Jason Raines - Woodworking for Beginners: A Practical Guide to Understanding Woodworking Basics and Starting Simple Woodworking Projects

WOODWORKING

FOR BEGINNERS

A Practical Guide to Understanding Woodworking Basics and Starting Simple Woodworking Projects

By Jason Raines

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Table of Contents

I know you just opened this book up but stop what youre doing and look around you. How many things can you spot that are made out of wood? Personally, I see doors, desks, chairs, bookcases, walls, floors, cabinets, picture frames, stools and my coat rack. And that is only what I see from where I am sitting right this second. How many things did you spot?

We use wood for so many of our creations. From boats to our earliest planes, houses to wagons and beyond, wood is the go-to material for making new things and perfecting the old. Beyond the practical uses, wood also just has a simply beautiful look and texture to it when it has been properly treated. At least thats the only reason I can think of for people applying wood paneling to their station wagons, but thats a whole nother issue.

Jokes aside, there is an almost endless amount of possibility when it comes to working with wood. Do you want to make art? You can do it. Furniture? Thats easy. Wood can be used to make toys for your kids, gifts for your partner or improvements to your house and life. It is very versatile, you can purchase it new or recycle previously used pieces, and it costs very little to get started, so long as you dont drop yourself off in the deep end when starting out.

But despite all of this, it seems that woodworking has become less popular in recent years. A big reason for this is the indelible grasp of the internet and technology as a whole. Fewer people work with their hands these days and more work with keyboards than ever before. This shouldnt be taken as a bad thing; considering that Im using a keyboard to write this book, I myself contribute to this statistic. But what it does tell us is that the demand for woodworkers is down and the industry isnt there for it the way it used to be.

This is further reflected when we look at the popularity of brands like IKEA. IKEA offers furniture at hard to beat prices. A hardwood desk might cost you two or three hundred dollars on the low end but you can get an IKEA desk for a fraction of the price. These savings are achieved by using weaker materials. The use of weaker materials means that the furniture wont last as long. Over the course of a lifetime, youll find yourself spending more through IKEA than you would have if you went with the nicer desk. But that initial cost can be quite intimidating.

Brands like IKEA have only managed to bring up the prices on impressively woodworked furniture. There is less of a demand and so these pieces have become more of a boutique purchase in the home. More often, they are purchased for offices and workspaces where a higher price isnt so intimidating. This kind of sucks, when you think about it. Were caught in a trap.

But there is a way to break free.

By learning how to work with wood yourself, you can make a high-quality desk at a much lower cost. It will take time and effort and money for tools and materials but the process of working with wood pays for itself. You dont just end up with a nice new desk, you end up with the skills to make and sell those desks yourself. Plus the smell of the freshly cut wood and the experience of preparing all the pieces really evokes an almost zen-like feeling of pride and relaxation that just cant be beaten.

Desks are only but one of the many kinds of projects that you could take on with woodworking skills of your own. Well be looking at a whole bunch of projects in chapter four. But before we get there, were going to cover the basics. Well start with the basics of woodworking, such as setting up a workshop, in chapter one. Chapter two will introduce you to the tools of woodwork projects. Chapter three will then finish up with our basic introduction by examining the different kinds of woods we use. Chapter four are those projects, so chapter five looks at how we apply a finish to them. Finally, we close out with chapter six. Chapter six is going to dive into all the safety precautions which you need to follow. Its last in the book but dont you dare start working any wood until youve read it.

By the end of this volume, youll know the tools, materials and tricks of basic woodworking. Youll have everything you need to undergo your first projects and well leave on a note of where to go next. With the knowledge that youll learn and train throughout, youll have a new skillset that you can use to relax, be productive or even earn you a solid paycheck. How far you take these skills is entirely up to you.

Before we can start working with wood, we need to have a woodshop or a workshop. Either term is applicable. A workshop is more likely to have a wider range of tools than a woodshop does but this isnt always the case. Putting together a woodshop takes quite a bit of space and there are important considerations that must be taken into account as far as health is concerned. There are certain areas where you can cut corners when planning your workshop but they will in turn place certain restrictions on your capabilities. Health, corners and tips are up first.

But the most important part of a woodshop is the wood. After all, it accounts for half the word. The second half of this chapter will explore how wood works. This will be a quick but deep lesson on wood. Theres more to the stuff than you mightve known and its important to learn about it long before it hits your saw.

Setting Up Your Woodshop

The first step of setting up your woodshop has nothing to do with wood. Its also the most boring part of this whole endeavor, so lets get it outta the way quickly. Before you bother worrying about space, equipment or electricity needs of your woodshop, start by setting a budget for yourself. If you are looking to get started with a few quick and small projects then you wont need a very large budget. If you are looking to purchase all the tools we look at in chapter two then youll need to set aside a lot of money.