Do You Use Plans?

[Ruffnek]

I saw this question posed over at WN and thought I'd ask it here.

Do you use plans when making your woodworking projects...either someone else's or ones that you drew up yourself? If not, then why?

While I don't always, I actually prefer using a plan vs just visualizing in my head and winging it with a few dimensions jotted down. Good plans usually lead to less wasted wood and I can focus on the craftsmanship rather than measurements.

I know that at the NBSS, the first thing they teach is how to draft a measured drawing, I assume because it leads to better woodworking.

So, what do you guys and gals do?

[TDHofstetter]

Usually... I do a couple quick sketches & wing it from there. On this buncha' cabinetry for the house, though, I kinda' fell off the board & did a full-detail SketchUp model of everything. Lots of stuff to fit together, and if something won't fit quite right it'd be a mess. I think part of my justification here is that it's not furnishings that can be readily disposed of & replaced - it's cabinetry that'll be part of this house for the next fifty years or more.

[Beamer]

I don't use purchased or 3rd party plans all that often. I draw mine in pretty great detail with SketchUp and I usually stay pretty faithful to 'em.

[Stretch]

I generally use a scale drawing of the overall piece supplemented with full scale drawings of important details and joinery.

[admin]

I normally just look at a finished picture and do my best to copy it. I find that way I can make a copy of it, but with my own subtle differences instead of just copying off someone elses test sheet.

In my mind there is more talent and skill required to work off a plan and follow it word for word and line for line, but I find it more interesting to work from memory and to figure out my own ways to build the item.

If somebody brought me plans and asked me to build it, I'd stick to the plans. But for my own stuff I just get an idea from a picture and wing it from there.

[dburkhart]

I don't use plans.Get something in my head and just go for it.Yes it has cost me money thru mistakes and such but there will never be two of anything i make.I want to make a rocking chair and some dinning room chairs i will get plans for those because i haven't a clue how to start.But i know as soon as it starts to make since to me i will start changing the look.Thats why i heat my house with a wood burner

[deepsplinter]

I'm a "rough sketch then have at it" kinda guy.

Most of my stuff is made to match this or that, or to fit a certain spot, so I have to draw my own plans anyway.

Besides, plans are just like owner's manuals, "They're just another man's opinion."

[woodmannie]

Usually if I use plans, it's as a guide to start. I tend to deviate from there. Sometimes I start with none and give'er hell. And sometimes I get a pile of firewood.

Tom

[fredbelknap]

Plans are great even if you don't end up using them, they give the overall dimensions and proportions.

[dicklaxt]

I usally just winged it as I went ,measureing and fitting as I went of course in critical situations its best to look at the big picture with some dimensional sketches ,,,,,whats a little wasted wood just another smaller project in the future.

dick

[Doug B]

I have never used someone else's plan for anything. I usually just rough sketch something out, but I have made some pretty detailed drawings for some more complicated things.

Of course, that was before I got lathed and I don't need no stinkin' plans anymore
;D

[Joe Lyddon]

For the most part, I enjoy Dreaming & drawing them... starting rough on paper then using the Paint program, with rulers across the top & left side... to scale... Sketchup wastes too much of my time...

Depending on the complexity, I will draw-up on Paint or I will just use rough-drawn plans & go for it... Mostly, the latter.

I've tried SU... I would like to really get good at it... BUT, I end up chasing my tail... forgetting the various techniques! I find the program to be VERY Unfriendly... The programmers that designed & wrote it were more of Engineers than good ole programmers that are accustomed to purposely making a program "User Friendly" with Help easy at hand when needed. SU has to be learned, studied, and used a lot so the tools, etc. become "second nature"... with out that, it's pure hell. IMHO...

I jump into SU once in awhile to try various things... learn things new, get frustrated again, & leave it alone till I cool off! ;D ;D

[sawduster]

I used to mostly visualize something in my head, maybe sketch a sort of rough too scale drawing to get an idea of the dimensions and how they work, then go to it.

Now, except for the simplest projects, I do a detailed drawing in SketchUp including all of the inside working parts and joinery. I'll add in the dimensions and do exploded views and closeups of complicated parts. I've even done full size parallel projection printouts of parts to use as a pattern or to take angle measurements.

