Using woodworking plans BEFORE buying materials is one of the best kept secrets in the woodworking profession. Seriously, the biggest reason why materials, time and money are wasted on a woodwork project is, because you haven't invested a few dollars in a good plan.

You'd be surprised to hear that more and more people are using plans and profiting from getting things right the first time round. And it's not just the experts who use those plans. On the contrary, even beginners can use these plans to create furniture and anything else that's needed, because of the great help these plans will give.

Preparing to Build

Using a good and detailed plan can help you prepare for your project all the way from start to finish. And don't you want to know before getting started about all the materials you'll need and what sort of costs are involved. Without a plan you'd have to find out the hard way, by spending time researching materials and costs, maybe on the net or at your hardware store.

But with a good woodworking plan comes a material list, yes, a list of all the materials you'll need, down to the smallest screw. There is also sometimes a list of estimated material costs included, so that you'll know roughly how much to allot for the project, but bear in mind that the cost of materials often varies by region and suppliers.

Detailed Woodworking Steps

When it comes to actually building your project, the plan shows you everything you need to do to complete it. From nailing the first nail or putting in the first screw all the way to finishing up your project. A detailed plan illustrates with pictures and steps to make things simple. And this is when it really pays to have invested a little bit of money in a good plan.

The detailed steps also make it easy for beginners, or experts for that matter, to build a project in stages. This comes in particularly handy when you are working on a bigger project that'll take you more than a day to complete. With the included sequences, you can easily start and stop after you complete each step.

All things considered, a woodworking plan definitely helps you when tackling projects from scratch. Plans are not only great for estimating the project costs, but also come in handy as a time-budgeting tool, helping you to get an idea how long it will roughly take to complete your project.