Woodworking, Carpentry and Much More

Seems obvious, but there are many types of hammers out there, and you'll want to choose the most versatile for your carpentry project plans in the beginning. You can start a collection later-but for amateur woodworking plans, a claw hammer with a rounded, smooth hammering surface will serve you best.

Level

Like a layout square, the level is absolutely a must to ensure the integrity of your finished pieces. Being new to the hobby, you might think you can eyeball each step of your woodwork plans in progress and it'll turn out okay. But you'd be surprised to find that's not the case. With a level, you'll not only ensure that each angle is right but that the results of your angles are as expected.

Tape Measure

Maybe you have a ruler lying around the house, but you'll soon get tired of lining it up multiple times to measure anything over 12 inches. You'll also be much less likely to make careless mistakes when you have a tape measure handy. Choose one that is at least twelve feet in length!

Screwdrivers

Like the hammer, this seems obvious, but you'll want to get a comfortable, larger size screwdriver at first. The last thing you want to do is strip the heads of screws on a project you're nearly done with, so invest in a good Phillips head screwdriver for your furniture woodworking projects. You'll also need a flat head screwdriver. Unlike the Phillips, you may want to invest in a somewhat smaller size for this screwdriver at first. Large flat head screwdrivers might not work with tiny screws. And, as with the hammer (and other equipment on this list) you'll probably end up having a collection of each type. But when you're first starting out, it's best to invest in the most versatile tools you can. Before long, you'll be saving up for those extra nice-to-have tools!

I'm a bit of a woodworking enthusiast, but I'm still a beginner. The successful outcome of my woodworking projects depends heavily upon my finding the best easy woodworking plans. Finding step by step woodworking projects that suit my ability can be difficult, but I've made some observations about searching for plans that might be of use to others.

A Wealth of Options

It's not that there aren't enough resources out there for woodwork project plans. Far from it. In fact, many of my frustrations in finding my woodworking projects come from there being too many resources, rather than not enough. It can be overwhelming. However, it's better than the other potential problem-not having enough plans available.

Free Woodworking Plans Online

The obvious first choice for finding carpentry project plans is the Internet. And, indeed there are hundreds of thousands of plans available. The difficulty is in sorting through them to find exactly what you need. And while search engines can help, they can't always precisely indicate how clear the instructions are, whether or not there are diagrams, or how detailed the steps are. That doesn't mean you should discard the Internet as a resource, however.

Instead, narrow your search another way.

Find good resources, like carpentry and woodworking sites that are well established and have databases of plans that can be easily filtered.