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Episode 5 - Plans.  Why are they so hard to find?

Quick update:  Woohoo!  A couple of people dropped out of the woodworking class that starts next week at the local community college!  So, I just signed up and am all set to start!  Obviously, I keep everyone posted on how the class goes.

Why are they so hard to find?
Why are good plans so hard to find?  Well, that question assumes that plans are hard to find.  Simple answer: They aren't.  Let's refine my question then.  Why are free, quality plans so hard to find?  To answer that, you have to understand the basis for the word Quality.  I have worked in Software Quality for 10 years now, so I know a little bit about what to expect, and when I don't get it.

Here are my criteria for 'Free Quality Plans':
    1) Must be Free
    2) Must have a picture/drawing of the finished product - preferably one from each side
    3) Must have written instructions/steps to completion
    4) Must have either a parts list or cut list
    5) Must have Joinery suggestions
    6) Optional - Tools used/suggested
    7) Optional - Recommended wood specie
    8) Optional - Recommended finishes (if applicable)

Is this asking a lot?  I really don't think so.  At the very least, if you create a plan, publish it/make it available for free, you could create an opportunity for other like-minded people - woodworkers - to communicate with you and each other about what they like or dislike about your plans.  This can only make your plans better, and help to create future plans with a better understanding of what  other woodworkers look for.

That being said, I want everyone to know, I found very very few plans that met all 8 criteria.  In fact I found quite a few that didn't meet the 5 'must have' criteria.  But this episode isn't about plans themselves, but more about where to find free plans and why it's so hard to find quality ones.

I don't want to step on anyone's toes here, but come on!  They are plans to build furniture, not patents for a cold fusion reactor!  And I'm not talking about the kinds of plans that you put together for a patent you are working on.  Believe me, I know what kind of work goes into putting those together and how valuable they are before you receive your patent.  I'd never give out the plans for the patents that I haven't received yet, and I'd never expect anyone else to do so either.

Why is there such a disproportionate amount of free plans to the overwhelming number of links to plans that you have to pay for?

Let me give you an example of what I am talking about.

I just did a Google search on 'woodworking plans'.  Unexpectedly, but gratefully, I found that half of the page that I currently see - including the first three entries - advertise free woodworking plans.  That's wonderful!  That's exactly what I expected to see when I first typed in this search 3 months ago and spent an entire lunch hour searching for free plans for a friend.

Now I click on the first link that does not say it's a free site and randomly click on one of the many furniture plans they have listed.  It takes me to a page that describes all about this 'wonderful' coffee table with a glass inlayed top.  The plans are only $15.95 USD and for an extra $13, you can get plans for a bookcase and night stand too.

I'm sorry, but this makes me kind of sick.  Yeah, information and education costs money, and even though obtaining manual skills can cost you money too, I've never thought it should be that way.  When your father taught you how to hold that hammer, start the grill, shovel the driveway, pitch or catch a ball, did he charge you a dollar every time?  I hope not - though given the chance I know my step-dad would have if he'd thought of it.

All joking aside though.  Yeah, I understand that the skills I mentioned above were free to you (hopefully) because you had a parent who cared about you.  If you were less fortunate though, now you're even less fortunate than ever, because now you've got to pay someone to teach you a skill.

Yeah, I've taken a golf lesson before.  I paid the pro.
My kids are 10 and 13 and I've even sent them to skateboard class, karate class, and numerous other physical camps, classes and workshops for things that I just can't teach them.  Is it my failure as a parent?  Maybe. 

But is all of the information that they are going to teach my kids, or the golf pro is going to teach me, is all of that info online for free somewhere?  Absolutely, yes!  It is.  I can find just about everything I need to learn - especially in my field, software design and development - online.

So, why am I so upset?  Because all of the sites that are selling this information, that I expect to be free in one form or another, are choking out the sites that are giving it away for free.

It's because of this internal conflict of mine that I promise that I will always make all of the woodworking plans for my projects absolutely free to anyone who wants them.  If you here me talk about a project that I am about to start, or have already completed, and cannot find the plans for it on splinteredboard.com, send me an email at splinteredboard@gmail.com and I'll get the plans, Sketch Up drawing, AutoCAD drawing, and anything else related to the project to you as soon as I can - unless it's copyrighted.  If it's copyrighted, no one but the copyright owner lawfully has permission to disseminate the materials - sorry.  Rest assured, though, I probably won't be using any plans that are 'owned' by anyone.

And if anyone has a particular set of plans for a woodworking project that they want to publish for free, let me know and we can probably get you set up to release it on either splinteredboard.com, or somewhere else online.

Brief commercial here. 
I had to include this.  As I'm writing the script for this episode during my lunch hour, I just got an RSS update from the Toolmonger feed.  This is friggin' hilarious.  It turns out (no pun intended) that there is a company in Australia that sells a certain wax for woodturners.  As this is a 'Clean' podcast I shouldn't really say the name, but it sounds a lot like Shiphot Waxtik.  Take a look at the picture of the product on the blog for this episode.



OK, back to the topic at hand - Plans
So much for plans that cost you money, and my pledge to you.  What about the free plans that are out there?  Where do you find them and how good could they be?  I mean, they're free for cryin' out loud!

Well, I had planned on doing some research and giving you some very specific statistics on what I found on the Internet regarding the availability of free vs paid furniture construction plans.  I started getting into the research and eventually realized that even those sites that come up as 'Free Woodworking Plans' on Google, they have very few actual free plans.

Now, before you jump up and down and holler and scream about your site having 100% free plans, I'll admit, there are a few out there.  In fact, very few.  The vast majority of sites that I have researched have roughly 80 - 85% paid plans, 5 - 10% free plans and the rest are broken or outdated links to other websites.  Again, these are rough estimates. 

Unfortunately what I found, as a norm, was that no one site has a great repository of plans.  They might have a good listing of links, but not actual plans.  I spent a good 8 hours last month, 4 hours last week and 2 hours last night gathering links to sites that have a good number of quality free plans.  You want to know what I ended up with? 

WoodworkersWorkshop.com - They have a separate list of free plans sites.
FreeWoodWorkingPlan.com - I found a good number of free plans stored directly on their site.
Georgia Pacific - They really surprised me with their library of free quality plans.  For me, these are reminiscent of my drafting days.
Binkys Woodworking - Though I'm not really in to creating toys myself, I was impressed at the quality and detail of this sites free plans.  There are paid plans here, but the free ones are very good also.

Please don't put your entire faith that what I have given you here is a complete list of the only sites you should go to for free plans.  Absolutely not!  I found some great plans - easy to read and follow - at sites that buried the free plans after many pages of paid plans. 

Please realize that this topic is completely and unquestionably always going to be subject to the speaker's opinion.  My findings reflect the time and energy, thorough or not, that I have decided to dedicate to the subject.  And given the time that I put into researching my theses in college, this research is not even close to thorough.  The time and energy that you decide to put into finding free plans with quality content is probably not going to reflect my findings.