Your woodworking tips

[Jason]

We are fortunate to have many experienced and creative woodworkers in the Workshop community, with more arriving every week. 

If you browse the gallery or discussion boards you will see some of their inspiring projects, often made from inexpensive recycled timber like pallets or just offcuts from another job. 

If you'd love to get into woodwork but don't know where to start, I thought it would be great for some of our experienced woodworkers to share advice on how to get started. 

Please share some of your tips for woodworking beginners by replying below. 

Some of our experienced members who might like to participate include @Wayne, @AndrewJones, @She_Skills, @darylhewston, @Rusty-Saw, @Brad, @gbaker1512, @woodalwaysworks, @Johnnynl and @Yorky88.

Newcomers are also welcome to ask questions - we have many experienced Workshop members who are happy to help.

Thanks for joining in the discussion,

Jason

[She_Skills]

Hi there. I am pretty fortunate to have a cabinet maker for a husband but I wanted to get more involved so I just started doing my own projects. One of the best ways to learn about how things are made is to take things apart and put them back together again. I started by finding old furniture and doing it up and loved it, then I quickly moved onto building my own projects. I found a great place to buy recycled timber and I go there often to see what they have coming through.

[Brad]

Looks like cabinet maker is a better choice than hairdresser...

Trade school gave me enough skills that can transfer over to wood, routing and joints was something new to learn though.

I have always found making your own work bench was a good learning experience, not counting todays effort I am working on my 4th bench modelled on a Kreg clamp table and still have my 2nd in the shed.

I think I have a hybrid set of tools unless the typical woodworker has a metal circular saw, angle grinder and pipe bender...

[Yorky88]

Hey guys. For all those who are new to woodworking, or are thinking about giving it a go, I would encourage you to just go for it and give it a shot. It is so rewarding when you finish your first build and go, hey that's not bad or if it hasn't turned out exactly as you had planned then that's ok because the joy is generally with wood it's fairly simple to fix and chances are you might learn a trick or two along the way that you may not have learnt had you nailed it the first time.

One thing I have learned and love about wood is that it doesn't matter what it looks like on the outside (as long as it's not split or even if it is) if you run a planer,thicknesser or sander over it it's going to come up beautiful. Don't judge a book (wood) by its cover.

If you mess up that's ok give it another try. Or Watch a few YouTube videos and then try again.

[Jason]

Great tips @Yorky88, @Brad and @She_Skills. Many thanks for sharing.

Looking forward to reading more.

Jason

[chefyash]

Absolutely, its very rewarding to make a nice table and have people appreciate it.mind you the first one i made was so ugly and wobbly that i put it in the skip myself.