Are you looking for a completely different hobby? If the answer is yes, then you can try woodworking because this is a great hobby that offers something completely different than other leisure activities. People who opted to do woodworking in their free time identified some great benefits of the hobby.
A few of the noted benefits of woodworking is that the work is productive, creative, relaxing, and physically beneficial. Other benefits include woodworking helps to earn some extra money, build a stronger relationship with family members and friends. It is also relatively inexpensive than many other types of pastimes.
If you are new to woodworking, then you may be wondering how to start your journey? Well, here I will discuss how to start woodworking in 6 easy-to-follow steps. Since no learning process is complete without a practical example, I will finish my discussion by describing you an easy DIY woodworking project. Woodworking experts like Drillly have many such DIY projects that you can check out for this purpose.
To be exact, I will show you how to make a shoe rack to give you an idea of how exciting and rewarding the woodworking task is. But let’s first learn six basic techniques of woodworking that every beginner woodworker need to know.
Woodworking for Beginners
For beginners, starting woodworking appears to be daunting for a couple of reasons. The first reason why the task difficult to people is that unfamiliarity with the woodworking tools. When I first started learning woodworking techniques, for example, I was quite perplexed with different types of woodworking tools, both manual and power tools used in the woodworking industry.
The second difficulty exists in learning woodworking techniques is spending much time in woodworking practice. When it is about mastering woodworking techniques; only one thing counts that is practice and practice.
You need to set aside two or three hours every day for woodworking practice. But in our busy life schedule, it is quite challenging to manage that amount of time. However, if you follow my below steps, learning process woodworking task will be a breeze.
Step 1: Set Up Simple Workplace
The first step of the woodworking project is selecting a workplace. When it is about choosing a workplace, people immediately think to set the workshop their basement or garage. Setting up a woodworking station in a basement or garage is, of course, a fantastic idea. Having a permanent workspace is immensely beneficial since you need not set up your power tools or other machinery every time before resuming your work. Some basic tools like chisels and wood planers are fundamental for anyone starting out
But it is also true that many of us don’t have a free space like a basement or garage. This is particularly true if we live in a small apartment house. So, what is the solution? The simple solution is under such a situation setting up a workshop table in your patio or backyard. The table will be helpful to start your initial learning process.
Step 2: Learning Tape Measure
When it is about woodworking, you need to interpret numbers on tape measure so that you can cut wood pieces according to project requirement. The simple way to learn how to read a tape measure is to get a basic type of tape measure. Then examine the tape.
You will see there are integer numbers printed on the tape like 2,3. Whole numbers indicate measurements in inches. So, 2 means 2 inches, 3 means 3 inches and so on. Between whole numbers, you will also see fractional numbers like 1/8, ¼, etc. These fractional numbers indicate a fraction of the whole number. So, for example, ¼ means a quarter of an inch.
Step 3: Understanding Wood Dimensions and Types of Woods
Wood dimensions are expressed as 2 x12, 1×2. You need to understand what these figures signify. Understanding wood dimension is pretty essential when it comes to purchasing lumber from the store.
Another important thing is the learning characteristics of different kinds of woods. Woods are broadly categorized into hard and soft wood. Each type of wood is suitable for making a specific type of wooden products or furniture. You need to study what you can make with a softwood like pine or when using a hardwood like oak or mahogany become essential.
Step 4: Learn How to Select Straight Wood
The fourth step is how to select straight wood. Straight woods make woodworking project simpler and easier compare to bowed or warped woods. So you need to know how to select straight woods from piles of timber in store. It is also highly unlikely that you will find completely straight wood. However, for ease of woodworking task make sure that your wood is as straight as possible.
Step 5: Get to Know a few must-have tools of woodworking work
There are a few tools considered essential in the woodworking project. These include hammer, drill, drill press, drill bit sharpeners, nails, miter saw, clamps, sander, etc. I would not recommend buying all these tools and learning how to use each of these tools since that will be expensive.
Instead, what I prefer is purchasing these tools one by one and then get to know how to use these tools separately. In that way, the learning process will be effective and less expensive.
Step 6: Learn how to make the smooth wood surface
In woodworking project having smooth wood, the surface is immensely important since plain wood surface ensures proper painting or finishing of furniture. So, our last step of learning woodworking as a beginner is how to sand the wood surface. Wood sanding is boring as well as tedious. You can use either hand or machine to sand your wood.
The advantage of using hand to sand wood is you have better control to smooth out the wood surface. With sandpaper, you can reach difficult to reach the area of lumber piece that is not possible with a machine. However, using a wood sanding machine like belt sander will give you a faster result.
Our last step of learning woodworking technique is to make something out of wood in a DIY project to appreciate the fun part of woodworking as well as to bolster our learning. We will make shoe rack in or DIY project. Let’s start our project.
A DIY Woodworking Project: Making a Shoe rack
Placing a shoe rack beside the entryway is pretty essential since the piece of wood prevents piling up of shoes. So, we decided to make one DIY shoe rack. Below is what you have to do.
Things to gather
Materials
- 2 pieces of 8 feet long pine wood
- 2 pieces of 12 feet long pine wood
- Wood screws
- Paint
Tools
- Drill
- Miter saw
- Clamp
Procedure
Cut Wood in different sizes
By using a meter saw cut 8 pieces of wood according to the following measurement.
2 pieces of wood measuring each of them 12 & ¼ inches long.
4 pieces of wood measuring each of them 11 & ¼ inches long.
Make the frame of the shoe rack
To make the frame of the shoe rack attach one piece of wood which measures 11 & ¼ inches long with the another 11 & ¼ inches long wood piece. This will result in one side of the shoe rack. Use wood screws to attach the two pieces of wood. Then follow the same procedure to make the other side of the frame.
Make the top rack of the shelf
Place one of the 12 & ¼ inches long piece of wood on one side of the shoe rack frame that we make earlier. Make three holes in one side of the frame and then attach the long wood piece using wood screws.
Make the bottom rack of the shelf
Follow the above procedure to make the bottom part of the rack.
Painting the rack
The last step is painting the rack. painting your rack will make the product shiny and will increase the durability of the product.
Conclusion
When it is about doing woodworking as a hobby many people tend to think that the task is time consuming, noisy, dusty and expensive. However, you can avoid all of these negative aspects of the task if you do woodworking in a correct way. And the correct way of doing woodworking task depends on learning basic techniques of woodworking.
My goal of writing this post was imparting lessons on getting started in woodworking so that you can start a new hobby. I hope my blog will be useful for beginner level DIY woodworkers.
