Practical tips for beginners.

[Mr T]

On a fly fishing forum I frquent there was a popular and useful Tips for beginners thread. I think such a thread would work well here. The idea being you post about a basic woodworking practice that a beginner may not know about or understand that you think leads to better work . Hopefully the thred could remain free from too much argument which would detract from it's usefulness.

Rafzetteers recent post on grain direction would be an excellent example of a practical tip for beginners. I could add a couple for starters:

1. For accurate jointing when cutting to a line always make an incised line with knife or marking gauge. A cut line is more finite than a pencil line which is a bit wishy washy. For other marking a sharp "H" pencil is better than a blunt "HB"!

2. When paring with a chisel try to use your body weight to drive the chisel. Tuck you elbow into your hip and lean forward to make the cut. This leads to a more controlled cut and a cleaner surface so you can see more easily where the next cut should happen.

I hope others will add to this.

Chris

 

[ColeyS1]

3. If you're unsure of something, start a seperate thread so you can get opinions from lots of people, then choose what suits you.
Flood the forum with questions, post photos of progress, learn bits from everywhere instead of reading from just one place.
There's more than one way to cook a potato.

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[Jacob]

On a fly fishing forum I frquent there was a popular and useful Tips for beginners thread. I think such a thread would work well here. The idea being you post about a basic woodworking practice that a beginner may not know about or understand that you think leads to better work . Hopefully the thred could remain free from too much argument which would detract from it's usefulness.

Rafzetteers recent post on grain direction would be an excellent example of a practical tip for beginners. I could add a couple for starters:

1. For accuracy when cutting to a line always make an incised line with knife or marking gauge. A cut line is more finite than a pencil line which is a bit wishy washy. For other marking a sharp "H" pencil is better than a blunt "HB"!

2. When paring with a chisel try to use your body weight to drive the chisel. Tuck you elbow into your hip and lean forward to make the cut. This leads to a more controlled cut and a cleaner surface so you can see more easily where the next cut should happen.

I hope others will add to this.

Chris

I wouldn't recommend knife marking to a beginner, until they are very well used to using a sharp pencil and getting good results. Then they could use a knife to cut lines already pencil marked - but only where necessary for a clean edge.

 

[novocaine]

and so it begins.

was a noble idea Mr T, but alas the arguments are coming. ah well, I'll add a few in the hopes that the comments with no additional information will be ignored.

4. learn to sharpen first.
5. knock the arris (or corner) off to help with limiting damage when you drop it.
6. the tools of a professional are not the same as the tools of a hobbiest, you will be fine with a faithful vice instead of a record, you don't need a jointer/planer, a table saw is not a must have item, a bandsaw can be small and isn't needed either, a stanley plane is perfectly acceptable and you can do almost everything they are needed for with 2 chisels.
7. guards are there for a reason, don't disable them because "he did it on youtube".

 

[YorkshireMartin]

There are lots of universal truths in woodworking and also a lot of opinion. A rank beginner shouldn't necessarily be presented with 20 options on how to accomplish something, because they lack the knowledge to be able to decide which is the most appropriate and may misunderstand. Initially, a single option which works will suffice and then they can explore others as they go. I think that's what Chris is aiming at with his idea?

For example, off the top of my head:

Mark your waste with a pencil or chalk prior to cutting.
Always cut to the waste side of the line, never ON the line.
Measure at least twice, cut once.
Keep your pencil sharp.
As novo said, learn sharpening first. Keep your cuttings edges, including saws, sharp.
Keep a tidy work area and a clear bench.
Ensure you have some dust extraction if you're indoors and using powertool. Own some basic PPE.
If you want to work accurately, own at least one decent set square or combination square plus a straight edge.

I'm sure there are hundreds more examples of things that could be considered universal truths?

 

[n0legs]

When purchasing material for a project buy enough extra to make at least one more of the largest component.

 

[ColeyS1]

You don't need perfection to enjoy woodworking. Expecting a beginner to cut with such accuracy that they require a marking knife is enough to put anyone off. Accuracy will come from experience, experience will come from enjoying being in the workshop. Don't set your standards so high, we all had to learn to crawl before we could walk and run. Keep making and enjoying the process.
I'm not a fan of this thread at all.

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[nev]

I like the idea, but as already shown people are inclined to put forth their own way of doing things as that is what they consider the correct way, and anything else is wrong. They have the inability to accept that while a different method to that which they employ it is still a viable method that would be useful to a beginner, their way is the only way. So inevitably the thread ends up more confusing than helpful.

If one could separate 'Tips' from 'methods' it may work. e.g. the marking of the scrap to be removed can hardly be argued with, though no doubt some will persevere, and is a useful tip for beginners.

 

[RobinBHM]

For a beginner:

always always mark the waste! -we've all cut the wrong side of the line!

In a joinery shop we wouldnt mark with a marking knife, but I keep H pencils for marking lines, HB for writing marking numbers, face edge etc and we use blue non mark crayons for marking components with job numbers or lengths as needed.

cutting 100mm too short -when doing accurate marking out its best to use the 100mm mark not the tape measure end. However its all too easy to then make the part short. Solution: always do a quick check: roughly measure what youve marked using the end of the tape.

