Free Wood Working Plans

There are scores of places where you can get free wood working plans. You've probably seen a lot of them as you've looked around the woodworking sites that pop up. Maybe you've even tried a few free plans.

If you're mostly looking for ideas then what you can find is almost endless. It's a different story if you're looking for plans to use for something to guide you along with correct measurements.

When I'm looking for free wood working plans I've had to set guidelines to keep myself out of trouble with a project that just doesn't fit together. That's why I'm writing this article. Several things can go wrong if you're not careful.

• Outdated plans - A lot of free wood working plans that are being offered have been pulled from older archived publications. A lot of these have outdated techniques using hand tools and joinery that has long been replaced with newer tools and techniques. There's nothing wrong with this except most people want to use the modern methods.


• Wrong Measurements -I found out very early that all plans don't have the correct measurements. This happens when plans are drawn, copied and sold without ever being used to build the project. This happens fairly often.


• Vague Instructions -Sometimes, even with a good set of plans, it's hard to figure out exactly what you're being instructed to do.

This is just some of the problems I've ran into with free wood working plans. Most of these are downloadable so that gives you a chance to look them over good before committing some expensive lumber to the project.

This also gives you a chance to see whos plans are usable before buying premium plans from the same source. When I'm not sure I stick with the name brand suppliers such as Rockler, Woodcraft or WOOD Magazine. Although they sell plans from other sources, the plans are up to their standards and I've seldom had any kind of problem. I've also learned to read the reviews about the plans when they're available.