Tom McLaughlin Timeline

Middle of seven children, grew up in Lowell, MA, with parents who were both teachers. Joyful creative mother Lorraine loved to sew, covering the kitchen table in fabric and patterns, making matching outfits for us each year.

At 13 yrs old, enrolled in carpentry program at Lowell Vocational School. Finished top of shop class my first year with focus on fine woodworking. (Pictured, me under observation of my shop teacher, Mr. Lavoie.)

1975:  Shifted to the college path, thinking there were no real possibilities in fine woodworking as a career. Continued passion for woodworking while making gifts for family and friends.

1979-1983:  Worked way through college installing office furniture in and around Boston, MA.

1983:  Received a Mathematics degree from UMass-Lowell, Lowell, MA.

1986:  Married Kristen MacDonald in May and we are still going strong!

1985-1989:  Seriously pursued and considered callto full-time ministry. Served on Youth Staff at Grace Chapel in Lexington, MA, and as a Youth Minister for at First Baptist Church in Foxboro, MA.

1989:  Completed a Masters of Divinity degree from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Rekindled woodworking interest became a full-time pursuit.

1990:  Began apprenticeship with Master craftsman P. A. “Pug” Moore after moving to NC.

1990-1993:  Apprenticed with Pug in his shop for three years, making classical 18th century style furniture, similar to the program at North Bennett Street School.

1993:  Set up my first shop in Wilson, NC building custom period style furniture, the beginning of designing and making hundreds of traditional and contemporary pieces, continuing to the present. Click here to view my Portfolio.

1993-1997:  Kris and I celebrated the birth of our three children while in NC, Lucas, Lauren, and Quinn, the youngest of whom graduates from Emerson College next month.

1997:  Moved back to New England, settling in Canterbury, NH where we built the home we live in today.

1998:  Taught first of numerous furniture-making classes at the Canterbury Shaker Village.

1998:  Juried and accepted as a member into the prestigious NH Furniture Masters Association. Original designs featured in annual catalogs and exhibits, continuing to present.

1999:  Involved in the formation of the Prison Outreach Program, part of the NH Furniture Masters educational efforts. Began overseeing the program at the NH State Prison, visiting inmates, and conducting monthly woodworking seminars — continuing to today. Several inmates have received awards for their work over the years.

2001:  Began construction on a two-story 3600 sq ft shop on our property, with plans to continue building custom furniture and teaching in a larger, well equipped space.

2002:  Moved into the new shop, and launched McLaughlin Woods, employing apprentices, while designing and making custom high-end furniture for clients along the east coast. 

2003:  Featured and profiled in the book The Workshop, By Scott Gibson. During this time, also featured in Fine Woodworking Magazine, the New York Times, Traditional Home Magazine and numerous other media.

2003:  My mentor and friend, Pug Moore dies at 86 yrs old. In 2011 he was inducted into the Twin County Hall of Fame for his craftsmanship and contributions to cultural arts. Click here to visit the site.

2005:  First printed brochure sent out to 5K potential students in 2005, promoting furniture-making classes which continue today.

2008:  Elected Chairman of the NH Furniture Masters Association, serving for 2 years.

2010:  Article published with Wood Magazine on Chairmaking. Invited instructor at their national event Weekend With Wood in 2013, 2016 and 2017.

2011:   Met Tommy MacDonald after entering a chair into a design competition at Boston Home Show’s Wood Expo. After my chair was awarded Best in Show, Tommy invited me to be on an episode of Rough Cut Woodworking with Tommy Mac.

2011-2015:  Guest appearance on Rough Cut Woodworking with Tommy Mac for five episodes: Season 2, making a Simple Bookcase; Season 5, Craftsman Style Rocking Chair; Season 6, Kitchen Leaf Table, Library Chair, and the Masters Showcase, Outdoor Swing Project shot in our Canterbury, NH shop.

2014:  Established Epic Woodworking focused on teaching both online and onsite classes at epicwoodworking.com.

2015:  Announced I was no longer accepting custom commissions in order to focus solely on creating new content including Full-size Plans, videos and classes for teaching fine woodworking.

2016:  Hosted our first Live Online Courses — the Craftsman Rocking Chair, Outdoor Swing and Shaker End Table. Also, in April 2016 we were featured profile on NH Chronicle, a TV magazine type show. Click HERE to watch.

2017:  Invited to take on the role of hosting Public Television’s Classic Woodworking, produced by WGBH Boston, in association with Fine Woodworking Magazine (Taunton Press). Check your local listings for show times. Episodes available on Amazon Prime, and with an Unlimited Membership at finewoodworking.com/classic-woodworking.

2018:. Continued to offer in-shop Classes and Online Courses and had a my first article published in Fine Woodworking magazine — a dream come true as this great publication was what revealed to me in the late 80s that there was a world of fine custom woodworking I could pursue.

2019:  This was a huge year as I was offered the opportunity to publish 2 more articles with Fine Woodworking Magazine. We also filmed 8 of our Live Courses and in March, streamed our first Shop Night Live episode. These started as twice a month experiences, but after 4 episodes we decided to go live weekly.

2020:  The year that the world went a bit crazy offered us some amazing gifts. In the midst of the pandemic, and people remaining at home, there was a surge of interest in the creative arts, and the medium of online instruction began to blow up! Needless to say we saw a surge of increased viewership in those months. Also, we began offering 2 additional streams a week — Tuesday night and Saturday morning –the same basic format of our Online Courses, but for free. We hoped it would help folks stay positive in the midst of some challenging days. And we sweetened the deal by giving away the piece we built at the end of the experience… the winner just had to pay for shipping. In the end, we gave away a Craftsman Coffee Table, Shaker End Table with Drawer, ShopStool and a Low Pencil Post Bed. It was a great time of community building that we will never forget.

With woodworking guilds not meeting and most every interaction moving online, we were invited to do several virtual presentations with groups around the country, which we loved.

2021:  Another big year of changes as we began hosing our Online Courses on a new platform, hosting the sessions on our site. We filmed 4 more Live Online Courses and again, provided some virtual presentations to various Guilds. But the biggest splash in 2021 for us was the chance to host over 60 participants at 3 Epic Weekend events in the Fall, something that will be an annual experience going forward. Mid-year another article in Fine Woodworking was released focused on the build of a Shaker Chest of Drawers for which I also filmed a Master Class Video Series with them. Shop Night Live continued as we crossed the threshold of 100 episodes. And late in the year, we reached the 20K subscribers on YouTube.

2022:  Also holds some fun surprises for the Epic community — announcements forthcoming! There are 2 more Fine Woodworking articles in process for this year, more Online Courses and of course, our Epic Weekend events in the Fall.

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