I’m self taught with no experienced people to teach me directly. I studied cabinetry, desks, dressers, tables, cabinets and other stuff for clues on how it was made. From that I thought about what I wanted to build and came up with something beyond my skill level but I had a basic idea on how things went together. I came across a few plans in the hundreds of woodworking magazines I would go through and found something that I liked. From there I studied the plans and built the project in my mind and was able to visualize it in 3D. Out to the shop I went. I applied the principles that I learned and along with a ruler and some graph paper I made a couple of sketches. From there I would consider the size I wanted, laid it out on paper with some really rough drafting for my plan. With plan in hand and project visualization in my mind I could shop for wood with the grain features I would need to make a good quality piece of furniture. If you take these steps, carry a tape measure and a small pocket notebook with you can always find something you like anywhere and take a few measurements for influence later. I was never interested in making craft projects. I wanted to build heirloom quality furniture. I have been in love with woodworking over 40 years. Over this time I was able to add many nice tools to a collection that made me happy. With each project I learned an awful lot. The next project I would try to learn more techniques and make something more challenging. Wash, rinse and repeat but never stop learning or challenging yourself and understand you don’t need some fancy expensive new tools to do a job that if you think about it a bit longer you can do as good with tools you already own. I watch a lot of RUclips videos on woodworking. I see a tremendous amounts of people with extravagant new expensive tools that don’t even know how to use them. Their projects are lame and they look like they tried to buy experience than to earn it. Don’t be that guy.
Good advice! 👍
I’m self taught with no experienced people to teach me directly. I studied cabinetry, desks, dressers, tables, cabinets and other stuff for clues on how it was made. From that I thought about what I wanted to build and came up with something beyond my skill level but I had a basic idea on how things went together. I came across a few plans in the hundreds of woodworking magazines I would go through and found something that I liked. From there I studied the plans and built the project in my mind and was able to visualize it in 3D. Out to the shop I went. I applied the principles that I learned and along with a ruler and some graph paper I made a couple of sketches. From there I would consider the size I wanted, laid it out on paper with some really rough drafting for my plan. With plan in hand and project visualization in my mind I could shop for wood with the grain features I would need to make a good quality piece of furniture.
If you take these steps, carry a tape measure and a small pocket notebook with you can always find something you like anywhere and take a few measurements for influence later. I was never interested in making craft projects. I wanted to build heirloom quality furniture. I have been in love with woodworking over 40 years. Over this time I was able to add many nice tools to a collection that made me happy. With each project I learned an awful lot. The next project I would try to learn more techniques and make something more challenging. Wash, rinse and repeat but never stop learning or challenging yourself and understand you don’t need some fancy expensive new tools to do a job that if you think about it a bit longer you can do as good with tools you already own.
I watch a lot of RUclips videos on woodworking. I see a tremendous amounts of people with extravagant new expensive tools that don’t even know how to use them. Their projects are lame and they look like they tried to buy experience than to earn it. Don’t be that guy.