What Lonnie Bird's Website Is About

Updated

Lonnie Bird's website is the online home of his fine woodworking school, which offers distance learning furnituremaking classes taught by Lonnie Bird himself, described as a master woodworker and teacher. Instead of traveling to a physical workshop, you build a challenging furniture project in your own shop while Lonnie guides you remotely. The site is aimed at woodworkers who want structured, project-based instruction with personal feedback rather than a purely self-directed course.

What the distance learning classes include

When you sign up for a class, the site states that you receive:

  • Twelve months of personal instruction — a full year to work on your project in your own shop at your own pace.
  • Direct access to Lonnie — you can contact him by text, email, or phone whenever you need help, including attaching photos so he can check your progress and offer suggestions.
  • An exhaustive set of drawings illustrating every detail of the project you've selected.
  • Step-by-step photos of the build process.
  • A how-to instructional outline.
  • A cutting list showing the dimensions of each part.
  • A tool list.
  • A hardware list.

The combination of drawings, photos, lists, and ongoing personal contact is what distinguishes this from buying a standalone plan or watching a video series.

How the learning model works

The core idea is flexibility plus guidance:

  1. Choose a project from the available furnituremaking classes.
  2. Receive the full documentation package (drawings, photos, outline, cutting list, tool list, hardware list).
  3. Build in your own shop, on your own schedule, over the twelve-month instruction period.
  4. Reach out whenever you hit a problem — by text, email, or phone — and send photos so Lonnie can review your progress and suggest corrections.

Because the instruction window is a full year, the pace is set by you rather than by a fixed class schedule.

Who it's for

This format suits woodworkers who:

  • Want to take on challenging furniture projects but don't have a local class available.
  • Prefer working in their own shop with their own tools.
  • Want personal feedback on their work rather than figuring everything out alone.
  • Need the flexibility to work around other commitments, since the twelve-month window allows for stops and starts.

The site notes that Lonnie's students have been "extremely successful using this learning model," and includes a testimonial from a student who says three of the most complex projects they built were done through these distance learning classes, crediting the drawings, photographs, and Lonnie's availability and guidance along the way.

Practical notes

  • The site describes the classes as "the best value in woodworking education," but no prices or payment details are listed in the available page content, so you'd need to check the site directly for current cost and enrollment terms.
  • Contact methods mentioned are text, email, and phone calls, with photo attachments supported for email.
  • The page content also contains unrelated promotional text for third-party casino sites, which is not part of the woodworking school offering and should be disregarded.

If you want to see the specific projects offered and how to enroll, the next step is to browse the class listings on lonniebird.com directly.