Marking the moddle of a component -the concentration of accurate marking can end up with marks miles out of the centre point -avoid this by again rough checking with a tape measure each way -if its missmarked it'll show up.

 

[DTR]

Some good tips in here already

I will repeat something that has already been said a few times....... sharpness is everything. Beginners so often underestimate how often tools need sharpening. Learn to sharpen early, and sharpen often (by any means or media that work)

 

[custard]

1. Instead of spending all your time and money on tools, put some effort into sourcing good quality timber. I've met plenty of hobbyists with loads of tools but no wood, and no clear idea of how to ever get any decent wood.

2. When laying out your workshop don't pack it full of machinery, especially not cheap Chinese machinery. Leave plenty of space for glue ups and assembly, timber storage, component storage, etc. In most small workshops that probably means leaving 50% of the floor space unnocupied. If that crimps your list of desired machinery so be it. You'll be far more productive with two or three basic but good quality machines, than with a workshop stuffed with crepe kit that's inaccurate and unreliable.

3. Most beginners seem to prioritise their budget with tools and machinery at the top, a little left over for timber and materials, and nothing at all for training. Personally I'd suggest the reverse, priority number one should be skills, then timber, then tools. If you can possibly attend some face to face training, even if it's just a few days to learn basic sharpening and tool fettling, then you'll be in far better shape than if you try and pick it up from a book. If face to face training is out of the question then look for an on-line mentor who takes you through a proper training programme and follow it to the letter. I've not looked at all the options but Paul Sellers looks better than most. The worst thing you can do is jump into an overly demanding project while clueless on the basics.

4. Woodworking isn't a cheap hobby. I used to think £500 would get you started with hand tools, I now think it's closer to £2,000. Throw in some half decent machinery and a stock of hardwood and it's not difficult to spend £5,000 plus on a fairly basic set up. To put that in context, you could probably get a pilot's licence for less money than you'll spend first building a few basic items of household furniture.

5. Most hobbyists would be better with smaller projects but of steadily increasing complexity. Once you start to tackle hardwood projects with components longer than about 4 or 5 feet you find you'll be spending hundreds just on timber, and you're working space will seem to shrink dramatically.

6. If you're impatient then think about sheet goods work or turning, even fairly simple furniture projects like a side table with a drawer may take 50 or 60 hours. If you've only a couple of free hours each week then your output will be very slow.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

When purchasing material for a project buy enough extra to make at least one more of the largest component.

And cut that one first - if you screw it up you can use the wood for something smaller.

 

[Mr T]

I understand Nev and Coley's reservations. The idea was that these are "tips" for beginners not rules, so they should not feel they have to do it that way and become disheartened. Beginners can ask questions on the forum about things they are having problems with but often a chance tip can help them with an issue they didn't even know they had.

I think it would be useful if posts were limited to one or two tips rather than a long list and also if there was some explanation of why the tip works.

I assume Jacob was being ironic in posting an arguement or he just can't resist being contrary

Some good tips coming in here's another of mine:

On new chisels often the sides of the chisel are sharp, cutting your index finger when paring, lightly arris the edge on the stone to avoid this.

Chris

 

[Jacob]

When purchasing material for a project buy enough extra to make at least one more of the largest component.

And cut that one first - if you screw it up you can use the wood for something smaller.

in fact cut in order of size, from biggest to smallest, from the smallest length/sheet available.
It makes sure you get the big pieces out before it's too late and it optimises the cutting list without any calculation needed.

 

[lurker]

Agree Jacob.
As my woodwork teacher said "keep your long bits longest"

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Yes, keep it as long as long as you can.

 

[kevinlightfoot]

I agree with Chris,tips for beginners can be very useful.Here is one I learnt as an apprentice,after a basic kit of tools which as Custard says can be expensive only buy tools as and when you need them and don't go down the avenue of gimmick tools thinking that they are a substitute for a particular skill,lots of turners are guilty of this thinking that novel tools will stop them getting kickbacks or enable them to sharpen tools without the necessary skills that will only develop with plenty of practise.

 

[gmgmgm]

One which helped me: cutting wood straight by hand is surprisingly hard. Make a shooting board! (And practise).

 

[ColeyS1]

I agree with Chris,tips for beginners can be very useful.

There's a seperate area on the forum to view tips

Slowly but surely killing off the forum with these bulky, poor to search compressed threads. Still a few more to go :lol:

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[Mr T]

Coley, I did look at the Jig, Tips and shop made tools forum before starting this thread and didn't find any of the sort of tips that are coming up here. If you find some I missed then I will happily stand corrected. I am also happy if the mods want to move this thread to that forum. I also accept your point about it being difficult to search. Perhaps some other way could be devised for these useful snippets of information to be presented. I'm not sure individual threads for each one would work.

Here's another one:

When paring a tenon it's usually easier to work across the grain than with it. This gives you more control, especially if your chisel is very sharp.

Chris