Woodworking Project Plans

Do you use plans when you build?  Do you need plans before you start a build?  I’m not really talking about a design that has materialized from your own head but really when you see a piece you want to build somewhere and decide to recreate it.

As a shameless, unabashed, and probably narcissistic woodworking podcaster/blogger (we need a fusion word for that like podgler or blogcaster) I get asked a lot for plan details of something I built.  My initial reaction is,

“Really?  I just shared a picture of it, isn’t that enough?”

Of course I would never say this out loud (cough, cough, you just did) because it is a jerky thing to say and that kind of attitude would turn people off to our craft.  I run an online woodworking school so there is no question too trivial and I always need to assume nothing when I answer a question.

But I have to admit, I struggle with this plan topic.  I don’t use plans, and find they get in the way.  I know I’m not the only one who reproduces furniture from an image whether physical or a mental picture.  To me this process is part of the fun of a new project.  Is it unusual?  Am I in a minority?

Is being able to work off something in your head or a photograph a learned trait that comes with experience or is it some kind of ingrained learning process like how some people learn aurally and some learn visually?

When I think back to when I started woodworking, I remember having a lot of questions about how one part was joined to the other, but through observation I was able to figure it out and visualize how the project goes together.  I bought some plans early on only to find myself deviating from them time and again until I just didn’t bother any more.  This leads me to believe that it is an experiential thing that can be taught.  So the question is, does it need to be taught?  I don’t see anything wrong with building from a plan as long as the woodworker understands why a certain joint was used and could make changes to the plan without compromising strength and durability.  My fear for the woodworker who NEEDS the plan is that they are building by rote.

This stretcher needs to be 5″ from the bottom of the leg and MUST be 3″ wide with a 1″ tenon and two pegs.

Why not lower the stretcher and what if you don’t want to peg the tenon?  Will you be able to make compromises and adjustments when your creativity, stock limitations, etc urge you to do so?

These days my plans are often a series of notes to remind myself not to screw up.  Usually those are ignored and I screw up anyway but that is beside the point.  I have forced myself to learn how to cobble something together in SketchUp because I found my Hand Tool School members wanted something to work with.  Still I begrudgingly add in details and focus mainly on getting the shape and size right.  In one lesson I was obstinate and spent time showing how to create templates directly from a photograph.  Still I had people asking me for a SketchUp drawing.  Hey, no worries I’m here to serve and will obligingly provide whatever someone needs to move them forward in their woodworking.  But at what point does that woodworker decide they no longer need a plan and just decides to built something they saw?

As a psuedo woodworking teacher I would love to learn how to instill this skill.  How can we divorce our thinking from drawings and measurements and rely upon all the parts of our knowledge to assemble a piece.  When you see a table you have not idea whether the stretchers are joined to the legs by mortise and tenon, sliding dovetail, screws, Dominos, etc.  Do we NEED to know that to build it?  You don’t know how the top was joined to the apron.  Does that prevent you from building it?  Most of all you don’t know how tall it is or how wide the aprons are.  Isn’t this why we became woodworkers in the first place: to build custom pieces that fit our needs exactly?

OK I’m quickly descending into a rant and I don’t want this to be the tone.  I really want to hear from you lovely readers about your own process.  There is never a right or wrong in woodworking, just a different view.

So if you rely on plans, why is this?  Do you take licenses?  What information do you feel you are missing if you don’t have a plan?

If you don’t use plans, do you find a time when you wish you had one?  How do you start your build process?  Has a lack of plan ever been a fatal flaw?