the table which could be pinched against the fence and the material. I would make the cut and slide the next piece into position and repeat.

Now I got pretty good and square cuts that way.
However, I always did notice that the pieces were a tad off.
By tad off I mean when assembled they would fit pretty good but I would rub my finger across the joint and feel a very slight off set nothing that couldn't be removed during the finish sanding process and actually I thought was a pretty good and accurate joint.

When Greg walked by reviewing my cutting technique during the class, He told me to take my free hand and push the stock against the fence with just enough pressure to ensure that there was no movement of the material during the cut. Like I said very basic.

Well I took his advice. 
To my surprise that little bit of insight helped the cut tremendously and my cut was dead nuts on. Rubbing my finger accross the joint and feeling nothing a perfectly aligned joint.

Nothing wrong with my basic technique but just by adding a little pressure hold the material against the fence which I didnt think of .

It was that way the entire class.
Little tips and attention to detail on all the tools we used."stand in front of the saw, besure not to put pressure when ctting to eith side just straight to into the cut" etc etc.

That my friends comes from real world experience someone who uses these tools to make a living.

His attention to detail on using the Kapex impressed me as now I can perfect miters very very tight.
It was nothing more than my cutting technique olding the stock against the Kapex fence even with the hold down engaged  etc etc and feed rate making the cut.

 I knew the basics and how to make miter cuts but Greg brought me back to even further to even more basic steps which are the basics to the basics (if that makes sense). Things I ever would of thought of.

It was that way through the entire class.
His knowledge of the tools combined with his real-world experience is a tough and hard to find combo.

The CMS router table is what he uses in his shop which is in another room that we as student can access anytime during the class and our time there.

So when he taught cope and stick joinery, at the same time there was a tradesman/ craftsman in his shop doing the same thing and useing the same tools (CMS) for a kitchen they are building for a client.
You will see that festools including the CMS is what Greg’s employees/fellow craftsman use daily in is cabinet shop to make high end cabinets.

 I live in So. Calif and had the had the added expense of flying across the country to North Calolina in order go to his school near Asheville.
I also have a very close friend who lives about a hour 20min from Gregs shop so I saved on Hotel cost. 

Overall, I felt it was well worth the money and time to take this course.

I learned a lot new approaches to building things that I have built plenty of in the past and will continue building and under Greg’s watchful eye showing me the basic basics and correcting my techniques which I call my bad habits.
 I feel I was able to improve my abilities to build quality projects at a higher level then I did before I took his course. I plan on taking more courses from him. Including his Non Festool classes.

 I highly recommend him as a Festool instructor.
I was very impressed with his knowledge of the tools combined with his real-world experience in using them.

Oh yea,

Greg also had co instructor/helper “Phil” who I feel should be mentioned.

Phil is a very pleasant person who to me, helped in making the class enjoyable. He also helps Greg help correct the students with their technique and set ups and answered a lot of questions.

Phil is a accomplished wood wood worker who took me back into the shop and showed me a beautiful guitar he is currently building.
I was quite impressed with him and his even/ quiet and very nice personality.
So with 2 instructor and 6 students in the class everyone got alot of attention.

This class was held on Sept 24-29 at his facility near Asheville North Carolina

 I first decided to take this course by Greg because already took a couple of festool end user courses including the cabinet class. I wanted to try a different instructor because each instructor has his own approach to teaching and i wanted to see another instructors approach and instruction.

I recently retired one of my goals was to take woodworking classes from different people, not necessarily just festools but woodworking in generalon different subjects.

 This was a combo course combining cabinet making with doors and drawers. I have not taken  doors ad drawersbefore.

But I have been woodworking for approximately 25 years and have built many cabinets and door and drawers throughout those 25 years.

I have complete Festool shop except for the tools that Festool don’t make.  A Makita bench top planer and a Jet 6” jointer and a few other bits.


When I first met Greg, I was really impressed with his casual attitude but quickly realized that he knew what he was talking about. I quickly learned that Greg does not only totally understands and knows these tools but He actually uses them in his business.

 Greg’s approach to instruction is based on that approach. That is his approach was not only covering the areas Festool required to be taught in their classes but using a real-world perspective in presenting the material.

I felt like I was in a mini apprenticeship rather than a woodworking class.

What I mean by that was he went back to the very basics in his instruction.

I have been using Festools since 2010. The basics he taught were not only the very back to the beginning  He taught me micro portions of techniques that I didn’t think of which I should of but didn't My bad habits".
Prime example is cross cutting on the MFT with the TS 55.
Normally after using the parallel guides to rip plywood into manageable widths, I would set the material on my MFT make sure it is set tight against the fence set hard against the flag stop with no wood chips etc on the table which could be pinched against the fence and the material. I would make the cut and slide the next piece into position and repeat.

Now I got pretty good and square cuts that way.
However, I always did notice that the pieces were a tad off.
By tad off I mean when assembled they would fit pretty good but I would rub my finger across the joint and feel a very slight off set nothing that couldn't be removed during the finish sanding process and actually I thought was a pretty good and accurate joint.

When Greg walked by reviewing my cutting technique during the class, He told me to take my free hand and push the stock against the fence with just enough pressure to ensure that there was no movement of the material during the cut. Like I said very basic.

Well I took his advice. 
To my surprise that little bit of insight helped the cut tremendously and my cut was dead nuts on. Rubbing my finger accross the joint and feeling nothing a perfectly aligned joint.

Nothing wrong with my basic technique but just by adding a little pressure hold the material against the fence which I didnt think of .

