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Hey Jon! Jon! Jon!
[Jon] What?
[Marc] Did you know that right now in the
Guild, you can pre order two new projects?
They're both 20% off and if you buy
them both together, you get an extra 10% off!
But you only have until July 9th!
[Jon] ...whatever.
See that everybody is excited
about this. Just head to woodwhispererguild.com
for more information if you want
to get in on these pre orders
and save a few bucks on some great
woodworking courses. You know, I've been thinking a lot
lately about stumbling blocks
that I encountered when I first started woodworking
and that got me inspired to come up
with a list of things
that I think might help you guys.
Right. So this is my 10 things
that I wish I knew when I first
started woodworking.
Don't cut all your
parts at once. Right. So if you're following
a project plan, you're going to get a
cut list and it may be tempting to
get all your material, bring it all down
to final thickness, cut it to length
and width. The problem with this is especially
if you have maybe only time on the
weekends to do your projects,
you're gonna have a long span of time
between the point that you milled the stuff
and the point that you need to incorporate
it into your project and guess what?
Wood moves. Right. So when you go to put
those things together, they may not fit anymore.
So I recommend looking at the cut list,
dividing the project into sensible portions of sections for
things that go together and consider those sub
assemblies. Start working on those
and then as you progress through the subassemblies,
then finally everything can come together.
Just don't do everything at once.
You're going to pay the price.
Don't rely so much on exact measurements.
Use relative dimensioning more.
So what I mean is if you have
a project part that calls,
I don't know for a 12" piece.
In reality, most projects we build,
it doesn't matter if it's 11
and 15/16ths or if it's a little bit
over. What does matter is
that every part that has
that 12" dimension is the same.
Right? So that's why we use stop blocks
and things like that to make sure all
of our parts of the same.
But typically it doesn't matter if it's slightly
off. Also when you have a project
that is starting to come together,
let's say you built a case,
you might have to fit doors
and drawers within that space.
And chances are after you build this case.
What the plan called for for this distance
here may not be exactly the same.
Right? So this is the point where relative
dimensioning comes in. I just need my door
to fit with the proper gaps around it.
I no longer care what
that total number is. I just know I
want it to fit. If possible, buy your material
from a reputable hardwood dealer instead of the
big box store. Now in the beginning I
used to get all my stuff from the
big box store. I get my plywood home
and it would turn into a potato chip,
and then I would buy solid lumber
and then it would warp
and have bows in it
because it was already pre milled
and then just sat there potentially for months
before someone purchased it. I paid more
and got less for it.
And it was great when I finally discovered
hardwood dealers because I could get plywood
that was way better in quality cost about
the same. And then of course solid lumber,
whether it was rough or stuff
that was milled on site at the hardwood
dealer, it was always higher quality.
So upgrade from the home store as soon
as possible. Don't waste too much time practicing
cuts and joinery. I know it may be
tempting. I mean it's just human nature.
We know that if we want to get
good at something, we have to get reps
in, we have to practice.
But a lot of times you could find
yourself trying to chase that perfect dovetail joint
and never actually making anything
and it takes a while to get really
good at that stuff. Right?
So my recommendation is to up the stakes,
build a project that matters right?
Something you actually want. And then if you
make mistakes, you're going to feel it a
lot more. Those memories will kick in as
you go through the project,
you'll be like, I don't want
that to happen again. So you tend to
get good fast when you're thrown into the
deep end and here's the good thing.
Even if the project contains a bunch of
mistakes guaranteed there is someone in your friends
or family or somebody who is more than
happy to take that off your hands.
All right, just jump into the projects,
start building. That's where the best lessons come
from. You don't have to reinvent the wheel
when it comes to design.
Look, furniture has been around for a long
time and it's perfectly okay to take inspiration
from other things that you see,
I can't tell you how many projects I
build and projects I design
that start with a google image search,
right? Because I need inspiration. In reality how
many truly unique ideas are actually out there?
Not that many. So I think when you're
first starting, you've got to get this design
vocabulary working in your head
and then as you build these things,
you gain confidence and you can start to
go well, you know what?
Maybe I'll change that, maybe make
that a little wider, add a curve here,
and as you start to get a little
bit better at it, but don't be afraid
to take inspiration and just make sure you
give credit where it's due.
Try to avoid the bling tools, right?
