What to make first?

I'm am getting a shop together and was wondering if there are any guidelines for newbie's to help them learn. What kinds of projects should I start out with? Workbench, router table, bird house???? I don't really know what types of wood working I'll end up making in future. I will have a table saw, router, RAS, scroll saw and assorted hand tools.

thanks for any recommendations.

Ken

Reply to
Ken Vonk
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What do you need, or better yet, what does SWMBO need? It's always good to get projects from her as we all know, every project requires a new tool.

Seriously, you might take a class at a local community college or the local Rockler to help find your niche. I started by making a coffee table for the living room. 10 years later it still looks good, holds up to 5 kids and takes tons of abuse. Don't get involved with a really big project right off the bat, stick with something small that will help you build skills. Make a table that requires mortise and tenon joints so you learn that. Next make something that requires a finger joint, or detail work on your scroll saw. Each project is the opportnity to learn a new technique.

And to buy a new tool! :)

Mike Rinken

Reply to
Creamy Goodness

Ken Vonk asks:

Bird houses will work. I can even recommend a couple books for you. Seriously, though, check out a local adult ed class in woodworking, or cabinetmaking, or whatever they're offering. It gets you involved faster and at lower cost than any other way. Not all areas offer such classes, but if yours doesn't, lobby for it a bit with the BOE.

Pick projects that you or someone you know need: my favorite seems to be bookcases, which can vary from dead simple to amazingly complex. I'll also have to build a enw computer desk when I move, as I'm leaving this one behind for the trash guys. Three moves and a decade have pretty much done it in.

Charlie Self "To create man was a quaint and original idea, but to add the sheep was tautology." Mark Twain's Notebook

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Reply to
Charlie Self

I learned a lot when I first started working wood by doing shop projects. It outfitted my shop with the things I'd need to further myself and any mistakes were confined to the shop.

Made a very simple router table, then graduated to a traditional workbench. I greatly appreciated a magazine like Woodsmith for their detailed plans and instructions that are really helpful to someone just starting.

gary

Reply to
Gary

Been there. Done that. Start off with: stuff for the shop and stuff for Outdoors. Workbench, Garden Bench. Other things for which you can find explicit instructions/plans for. Then graduate to furniture you willing to bring indoors, albeit in an inconspicuous location. That's where I am; the basement is accumulating my wares.

Reply to
mttt

Work wood, make mistakes, think about the mistakes. There is a ton of help available here, chances are and "dumb" questions you might ask are wanting to be asked by others, who may be too proud or embarrassed to ask them. Over the years, many of the regulars here have saved me a lot of money and time by answering _my_ stupid questions.

There are lots of good books out there, browse your local library. Adult Ed or private classes can be valuable.

Remember that woodworking is a hand skill that takes study and practice, kind of like playing a musical instrument. Both the hands and the brain need to be taught for your skills to improve.

Anything you like! Smaller projects cost less and mistakes can be easier to correct. Start with things that are useful or attractive to you and go for it.

Have fun, Barry

Reply to
B a r r y B u r k e J r .

First project should be to take two pieces of stock say, about 4' long, 6" or 8" wide and make them both absolutely true. Exactly the same thickness, width, and length and all the faces are at 90 degrees to their adjoining faces.

Next you glue the two pieces together and make a perfectly flat panel that meets same criteria as above.

Once you have made the panel, cut it into four pieces, rabbet them for 1/4" ply then join them to make an open SQUARE box, no butt joints no nails or screws with the 1/4" ply for the bottom ( you can tack that in with a few brads if you are so inclined).

When you have accomplished that feat, don't be afraid to scrap a hopeless attempts and start over again, you can start thinking about building something practical.

Until you can accomplish those feats, which require becoming familiar with some very basic joinery, there is little point in chewing up good project wood and frustrating yourself. It will also show up and alignment problems with your tools and whether your measuring tools are up to the task of accurate measurements.

Good luck

Reply to
Mike G

Shop stuff is generally tackled first, but immediately thereafter consider tackling a table of some sort. Tables can be elegantly simple, or very complex, will improve your woodworking chops with each one you do, can be as cheap as your budget allows or built from scraps, SWMBO's love them, therefore they can be an excellent justification for more tools, and you can always find a spot for another one somewhere in the house.

Reply to
Swingman

Swingman is on the right track, in my opinion. When in need for a project, build something for SWMBO. When you get a new tool, build something for her to show what nice work you can do with the aid of that new tool. WOOD and Woodsmith have both done some great articles in the past on jewelry boxes, lingerie cabinets etc. Build her something like that w/o her knowing. BOY will she be surprised! Then when she comes to you one day and says she really needs you to make her a this or a that...well, that's when you say, "Yes honey, of course I could make one...if only I had a (insert next major tool on your dream list here)".

