Evil Scotsman

Good Morning all,

Please forgive me if I get carried away asking questions. I tend to do that when I am starting something new. Let me just say I have ALWAYS had a love for woodworking ever since 7th grade wood shop and my first footstool with storage, (which my mother still has in the attic somewhere LOL) I have recently decided to "REALLY" get into. I am looking to make various project for around the house and trailer. I will be starting with adironack furniture and working my way to the house. A couple of pieces I am looking to make would be a rustic/crate ??? coffee table and end tables. I haven't found the exact table I want yet, (haven't had time to do a whole lot of looking either) but my question is are purchased plans better than the free plans? For the outdoor furniture I will probably end up making several pieces, (sister, parents, in laws, etc) so I will want to make templates out of luan or Mica(?)(the brown stuuf like peg board. The other pieces for inside the house will hopefully be a one shot deal. I am finding lots of FREE AND Purchased. Honestly I am not seeing that much difference. BUT maybe I am missing something. So I am bowing to your knowledge and experience.
Thank you

Also If my post are too long please let me know, I just figure the more info YOU have the better you can understand my question IF I am not very clear

Cheers

jerry

The brown stuff is hard board(masonite) tempered is best for templates. You don't always need plans ,go and look at outdoor furniture and try to find something you like or can adapt to suit you. The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step,just get started and enjoy the journey.

Regards
Jerry

sweensdv

What an excellent question. Unfortunately I've never used one of the purchased type plans so I can't speak from experience about that. Most of the free plans I've used lack a whole lot of detailed instructions which can be very confusing for someone just starting out. I'll be very interested to hear what others have to say about this.

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Dave

Gerry KIERNAN

Hi Evil

I have seen lots of good free plans on the net, and lots of good purchase plans. The biggest advantage to the free plans is that they are "FREE". As you develop your skills you are going to improvise a lot anyway, as very seldom does a set of plans have exactly what you want.

Gerry

frankp

Wow, I'm amazed at the difference in how people go about things. I look at something I like and then make my own plans. I've looked at plans online, but usually I just figure I can do it my way and read books to figure out what joining I want to use or whatever. I have also found that libraries usually have woodworking and furniture building books and magazines that often have plans, which I use for reference. Sometimes they're very high quality plans and sometimes they're not, but they're always free.

Good luck and enjoy your new hobby. It offers countless hours of creativity, frustration, satisfaction, and beauty.

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"I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do! That is character!"

--Theodore Roosevelt

Evil Scotsman

FrankP,

I have "TRIED" that in the past (designing my own stuff)(console for my truck) with not vey eye pleasing results! lol BUT I have also done a few things where I improvised the entire project (turning a 8 x 16 ' deck into 8 x 28' with a roof) and it turned out great. Of course it isn't perfect and you guys would probably laugh your a$$ at but, but to ME it looks great. So I have tried both sides of the fence. My thought was purchasing plans and then POSSIBLY adapting them would be the way to go. But I have seen some free plans that look pretty detailed. I was curious what you guys did.
(please don't take this anything negitive it is not intended that way)I actually hadn't thought about the library. My FIRST thought is ALWAYS the internet. Don't remember what I did BEFORE the internet. haha