# Best woodworking plans websites.



## cullenc1993 (Jan 31, 2011)

I am looking for the best websites with lots of plans with good instructions. I don't mind paying a little for really good or complex plans but free is better.


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## Ebuuck (Jan 25, 2011)

I use the wood magazine index on their website. They aren't free but very cheap and you can download them straight to your computer. Then print off the plans and if you're like me, lose them somewhere in the shop but you'll still have it on your computer!!


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## Shop Dad (May 3, 2011)

I recently discovered this which has some good stuff:
http://www.finewoodworking.com/blog/free-plans


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## WillemJM (Aug 18, 2011)

Tell me what your are looking for and I will build the plans in 3D and post them here for free. That is provided you are not building a house of course.


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## Santa Clarita Len (Apr 30, 2011)

WillemJM said:


> Tell me what your are looking for and I will build the plans in 3D and post them here for free. That is provided you are not building a house of course.


I know that I am hijacking this post but can you direct me a site where I can obtain plans for a 10 or 12 foot long dinning table with no leaves?


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## WillemJM (Aug 18, 2011)

Santa Clarita Len said:


> I know that I am hijacking this post but can you direct me a site where I can obtain plans for a 10 or 12 foot long dinning table with no leaves?


I have never really looked at anyone elses woodworking plans, too difficult to figure out why they did what, so can't help you.

Those are easy to build. Real easy to draw yourself, even on paper.

You have to earn a few more posts and then we can design it together, right here.


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## darins (Feb 24, 2010)

I don't know if these are the best, but here are a few:

http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/index.php

http://www.woodcraftplans.com/osc/

http://www.freeww.com/

http://www.freewoodworkingplan.com/

http://trod.org/projects/woodworking/

If any of these are just outright advertisements, I apologize. I haven't gone completely through these to get a feel for them. As a side note, I have no affiliation with any of these sites.


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

I know you asked for a source for plans. It isn't that difficult to derive your own. My thoughts are that in developing your own plans give you a different perspective in doing the work. 

Is woodworking just a pass time distraction. Is following a set of plans similar to painting by the numbers? When I started there were no plans for sale, at least none that I knew about. Being in the business of building furniture, every client had a different project. There were no plans to go off of or materials lists. If I was to work and earn a living, I had to figure out how to fabricate, which means make plans.

Plans can be not much more than just drawing pictures with a pencil and a sketchpad. It ain't that hard to do. In fact, if you made your own plans, it gives the opportunity to decide what to do where, as far as what gets cut, how it goes together, joinery, etc.

Of course, you may say you don't have the time to draw up plans. Or, that the piece you need to make has a deadline. That's fine, and understandable. But now as I think of this thread, I haven't seen a post asking how to make plans...other than a CAD question. 












 







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## EM3 (Sep 12, 2011)

cabinetman said:


> I know you asked for a source for plans. It isn't that difficult to derive your own. My thoughts are that in developing your own plans give you a different perspective in doing the work.
> 
> Is woodworking just a pass time distraction. Is following a set of plans similar to painting by the numbers? When I started there were no plans for sale, at least none that I knew about. Being in the business of building furniture, every client had a different project. There were no plans to go off of or materials lists. If I was to work and earn a living, I had to figure out how to fabricate, which means make plans.
> 
> ...


I look for free plans but I am learning quickly how to use graph paper and freehand sketches since most plans aren't exactly what I am looking for.. Math was never my strong point.


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## Santa Clarita Len (Apr 30, 2011)

WillemJM said:


> I have never really looked at anyone elses woodworking plans, too difficult to figure out why they did what, so can't help you.
> 
> Those are easy to build. Real easy to draw yourself, even on paper.
> 
> You have to earn a few more posts and then we can design it together, right here.



I don't think that I have actually ever made anything from plans other than my own, but designing is not my forte. I can usually see an item or visually see one in my head and create plans from that but I am not sure of the basics for a large table. Some of my concerns are:
Are center supporting legs necessary?
Would a trestle style base be better?
If I glue up planks for the top should they be limited to 4" width?
Would 4" aprons be adequate?

Any ideas would be helpful.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

The best way to build something IMO is with your own plans. You can understand them better. Build faster & more accurate fro them than by using someone else's. 

As a beginner, the best way for you to draw your own plans is to rough sketch a design of something you want to build, but scale it down both in size and complexity, then build it. It may take more time in the short term, but will pay huge dividends in the long term. 