Try it, you can always build a nice dog house if it does not work. Anything nice you make in the shop for her Mother will earn you big points also.

DexAZ

Reply to
DexAZ

This sounds easier than it is. It is a good exercise and you end up with a box that you will find some use for in the shop and a whole bunch more knowledge. Then graduate to more simple projects. Bird house, bird feeder, stools.

Read. Look at the pictures in magazines. See how you can utilize the tools you have to make a particular joint.

Once you are comfortable using most tools, make a simple table to use on the patio or next to the grill.

Make things you want or can use in the house. A tray to hold the remotes, a tray to hold the junk on your dresser, etc. You will soon be adding complexity to the design just for the challenge of making the joint or appearance. Ed

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

Mike is correct IMHO. Although, I would incorporate the use of hand tools and more importantly, learn how to set, adjust, sharpen all of your tools.

My first project, many years ago was a finger (box) jointed chisel box. My father was a stickler for sharpen before use. He would drill into me, "If it ain't sharp, its dangerous!"

50 years latter, I still have the chisel box and the very sharp, hand made chisels therein.

Dave

Reply to
TeamCasa

Shop cabinets and tables... If you screw up, off to the burn pile..... Fine Firewood is the early product of many woodworkers.

Ken V> I'm am getting a shop together and was wondering if there are any guidelines

Reply to
Pat Barber

by Dave Barry

Most of what I know about carpentry, which is almost nothing, I learned in shop. I took shop during the Eisenhower administration, when boys took shop and girls took home economics -- a code name for "cooking". Schools are not allowed to separate boys and girls like that any more.

They're also not allowed to put students' heads in vises and tighten them, which is what our shop teacher, Mr. Schmidt, did to Ronnie Miller in the fifth grade when Ronnie used a chisel when he should have used a screwdriver. (Mr. Schmidt had strong feelings about how to use tools properly.) I guess he shouldn't have put Ronnie's head in the vise, but it (Ronnie's head) was no great prize to begin with, and you can bet Ronnie never confused chisels and screwdrivers in later life. Assuming he made it to later life.

Under Mr. Schmidt's guidance, we hammered out hundreds of the ugliest and most useless objects the human mind can conceive of. Our first major project was a little bookshelf that you could also use as a stool. The idea was that someday you'd be looking for a book, when all of a sudden you'd urgently need a stool, so you'd just dump the books on the floor and there you'd be. At least I assume that was the thinking behind the bookshelf-stool. Mr. Schmidt designed it, and we students sure know better than to ask any questions.

I regret today that I didn't take more shop in high school, because while I have never once used anything I know about the cosine and the tangent, I have used my shop skills to make many useful objects for my home. For example, I recently made a board.

I use my board in many ways. I stand on it when I have to get socks out of the dryer and water has been sitting in our basement around the dryer for a few days, and has developed a pretty healthy layer of scum on top (plus heaven-only-knows-what new and predatory forms of life underneath).

I also use my board to squash spiders. (All spiders are deadly killers. Don't believe any of the stuff you read in "National Geographic".) Generally, after I squash a spider, I leave the board in the water for a few days, spider-side down, to wash it off, assuming the scum isn't too bad.

If you'd like to make a board, you'll need:

Materials: A board, paint.

Tools: A chisel, a handgun.

Get your board at a lumberyard, but be prepared. Lumberyards reek of lunacy. They use a system of measurement that dates back to Colonial times, when people had brains the size of M&Ms. When they tell you a board is a "two-by-four", they mean it is NOT two inches by four inches. Likewise, a "one-by-six" is NOT one inch by six inches. So if you know what size board you want, tell the lumberperson you want some other size. If you don't know what size you want, tell him it's for squashing spiders. He'll know what you need.

You should paint your board so people will know it's a home carpentry project, as opposed to a mere board. I suggest you use a darkish color, something along the lines of spider guts. Use your chisel to open the paint can. Have your gun ready in case Mr. Schmidt is lurking around.

Once you've finished your board, you can move on to a more advanced project, such as a harpsichord. But if you're really going to get into home carpentry, you should have a home workshop. You will find that your workshop is very useful as a place to store lawn sprinklers and objects you intend to fix sometime before you die. My wife and I have worked out a simple eight-step procedure for deciding which objects to store in my home workshop:

My wife tells me an object is broken. For instance, she may say, "The lamp on my bedside table doesn't work."

