Going to Build

Wood Working Plans

Furniture has pride of place in peoples homes and consequently is high profile. People become aware of the furniture around them, especially if they are sitting on it. Therefore, if you are going to make a piece of furniture, you will need to have reached a fairly high degree of proficiency. You will also have to have a good set of wood working plans for the sort of furniture that you want to make.

A good set of wood working plans can make all the difference between a decent job and a good job. It also makes the job a lot simpler. After all, no builder would attempt the construction of a house, if he did not have a set of architects plans to consult, so why should you have to struggle?

In fact, a good set of plans will help even a novice complete a wood working job that would otherwise be above his capacity. A good set of wood working plans is indispensable even for a professional on complicated tasks. Wood working plans remove a lot of the calculations that would otherwise be necessary, although it is not a question of dumbing down.

There are a number of sources for working drawings such as libraries, craft shops and the Internet. There are specialist wood working sites that sell all sorts of wood working plans at very realistic rates. Unless you buy a full sized wood working plan, you will have to have it blown up so that you can pin it up near where you are working for easy consultation.

This is easy if you download the plans from the Internet. Just take a copy on disk or flash card to a printers and they can enlarge it for you otherwise you could print it off at home and take it to an office where technical drawings are used, such as an architects, and have them enlarge it on the photocopier.


Woodworking plans will give you all the measurements of the different components that go into the project, say a bench, a table, a bird box or a piece of high-end furniture such as a display cabinet. It will also show you in detail how these parts fit into each other and what sort of joints you have to use. These woodworking plans are extremely useful, if, as in the case of a display cabinet, you want to pre-order the panes of glass so that they are ready when you need them.

Make sure that the working drawings that you choose for your project is comprehensive. Some can be a bit sketchy. A good set of wood working plans will be very detailed, like an exploded version of the completed article with all the measurements, angles and joints clearly shown.

A good set of woodworking plans will also have a clear narrative, that is, it will have an account of where you begin and which pieces you should put together first. A good set of wood working plans will lead you through the process of making your furniture like a child making a plastic model airplane from a kit.