I’d really love to start making something, even if it’s basic. Any tips on where to start? Tools, wood, etc?
I’m nowhere even remotely comparable to a proper furniture maker, but I can tell you some pitfalls to avoid.
Don’t cut wood without eyes, ears, and face protection. The dust, noise, or fumes will get you one day or another, if without protection. I prefer earmuffs over earplugs, but if earplugs then use the ones which tether both ends together. For a face mask, I like low-profile half-masks like this one: https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/respirators/p100-half-mask-respirator-sm
Resist the urge to dive into woodworking by starting with reclaimed wood. For example, pallets are a cheap/free source of material, but it’s a hodge-podge of different varieties, all riddled with nail holes, dents, and brown stains from rusty fasteners.
That’s not to say it can’t be done, but it certainly aggravates the process if you’re just starting. I once came across a section of 2x4 recovered from a pallet, thinking that it would cut just like the pine I was used to. Instead, it wrecked two drill bits and burned a circular saw blade as well as itself. I later mailed a sample of it to the USDA Wood Identification Public Service, who informed me that it was Acer (Hard Maple). Up until then, I didn’t even know that maple came in both varieties.
It seems hard maple is tougher than nails drill bits. I’m still learning.
White maple is my go-to for projects I want to keep. I love how clean it is and the large curvy grain patterns. Titanium bits and saw blades help and getting your saw blade sharpened after a couple of large projects is a good idea but you’re going to be burning through it a lot of the time even with high quality brand new cutting tools. I leave an 8th extra on and bring it down with a belt sander to deal with the burn marks. Downsize drill bits by one size and use a file for holes that you will be able to see into.
If you use reclaimed wood don’t assume all of the metal has been removed. Sometimes nails and screws break instead of working out and that can be easy to miss especially for someone checking a large amount of wood. If a saw blade hits a nail you potentially have a very dangerous projectile. Run a magnet over the wood while you’re marking your cuts to make sure. If you’re going to be working with reclaimed wood a lot a wand style metal detector is a good investment.
So that if one works it’s way out it doesn’t fall onto your freshly spread glue or bounce into a spinning saw blade.
This might be true, although I do it mostly so I can remove the earplugs and rest them around my neck if someone needs to talk to me.
The best PPE are the ones which have the fewest barriers toward using. Even the minor annoyance of having to set down untethered earplugs is best avoided, if it acts as a subconscious disincentive towards using PPE. Good safety policy adapts and accommodates this aspect of human behavior.
In a home workshop, there is no OSHA, so I’m fully responsible for my own safety protocols.
Unless you’re going the hand tool purist route, the table saw is IMO the central tool in the shop. It can rip, cross-cut, and cut joinery like dados and tenons. So you want a good one with a solid fence that won’t frustrate you. I haven’t been in the market for one in a while, so my suggestions will be out of date, but I’m sure others here can help you.
When you’re starting out you’ll probably be buying your wood S4S: surfaced four sides, so it’s smooth and pretty much ready to go. This is how all the wood at the big-box hardware stores comes. Wood from specialty dealers will come rough, and you can surface it yourself with the right tools ($$$) or have them do it for you for a fee ($).
It’s probably best to start with a project in mind, even if it’s shop shelving or something that doesn’t have to be heirloom-quality.
Books helped me learn a lot about joints during my foray into ww 🪵 check out your local library. Good luck!
If your local library is no good, you can also try Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=woodworking. Has an exhaustively detailed book on joints in particular, plus an assortment of beginners’ manuals. A lot of hand tool stuff hasn’t changed all that much in the past century.
On a related note, anyone got any tips on the design process? Do you guys just try to copy things that catch your eye or how do you choose what to make?
The easiest way to learn how to design furniture is to copy existing designs, then tweak them slightly to better fit your style. After a while, you’ll learn how to incorporate different designs into a nearly original piece.
Copy copy copy until you understand what you like, and what works functionally.
It’s not that difficult to find plans available either for free or for sale on the internet, though I have yet to build a furniture project straight from plans. I’ll usually come up with something I want to build, and I’ll look at pictures, watch build videos, maybe find plans, and then I’ll design my own version in FreeCAD.
I tend to start in the spreadsheet workbench and list things like stock dimensions, pertinent detail dimensions and such, derive certain dimensions, I like to keep as much math in the spreadsheet as possible, and then I use the sketch > Part Design workflow to create the parts and the A2Plus workbench to assemble them. Creating a 3D model is often a sanity check to make sure all the parts fit together, I sometimes don’t bother to model all parts or I’ll only do half of a symmetrical assembly. I used to make drawings to print with the TechDraw workbench but for my purposes in the shop I stopped doing this as I would just work from the spreadsheet. If I was sharing my plans with others I would make more careful drawings.
This of course allows you to tailor the work to your space and you.
If you are in the US, don’t trust any dimensions for wood. Buy a cheap caliper and measure to confirm. Personally, I prefer to work in metric to resist the urge to round to a nice fraction. That being said, measurements are always relative and wood is very forgiving so keep a few offcuts labeled and stored away to use as a reference.
As far as tools go: a cheap pull saw, square, hammer, and a steel straight edge will get you started. Harbor freight has some cheap entry level tools worth buying once to learn on. A drill would be my first power tool purchase if you don’t have one.
I sprang for a starrett combination square when I began my woodworking journey and it’s probably the single most useful tool I own.
It’s not necessary to have a square that precise, but knowing one part of the process is dead square is handy for figuring out where error comes from when there are issues