I wait several months, in case my wife is mistaken.

My wife notifies me she is not mistaken. "The lamp on my bedside table still doesn't work," she says.

I conduct a preliminary investigation. In the case of the lamp, I flick

the switch and note that the lamp doesn't go on. "You're right," I tell my wife. "That lamp doesn't work."

I wait 6 to 19 months, hoping that God will fix the lamp, or the Russians will attack us and the entire world will be a glowing heap of radioactive slag and nobody will care about the lamp anymore.

My wife then alerts me that the lamp still doesn't work. "The lamp still doesn't work," she says, sometimes late at night.

I try to repair the lamp on the spot. Usually, I look for a likely trouble spot and whack it with a blunt instrument. This often works on lamps. It rarely works on microwave ovens.

If the on-the-spot repair doesn't work, I say: "I'll have to take this

lamp down to the home workshop." This is my way of telling my wife she should get another lamp if she has any short-term plans -- say, to do any reading in bed.

If you follow this procedure, after a few years you will have a great many broken objects in your home workshop. In the interim, however, it will look barren. This is why you need tools. To give your shop an attractive, non-barren appearance, you should get several thousand dollars' worth of tools and hang them from pegboards in a graceful display.

Basically, there are four different kinds of tools:

Tools You Can Hit Yourself With (hammers, axes).

Tools You Can Cut Yourself With (saws, knives, hoes, axes).

Tools You Can Stab Yourself With (screwdrivers, chisels).

Tools That, If Dropped Just Right, Can Penetrate Your Foot (awls).

I have a radial arm saw, which is like any other saw except that it has a blade that spins at several billion revolutions per second and therefore can sever your average arm in a trice. When I operate my radial arm saw, I use a safety procedure that was developed by X-ray machine technicians: I leave the room.

I turn off all the power in the house, leave a piece of wood near the saw, scurry to a safe distance, and turn the power back on. That is how I made my board.

Once you get the hang of using your tools, you'll make all kinds of projects. Here are some other ones I've made:

A length of rope.

Wood with nails in it.

Sawdust.

If you'd like plans for any of these projects, just drop some money in an

envelope and send it to me and I'll keep it.

Dave Barry

Reply to
Lee K

I agree one hundred percent as well as with the advice to study the subject.

I kind of left my suggestion open ended, as to with what and how. to prompt towards reading and thinking instead of copying Norm (which, by the way, won't work if you don't know the basics).

However, I was undoubtedly remiss in not adding the reading and hand tools suggestion on to my own post.

Thanks for the pickup Dave, Ed.

Reply to
Mike G

Thanks for the suggestion Mike. I have a couple of questions though. I have tried to follow the threads about jointers and planers but I don't really know what those tools are and how they work. How would I flatten the boards with the standard tools I listed? I can cut the sides pretty straight and parallel with the RAS or TS but how would I flatten / remove warp from the 6 or 8" side? I have a set of blades for the RAS that are supposed to be able to plane or joint ( I don't remember right off hand) but they scare me a bit (mighty big chunk of wood to grab at one time for the RAS).

Also when you say to glue together are you saying I should just butt them together with glue in between? Or should I try biscuits or dowels or some other type of joint?

Is it really necessary to have perfectly flat boards to make something?

thanks again,

Ken

Reply to
Ken Vonk

Reply to
Rodger Pevehouse

I made a bunch of small boxes from 1/4" hardboard. Cheap material, good practice.

-- Mark

Reply to
Mark Jerde

Workbench. Make it large and heavy.

Reply to
Phisherman

Being a newbie 1.5 years ago, I think I can offer some decent advise:

Ken, I think no matter what kind of wood working you're going to do, you WILL need a workbench. And depending on what kind of tools you have, you could make something very simple, or very complex.

I made one out of 2x4 construction lumber, with the top made with

2x6's glued together. Not the best top in the world, as it's not very flat, but I beat the hell out of it, paint spills, glue spill, drill holes, etc. I attached a wood vise to it, and it has worked out great. Cheap to build too since it's made of construction lumber.

I recommend buying plans from

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Most are a great deal, and are VERY detailed which is excellent for a beginner. You can really learn some good basic skills. I've bought plans for a router table, cherry cabinet, bathroom cabinet and patio table.

Reply to
Larry Bud

It doesn't really matter as long as you make sawdust while doing it. That's the fun part! You can make anything you want and always remember that your work always improves in the process. The things you make are no worse or no better than anyone elses. We all have the ability to do great things!

Reply to
Mark Hopkins

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