What I have found is that I find and cure a lot of potential problems in the drawing stage. The drawing also helps me to sort out the order of tasks. I find that the work goes a lot faster if I don't have to spend time as I go to figure stuff out. More than makes up for time spent doing the drawings. I can also do plans at times that I can not be in the shop for one reason or another, and if I'm doing something for someone else I can show them what it will look like ahead of time and make any changes they may want before I start cutting the wood.

Now, keeping in mind that one of my hard earned lessons in wood working is that dimensions in plans are little more than suggestions, I will use the overall measurements from the plan, i.e. perimeter measurements for a case. But I still use the assembled case (either glued up permanently or clamped up temporarily) to take direct measures for shelves that are housed and the like.

[tw]

I rarely use plans for ordinary woodworking projects. If I have to remember something or need help visualizing I make a simple sketch with a pencil on a piece of paper..... or on some wooden offcut;)


In construction I both use and make plans of cause.

[Ruffnek]

"Now, keeping in mind that one of my hard earned lessons in wood working is that dimensions in plans are little more than suggestions"


I agree with that, even though I like using plans. I read a comment from someone over at SAPFM when I got interested in period furniture that stated "proportion is much more important than dimensions."

That's also another good argument for some sort of plan or sketch. If done to scale, it lets you see the proportions of a piece before spending a bunch of time and money only to find that there is something not quite right about the finished version.

That "something" is usually related to proportion. A piece of furniture can exhibit outstanding joinery, superb craftsmanship and a finish that people long to touch but if the proportions are out of kilter, it will never look right.

[admin]

Nov 7, 2009 15:26:43 GMT -6 Ruffnek said:

I agree with that, even though I like using plans. I read a comment from someone over at SAPFM when I got interested in period furniture that stated "proportion is much more important than dimensions."

Ding Ding Ding, we have a winner! lol.

I made a small box for storing some of my more important stuff in, and I sized it down from the plan size. But, like an idiot, I used the same size pull for the lid (the little dooey that sticks out and you can get your finger under it). I spent a good two hours rasping, sanding, etc. on that little pull, fitted it to the box and discovered that it looking like a Peterbilt hood ornament on a VW Bug, way out of proportion.

From now on, if I scale anything down, I scale everything down. Otherwise you get pieces that don't fit themselves.

[Leo Voisine]

I have gone all three ways,

No plans - just let it happen
Works OK on simple stuff

Rough sketch and wing it the rest of the way
Works OK and a sketch really does help to keep me on the right track

Ful blown plans
Yes this works best for me - but the dimensions are NOT exact and will need to be tweeked as you go.

My next peoject - is I can ever get there is to build a dresser / changing table for Anna (my Granddaughter). I gotta do it this winter - I GOTTA. I am going to do a Solidworks model and make detailed drawings. I need the Solidworks practice anyway. I am going to do something along the lines of Greene and Greene style. I have a couple of pictures of stuff I will use as a guide.

Leo

[Ruffnek]

I spent a good two hours rasping, sanding, etc. on that little pull, fitted it to the box and discovered that it looking like a Peterbilt hood ornament on a VW Bug, way out of proportion.

;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D

[skoman]

Just like a lot of folks I'm in the wing-it mode. But what few times that I used either pre-drawn plans or drafted them myself, I've found that there was much less waste and as you said more time spent on craftsmanship. I'm trying to steer myself more in this direction.

I've been using Cutlist for layouts and have found it to be quite the time saver. I really like Sketchup, used or tried many tutorials on the web for it, but something just doesn't click for me and computers. I just not quite there yet with Sketchup.

[dcarter636]

Most of the time an isometric sketch on the nearest piece of scrap wood is good enough for 80% of a stand alone project that won't be replicated. I rarely use a fully detailed plan but am currently studying a purchased project plan for the first time ever. Normally it's free-hand sketch the complete piece with major dimensions, detail sketch complex details or joints, and start cutting.

For large, costly, or complex projects I keep a spiral notebook with all of the sketches, detail designs, and calculations. Those project notebooks can go a long way toward keeping one's sanity when you forget the dimensions for a complicated joint or a challenge was to be resolved at installation.

Creating a fully detailed plan would consume too much of my free time that could be applied to figuring out fixes for unanticipated snafus . I've always had pretty decent visualization skills, was trained to draft plans with a pencil and drawing board fom the 7th grade through college, worked with the succeeding generations of 3-D design software from the 1970's on but still haven't tried sketch up. I suppose winging it is more relaxing while drafting plans is too much like work for me and after a career of trying to anticipate every what-if scenario and calculating every anal detail dimension.