Has anyone bought plans from FINE Woodworking Magazine?

[Graham Orm]

I take it the plans are all going to be imperial. I fancy having a go at their single board side table.http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/115 ... side-table

 

[marcros]

i clicked on your link and the video started up. 14 seconds in there was a cutting list, which was imperial.

 

[Graham Orm]

i clicked on your link and the video started up. 14 seconds in there was a cutting list, which was imperial.

Yes I've seen that. I wondered if anyone knew if they offered a metric option.

 

[Rhossydd]

I take it you mean FINE woodworking, not good working ? Big difference there.

If so, yes, I took advantage of a free trial and got their plans for a bedside cabinet. Yes, all dimensions are in imperial, but conversion is pretty straight forward.
You just need to remember to check for rounding errors and double check things add up as they should. I just printed off a set of plans then over wrote them with the calculated values. Primary school stuff really.

 

[Graham Orm]

I take it you mean FINE woodworking, not good working ? Big difference there.

If so, yes, I took advantage of a free trial and got their plans for a bedside cabinet. Yes, all dimensions are in imperial, but conversion is pretty straight forward.
You just need to remember to check for rounding errors and double check things add up as they should. I just printed off a set of plans then over wrote them with the calculated values. Primary school stuff really.

Yes you're right, it's Fine Woodworking. My error. I thought about that and have tried it, but it ends up with divisions of millimetres which is frustrating. As you say you have to round up or down which might lead to a frustrating gap.

I've downloaded the drawing and will work in imperial. No real hardship, just different to what I've become used to. If I had to start doing calculations with the fractions then there would be errors I'm sure. But it's all there in black and white so I'll travel back in time and flip the ruler round.

 

[Rhossydd]

I thought about that and have tried it, but it ends up with divisions of millimetres which is frustrating. As you say you have to round up or down which might lead to a frustrating gap.

It's all easy enough. They only use a finite number of measurements, so make a conversion and use it widely.
Try just writing down a fixed set of preferred conversions for the repeated values eg 1" 26mm, 1/2" 13mm, 3/16" 5mm etc I never used measurements of fractions of a mm, it's just not necessary for furniture.
You won't get any gaps if you double check your numbers and ensure everything adds up.

For me, spending a while marking up the plans is time well spent, ensuring I really understand the project and get the cutting list right. Plus, moving to a less familiar measurement system seemed to be potentially more error prone.

 

[Graham Orm]

I thought about that and have tried it, but it ends up with divisions of millimetres which is frustrating. As you say you have to round up or down which might lead to a frustrating gap.

It's all easy enough. They only use a finite number of measurements, so make a conversion and use it widely.
Try just writing down a fixed set of preferred conversions for the repeated values eg 1" 26mm, 1/2" 13mm, 3/16" 5mm etc I never used measurements of fractions of a mm, it's just not necessary for furniture.
You won't get any gaps if you double check your numbers and ensure everything adds up.

For me, spending a while marking up the plans is time well spent, ensuring I really understand the project and get the cutting list right. Plus, moving to a less familiar measurement system seemed to be potentially more error prone.

Point taken. I'll do the conversions and have a think about it. I'm in no rush.

 

[custard]

I take it the plans are all going to be imperial. I fancy having a go at their single board side table.http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/115 ... side-table

I've bought loads Graham, including the table you mention, probably a bit naughty as I generally sell what I make so there's probably a copyright issue in there somewhere.

-They're accurately printed on heavyweight, large sized paper. You get full size reproductions of all key details and any templates, plus a comprehensive cutting list.

-They normally include the original FW article that accompanied the piece. FW has fairly strict editorial guidelines that tends to dumb down many of the designs. Fair enough as that's what most of their readership wants, so you'll often want to add in a slight splay, or a curve, or change thick drawer sides to thin drawer sides and slips to give their designs a bit of a lift.

-They're all imperial. Given that I normally fiddle with dimensions and design details imperial isn't too terrible as I'll incorporate the changes in the metric translation.

-There are paper versions and for many designs there's also a digital option. This normally includes comprehensive Sketch Up drawings which I thought would facilitate the switch to metric, but I'm a SU novice and it's never worked that easily for me, if you're slicker with the programme you might breeze through it.

Good luck!

 

[Paddy Roxburgh]

I used to try to work just in metric but now seem to use imperial more and more. this is partly due to a lot of my hand tools being imperial (it's a lot easier to subtract a 1/2 inch from 11/2 inches than 12.7 from 36). I'd say if the plans are imperial don't convert them just go with it. Americans use imperial, mainland Europeans use metric, the British use whichever is easier at the time (I'll have an 8 by 4 sheet of 12mm please).
Paddy

 

[Graham Orm]

I take it the plans are all going to be imperial. I fancy having a go at their single board side table.http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/115 ... side-table

I've bought loads Graham, including the table you mention, probably a bit naughty as I generally sell what I make so there's probably a copyright issue in there somewhere.

-They're accurately printed on heavyweight, large sized paper. You get full size reproductions of all key details and any templates, plus a comprehensive cutting list.

-They normally include the original FW article that accompanied the piece. FW has fairly strict editorial guidelines that tends to dumb down many of the designs. Fair enough as that's what most of their readership wants, so you'll often want to add in a slight splay, or a curve, or change thick drawer sides to thin drawer sides and slips to give their designs a bit of a lift.

-They're all imperial. Given that I normally fiddle with dimensions and design details imperial isn't too terrible as I'll incorporate the changes in the metric translation.

-There are paper versions and for many designs there's also a digital option. This normally includes comprehensive Sketch Up drawings which I thought would facilitate the switch to metric, but I'm a SU novice and it's never worked that easily for me, if you're slicker with the programme you might breeze through it.

Good luck!

Thanks. All I got was the 5 page line drawings and a sketchup download with one view of it made up. Not to worry