All this woodworking and carpentry stuff seems so interesting. For those who are experienced, what's the most efficient way to gain basic woodworking skills? And what's the best advice you would give a beginner who's starting out? I.e. things you wish you had known when you were starting out.
Actually - I started out by building the bed from this website (woodgears). Youtube has a tone of good basic tutorials and this site provides basic plans (mind you - they needed some tweaking, there were errors in sizing and the twin bed we bought was actually larger than this specified).
Turned out great - except the headboard wasn't tall enough (kid bangs his head on it occasionally so re-doing that soon).
In general, just find something you want to build and build it. You will learn a LOT. Its very much like programming in that sense. You can do very simple 2d plans in openoffice draw or similar visio style tools and then buy the basics at home depot or lowes or wherever. Hand tools are ok to start but would suggest some basics like a circular saw or a portable table saw to help make things a little more straight. If you don't have any of these things then expect to spend a few hundred dollars on tools to even do something basic. You can get away with cheap tools for a project or so but if you are serious about doing this long term you are better off buying fewer higher quality things than more lower quality things as they won't last (ie dewalt over ryobi and anything from a woodshop over anything from harbor freight).
As for things I wish I'd have known when I started? Buy a good face-mask for dust protection. I had no idea how freakin toxic pine dust is. If you don't have a super high quality (read thousands of dollars) dust vac system then work in a well ventilated area (like outside) with that mask on then clean up after each session before you go inside so you don't track that junk in.
Matthias's brother here. Handy by general standards, but two left hands by the standards of Matthias and our dear departed dad. The most important thing about starting woodworking: Have something you want to make, and no exaggerated expectations. Example from real life: Want a little wall shelf for salt and pepper etc. for over the kitchen table. At the time I had no planer or circular saw, just a ragtag assortment of tools. But you can do a reasonably square cut with a small garage sale bandsaw, and I had a hand plane that was reasonably sharp, and a random board actually looked really nice once I planed it and put a clear varnish on it. Presto, shelf. What's there to lose from trying? http://wandel.ca/pic.cgi?a09614c7
Actually I think I also had one of those "Miter box" type guided hand saws, and used that to make the square cuts. If I were starting out now, I'd get a decent handheld circular saw and improvise a jig to make a clean crosscut with it. That too can be fun experimentation and construction lumber is cheap material.
Later wanted to hang a lamp over the table, and going all the way to the ceiling and back with the cable, for a lamp this low, didn't seem right. So added a stick of wood to an IKEA shelf bracket, and: http://wandel.ca/pic.cgi?4db2d897
The key is not to kick myself because I can't do as good a job as my brother or my dad, but rather take pleasure in what I can do.
