Choosing Your Free Woodworking Plans
Finding free woodworking plans to do your home projects is simple. However, selecting the good from the bad can be challenging, especially if you are not an experienced woodworker. Free woodworking plans can be downloaded from a variety of websites and most are in PDF format so be sure that you have Adobe Reader installed to view them. It is a free download from Adobe's website so you should have no problems getting it. Even better, on most computers it is already installed.
The first step in choosing what woodworking plan to use is to decide on what you want to make. This will obviously limit the number of choices you have. For your first project I would recommend doing something common like a table or simple piece of furniture so you have more options. Designing and building a full size yacht from free online woodworking plans is probably not a good idea, but a simple end table will give you a ton of choices and also let you look at good and bad plans.
Finding Your End Table Woodworking Plans
In addition to the internet, local woodworking groups are a great resource for information on woodworking plans. Advice is free so use it as much as you can. This advice can help point you in a direction for the style of table you want to build and this guide can not really make any recommendations on that as it is up to your personal taste.
Once you have selected a style, search the internet for some plans. The first thing to make sure of is that the plan has pictures of the finished product as well as pictures detailing the steps in its manufacture.
Avoid plans that read like a story as well because these can sometimes be long winded and difficult to follow step by step. However, a good plan should have some elements of flow to it and not read like a shopping list.
You want to avoid woodworking plans that do not provide specific instructions on the tools required, the materials you will need, and most importantly the estimated cost. A really solid plan will list these items up front, much like a good recipe.
It is best to know what you will be getting yourself into before you start. Another thing to look for is whether or not the writer of the design goes into any detail about how difficult the project will be. Again this should be something stated up front, but is not needed. Keep those things in mind and you should be able to easily select a plan that will leave you satisfied in the end.