Now that sounds funny coming from a guy who
likes to spend money on good quality tools
and I appreciate good craftsmanship
and my tooling. But in the beginning you
don't necessarily need woodpeckers squares,
you can just get a fairly inexpensive set
of engineer squares and those will get the
job done perfectly fine. You don't need expensive
chisels, right? There are brands like Narex,
that's a really good bang for the buck
and you can get a nice five piece
chisel set like 50 bucks or something
like that. And you don't necessarily need to
just jump right in and have,
you know, Bessey or Jet clamps.
Look, I don't buy a whole lot from
Harbor Freight, but I talked to a lot
of people who do and they say
that the clamps are actually pretty good,
right? So if you go
and invest in a set of clamps from
Harbor Freight, even when you upgrade to something
else, I guarantee you're going to keep those
clamps because you could just never have enough.
Try to buy tools on an as needed
basis. I can't tell you how many times
I've gotten email questions from people who say
I've got this, this and this.
What should be my next tool purchase?
My answer is always the same.
It should be the next tool you need,
right? So the things that you're building will
often dictate techniques and tools
that you may or may not have,
and if you can't find another way to
do it, sometimes, that's when you have to
say, well, I guess I need to get
that biscuit joiner or that circular saw,
whatever it is. So try if possible to
let the work dictate which tools you get
and that's going to help you avoid having
a bunch of things you're gonna need to
sell in the future because you don't actually
use them. Speaking of tool questions,
another common question is "I have this tool
and this tool, they're both kind of crappy.
So should I upgrade one of those or
should I buy a tool
that does something that my tools currently don't
do well?" To me that's a no brainer.
I think it's always best to satisfy a
function that you currently don't have in your
shop before you bother upgrading something else.
Now, the exception to that is if that's
something else is a dangerous tool
because it's so flimsy or just doesn't work
really well, then an upgrade makes sense.
But otherwise, I think it's always better to
get the function you don't currently have before
you upgrade something else that you do have.
And there is nothing better than a shiny
brand new tool. But in the beginning,
I mean any time in your wood working
career, it always pays to look in
the used market because things depreciate fairly quickly.
So keep an eye on used stuff
and you might be able to get something
that normally would have been outside of your
budget. But because you're buying it used, you
get a great deal and now you've got
a better tool for it.
One tip. Can't remember who said this first,
but I'd love to get credit where it's
due. I just can't remember.
But a great tip for you is to
look for misspellings. If you're looking for something
"Festool" search for "Festoon." For whatever reason,
people like to type that. Any tool brand,
try misspellings because oftentimes people are selling things
that are not theirs, it might be someone
who passed away or something
that a neighbor gave them.
They don't even know what it is.
They're just typing it online.
So look for the misspellings
and sometimes you can find things
that other people haven't come across.
And finally, today, I want you to know
that projects are almost never perfect.
You really can't achieve perfection in woodworking.
It's very difficult to do because of the medium.
The nature of the medium,
a real important realization I had was when
I was working with David Marks,
this is like 16 years ago or something.
I went to his house,
I saw projects that he made on the
Woodworks TV show and I was just in
awe of them, right? And then I put
my hand on them. So one in particular
was a dovetailed bench that he had made.
And it was a real eye opening experience.
As I ran my hand across there
and I felt all the joints,
some of them were proud,
some had glue lines and I was like,
wait, this is David Marks
and this stuff, this isn't perfect.
And it was like, well,
it can't be perfect because it's a natural
material. Wood moves, glue lines move
and this is the nature of woodworking,
right? So everything was probably,
I mean it's David Marks,
everything was probably pretty darn perfect on day
one, but over time, that's just what furniture
does. Alright. And realistically, when you see pictures
online of someone's finished piece,
chances are you're just seeing the best angle
that shows it in its best light.
If you saw it in person guaranteed,
you would find some flaws on
that, that they're just not telling you about.
All right. The key is to figure out
how to fix the flaws
and then also how to avoid them in
the future. Now, one thing people say
that I actually disagree with is the mark
of a good craftsman, is
that he knows how to hide his flaws,
he knows how to fix his mistakes or
her mistakes. I'd like to change
that. I think the mark of a good
craftsman is a person who doesn't make mistakes,
but when they do, they know how to
fix them. All right, So thanks for watching
everybody. We'll see you next time.