Have you ever purchased plans?

[latheman]

Hello to all.
I'm new here and was looking for a little advice. Has anybody purchased plans off the internet? The reason I ask, I've seen some available on the net but was unsure if, A: Are they really any good? B: Is it worth paying or are there free plan sites that anyone knows of?. I understand to design things takes time and time=money. Do you have any recommendations? as I said I've found some but not sure if its worth the price. I'm not sure if I'm allowed to put a link so you can see what I'm on about. Some advice would be great. Thanks in advance.

 

[Jacob]

I've never bought a plan as such but have stacks of books some with lots of design detail.
Thos Moser is good; "Measured shop drawings for American furniture" and other titles. Very good value.
Depends what you want but I'd strongly advise buying the thing itself if you can, and copying it. You can get wormy wrecks of furniture from auctions for next to nothing and then take apart and copy.
What is it you want to make?
Put up a link to your plan site and we'll slag it off! Yes there are free ones all over the place. Some of the mags put them on line as well.

 

[Doingupthehouse]

I bough some plans for a router lathe from wood smith plans http://www.woodsmithplans.com
The plans are very clear, haven't built it yet, might not build it at all, but no complaints with th plans themselves.

Simple to purchase and download.

Simon

 

[sunnybob]

What kind of plans?
toys? bandsaw box? chest of drawers? beds?

 

[AndyT]

You ask if there are free plans. There are some legitimate free plans. Some are listed in the useful sticky post at the top of this forum free-downloadable-woodworking-books-plans-ref-sites-t82220.html .

There are also notorious sites which rip off people's copyright material without permission but come up high in search results.

 

[jdeacon]

I've bought plans from Matthias Wandel (https://woodgears.ca) and from John Heisz (http://www.ibuildit.ca). 16" bandsaw from Matthias and router lift from John. They were both very good.

I've no experience of free plans, other than reading about rip-off CDs allegedly chock full of free plans.

 

[Steve Maskery]

Just as with anything there are the good and the bad. I've bought books of plans (+1 for the Thos Moser book if you like American furniture), Norms Deluxe Router Table (the best around) and a clock design by Gary Rance, all excellent. I've also seen some of the plans that Fine Woodworking sells (my friend Dave produces SketchUp models for them). They, too, are excellent

However, there are also notorious sets of plans which are widely touted. Actually, touted is exactly the right word. They are, apparently, poor-quality, sometimes incomplete, copies of plans that are either already available free or have been stolen from the copyright holder. It depends on whether you want to be part of that illegal trade or not. And if you do and decide that you have not got what you expected and try to get your money back, good luck. Sites like Ted's and Woodprix are just scams. Everyone knows it, so people who fall for it only have themselves to blame. Remember, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

http://lumberjocks.com/topics/80665 if you want one man's story.

Pirate sites are a pain. I once had a guy asking for his money back. He'd bought my DVDs from a pirate and of course, he didn't get anything. Then he expected me to reimburse him! Piracy is a pain for all of us who do create genuine, original intellectual property. These sites are often offering affiliate marketing deals, too, so anyone who sells on their behalf gets a cut. That is why they show up on search results so much. My YT channel regularly gets spammed, that is why, now, all comments are moderated before I allow them to be seen.

Stick to books and mainstream suppliers and you will be fine.

 

[Cordy]

I found this Adirondack Chair set of plans -- free -- and carefully enlarged the drawings using Inkscape

First major project for me; a novice woodworker
Lots of free plans and how to videos on the net; just requires patience

 

[latheman]

Well, thank you all, Lots of great advice. I will take a look at some of these links before I make any decision. I was looking at www mygreenspace uk but I'm thinking that these are a bit too good to be true? I think they offer something in the region of 12000 plans for a few dollars. So having read the above comments, they are probably a hoax or something. It's mainly for making things like beds, tables, draws etc. Thank you all for taking a few minutes to reply, much appreciated.

 

[latheman]

Oops, doesn't look like I can post a link. Nevermind, you get the idea.