It was that way the entire class.
Little tips and attention to detail on all the tools we used."stand in front of the saw, besure not to put pressure when ctting to eith side just straight to into the cut" etc etc.

That my friends comes from real world experience someone who uses these tools to make a living.

His attention to detail on using the Kapex impressed me as now I can perfect miters very very tight.
It was nothing more than my cutting technique olding the stock against the Kapex fence even with the hold down engaged  etc etc and feed rate making the cut.

 I knew the basics and how to make miter cuts but Greg brought me back to even further to even more basic steps which are the basics to the basics (if that makes sense). Things I ever would of thought of.

It was that way through the entire class.
His knowledge of the tools combined with his real-world experience is a tough and hard to find combo.

The CMS router table is what he uses in his shop which is in another room that we as student can access anytime during the class and our time there.

So when he taught cope and stick joinery, at the same time there was a tradesman/ craftsman in his shop doing the same thing and useing the same tools (CMS) for a kitchen they are building for a client.
You will see that festools including the CMS is what Greg’s employees/fellow craftsman use daily in is cabinet shop to make high end cabinets.

 I live in So. Calif and had the had the added expense of flying across the country to North Calolina in order go to his school near Asheville.
I also have a very close friend who lives about a hour 20min from Gregs shop so I saved on Hotel cost. 

Overall, I felt it was well worth the money and time to take this course.

I learned a lot new approaches to building things that I have built plenty of in the past and will continue building and under Greg’s watchful eye showing me the basic basics and correcting my techniques which I call my bad habits.
 I feel I was able to improve my abilities to build quality projects at a higher level then I did before I took his course. I plan on taking more courses from him. Including his Non Festool classes.

 I highly recommend him as a Festool instructor.
I was very impressed with his knowledge of the tools combined with his real-world experience in using them.

Oh yea,

Greg also had co instructor/helper “Phil” who I feel should be mentioned.

Phil is a very pleasant person who to me, helped in making the class enjoyable. He also helps Greg help correct the students with their technique and set ups and answered a lot of questions.

Phil is a accomplished wood wood worker who took me back into the shop and showed me a beautiful guitar he is currently building.
I was quite impressed with him and his even/ quiet and very nice personality.
So with 2 instructor and 6 students in the class everyone got alot of attention.

I was supposed to be in that class but when I went to register the next morning the last spot was taken. Was it you?   

 @DynaGlide

Snooze ya lose my friend, but Ill never tell 

You wont be disappointed when you you do take this class buddy.

Who knows maybe we'll end up taking a class together along w pompeio to.

@DynaGlide

Snooze ya lose my friend, but Ill never tell 

You wont be disappointed when you you do take this class buddy.

Who knows maybe we'll end up taking a class together along w pompeio to.

@jobsworth It's all good. Turns out that week was a no go for me in the end. I will take that class eventually.

Hans:

I previously purchased Greg's Building Kitchen Cabinets Made Simple book/CD.  It was not distributed in the class---possibly because the course was a Festool class and the book does not include much Festool discussion/usage by reference.  A good book nonetheless.

@jobsworth  - your comments about Greg Paolini's classes underscores an important point:
YouTube will never replace formal training of the type offered by Greg, the other FESTOOL classes or for that matter the structured week-long courses in many parts of the country (world?).

The Marc Adams School of Woodworking is on my list for 2019 to get a better grounding in basic joinery in addition to Greg Paolini's FESTOOL School.

Hans

Great write up.

How does one get notified of the class offerings? I went to the classes site and didn’t see anything.

@woodvkk

Here is the link to festool training.
https://festooltraining.com

You can sign up there for email notices of their classes being offered. The classes fill up very fast as they only have 6 students for a class. Las Vegas is being moved and remodeled so it will be a while until it will be up ad runing.
So that limits us to 2 locations. Gregs in NC and Sedges in Indiana.

 What I found is I periodicaly check for class offers when im ready to take one. So I go directly to the link and check frequently.
That way Im able to sign up immediately w/o waiting for a email.

It looksike there are no new offering at this time. However I would check towards the end of the month and continue checking periodically.

Personally, Ill be looking for another class for spring next year. I try to take at least one or 2 a year. Even if its a class ive taken before, I ll take it from a different instructor. Same class cirriculum but a different approach.

@woodvkk

yer right. I checked, I guess they dont do that anymore. So just keep your eye on the training site.

you will enjoy the class and learn lots. Greg is very very detailed. Also be sure to go into his shop and watch the guys work. They use festools in the shop.

If you remember plz tell Phil who is Gregs assistant I said Hi. Im seriously considering signing up for another of his classes. Even though I live in Calif.

 @JPCleary

@DynaGlide

looking back at the class, I should of video'd some of the demonstrations Greg showed. There is so much info given that it will be very helpful to video some of the demos and discussions.

Im going to do video a lot of demos during the next class Im gonna take.

It will make your life a lot easier especally if yer a senile geezer like me 

Ron:

Greg said no videos were allowed although you could take all the photos you wanted

I took this class in November of 2015. Greg was a great teacher and I learned almost as much about the Festools themselves as I did about cabinet making. The class was so good that I've actually considered going back to take the non-Festool version of the cabinet making class that Greg offers. Enjoy!

Really looking forward to this class this week! Leaving Summerville in a few minutes, heading straight up I-26 to Asheville!

P.S. Also really looking forward to some Vortex donuts tomorrow morning...one of my Asheville favorites!! 😋

Have a GREAT time!  Greg is a fabulous teacher.

Peter