Unless I'm building something very complex, I don't even scribble the rough sketch on paper, I scribble them on the boards I'll use themselves, and just have a cut list scribbled down on another board. 

Yes, I have gotten con fused this way before and accidentally planed off my cut list not paying attention. Best to scribble your cutlist on something that can't be planed. probably.

If you work in any field that requires layers of thought you can't get from a plan (such as troubleshooting anything from a simple electrical circuit to a radar, to playing chess), then you can draw the plans in your head and just jot the numbers down on your cutlist - and refine the numbers as you get started. that may mean a mistake or five as you get used to this system. And it is a system. 

Maybe you don't have the time or desire to develop this approach and I realize some don't have the whatever to do it this way. I can't knit and I promise that's much harder than what I'm trying to convey.


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## info (Oct 3, 2011)

Santa Clarita Len said:


> I don't think that I have actually ever made anything from plans other than my own, but designing is not my forte. I can usually see an item or visually see one in my head and create plans from that but I am not sure of the basics for a large table. Some of my concerns are:
> Are center supporting legs necessary?
> Would a trestle style base be better?
> If I glue up planks for the top should they be limited to 4" width?
> ...


Santa Clarita Len 
Not to be disrespectful , you really need to start your own thread .
Then all your ? can be answered


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

TexasTimbers said:


> The best way to build something IMO is with your own plans. You can understand them better. Build faster & more accurate fro them than by using someone else's.
> 
> As a beginner, the best way for you to draw your own plans is to rough sketch a design of something you want to build, but scale it down both in size and complexity, then build it. It may take more time in the short term, but will pay huge dividends in the long term.
> 
> ...


Well said TT. But all this time I thought you could knit.












 





 
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## cullenc1993 (Jan 31, 2011)

Thanks for all of the great websites. I have created a few of my own designs which I prefer to do but most of the time I find myself halfway through the project realizing that I have no idea what to do next. I like having plans if I can or step by step is better at least until I get a good rhythm going. I am very inexperienced, my dad used to do woodworking for a living and has all of the tools and a shop, but due to his heavy medication doesn't have the mindset to make a piece so I have the tools at hand, not the knowledge. Perhaps I need to read some technique books or find someone to teach me, maybe I'll start a thread on that soon.


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## Santa Clarita Len (Apr 30, 2011)

info said:


> Santa Clarita Len
> Not to be disrespectful , you really need to start your own thread .
> Then all your ? can be answered



You are absolutely correct please accept my apologies.


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## yocalif (Nov 11, 2010)

Having or getting plans for a project can be for a variety of reasons, one of course is to just do the wood working without having to think long and hard about the construction and other essentials.

Another and this applies to me is for inspiration, if I have built anything from a plan I usually have changed it at some point putting my own flare.

I see plans as I cruise the net, and have a loose idea of the projects I want to do in the future, so I collect plans for ideas. I must have 10 or 12 different plans on bar stools for our gazebo, a project I hope to get to this next summer. 

I am also working on a design and function philosophy that I want to apply to stuff I build, hopefully this will help me focus. Following the work of others helps me see the need for this.

Some authors are voracious readers, drawing inspiration from other writers, and then write their own story which is completely unique and their own. Yet there are other authors who absolutely refuse to read authors in their genre because they don't want their own creativity to be influenced.


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## TexasTimbers (Oct 17, 2006)

cabinetman said:


> Well said TT. But all this time I thought you could knit.



I've been known to knot but never been known to knit, not that knitting isn't knotting. Knotting however isn't the same as not knitting, necessarily. 

Further, not knotting or not knitting is fraught with possibilities, some or all of which may or may not be all for naught. 

Not meaning to be nit-picky about knits or knots though. 


:wacko:


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## halid (Feb 20, 2014)

*woodworking site*

hallo i from indonesia....any one can help me to found best site of woodworkig plan & project (affiiate?)??


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## cabinetman (Jul 5, 2007)

WillemJM said:


> Tell me what your are looking for and I will build the plans in 3D and post them here for free. That is provided you are not building a house of course.





WillemJM said:


> Those are easy to build. Real easy to draw yourself, even on paper.
> 
> You have to earn a few more posts and then we can design it together, right here.


Your offer sounded unconditional.



















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## johnnie52 (Feb 16, 2009)

If you seriously are looking for good advise on building a large table, try this:

http://www.popularwoodworking.com/how-to-build-a-table

Its a free download and their stuff is usually really good.


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