 

[Steve Maskery]

The q is, how can one individual, or even one company, own the copyright to 12000 plans? And if they did, would they really value them so lowly?
I've been writing for over 20 years and I have just a few hundred pieces to my name, let alone 12000.
It's fake.

 

[custard]

Good question. Couple of things to think about,

-metric or imperial
-does the plan include a cutting list
-does the plan include life sized or easily scaled templates for curves, angles, decorative features, complex joints etc
-is the plan accurate and "build-able", plenty of plans have faults which means it'll never all go together
-does the plan include build advice relevant to your skill level, for example on many more complicated projects the sequence or order in which you build and assemble the piece is absolutely critical and often not immediately obvious (think of all the times you've put together something from Ikea without reading the instructions, and then had to take it apart because you didn't get the assembly order correct. Furniture making is exactly the same, except once a sub-assembly is glued up there's no going back!)

Really good plans are expensive but worth every penny. The plans from Fine Woodworking are amongst the best...providing you can work to imperial measurements.

A useful but little known book is "Illustrated Cabinetmaking" by Bill Hylton, he deconstructs most of the main furniture forms via exploded diagrams and shows you exactly how many standard furniture items actually fit together. Most of it is relatively simple, rectilinear pieces; but at the end of the day so is the vast majority of actual furniture in most people's homes.

 

[latheman]

Thank you, again some very helpful tips and considerations. Perhaps I should stick to the mainstream books. Usually, I'd work just off the top of my head (make it up as I go along). And it works for me, as long as its all assembled dry first. I just wanted to try people's plans and have a go at their creations. More just to learn from another perspective, Knowledge is power.

 

[AES]

Hullo latheman, welcome to the Forum.

As you've already seen, there's very good advice to be had here. BTW, I 2nd all the points above and will add a couple of other pointss:

1. As already noted above, Woodgears.ca (Matthias Wandell) has some very good plans if you want to build your own machines (mainly, but he also has some "general" stuff too). I have 2 of his plans (machines) and one of his special software programs (for enlarging drawings to any size). I've found them all excellent - very clear, often full size templates, and profusely illustrated with excellent instructions and fully dimensioned.

2. Ditto: toymakingplans.com. An American site (also with a helpful Forum), but just as the name says, it's toys only (mainly small ones, though there are a few big, outdoor toys too). Also excellent.

Both the above will cost you roughly 10 to 30 dollars per plan (depending on size/complexity), which if you consider the content, and the time needed to produce that content (let alone the original design process), clearly value for money.

Re the site offering 12,000 plans for "a few dollars", not only is that site valuing those plans at a ridiculously low level, as Steve Maskery has said above, but seriously, what on earth would you do with 12 THOUSAND plans??? Even if "only" 10% of them are "any good"? And if those plans were ripped off (i.e. stolen) from the original designer, how would you feel then?

There are free plans available (not ripped off) but those I've seen are usually associated with workshop equipment in 1 form or another, and usually associated with a Youtube channel (or similar), so in essence are already "paid for" in some way or another (by the advertising "attached" to the channel, for example).

HTH

AES

 

[Cordy]

LM
Do you fancy having a go at this outside table ?

I got the plan and streamlined it as I went along; used Pocket hole system

HERE

Note in photos the legs and lower cross pieces are tucked in, they look ugly in the drawing

Cheap Redwood coated with Sikkens

 

[Steve Maskery]

Matthias has written a very good article about these sites, it's well worth a read.
https://woodgears.ca/ted/

 

[latheman]

Hi all, Thanks again. Yep, 12000 plans are ridiculously excessive, from what I've seen they all seem to be exploded view plans with 90% done with imperial measurements. Imperial, Metric, it's all a measure I'm ok with and not my deciding factor. But as stated, 1:1 ratio plans, templates would be nice. I've taken a look at a few links and now I'm more undecided than before, almost like thinking there is one chocolate in a box only to discover it's actually full. Which one, is indeed the question! But on a serious note, I really do appreciate the help from all of you.