Help in woodworking & my top 5 favorites of “Makers” and woodworkers

Distinction

As described on the welcome page, I’ve done tons of DIY projects over the years. But those were mostly out of necessity.

So you have to understand, that just because I completed a bunch of DIY projects (which includes wood) DOESN’T make me a woodworker OR a “maker“! At least in the strictest definition. For example, someone who’s designing and building a new type of bike or a unique tiny house, is a maker. Not someone who fixes things or makes i.e. a simple bench.

Important is also to note, that there is a huge difference between someone who likes to do woodworking projects and the “classic” woodworker! (Fun side fact: Nick Offerman, known from the TV Show “Park and recreation”, for example, could be classified as such.)
To my understanding, a “classic” woodworker tries to keep the use of power tools to a minimum and work with traditional methods. A classic woodworking craftsman/craftswoman (?) will for example not use a CNC machine. This is very important: If you want to become a classic woodworker, it’s probably quite different from becoming a “maker”.

Online woodworking courses

So here are some online help links and tips to get you started, interested and inspired:
Next to online classes, like woodworking on Instructables and projects or woodskills.com, I found the most useful resource for learning and inspiration for beginners that is…
TADAAAA (drum roll) …YouTube (Pintrest and Instagram)! What a surprise! There are of course literally hundreds of YT good channels out there, with really useful projects. But these five are the ones, that got me more into the topic of woodworking.

Start learning from people that were in the same stage as you are now

While I was looking for a solution on YouTube on a woodworking related issue, I stumbled upon the channel “Wilkerson does“, by April Wilkerson. Don’t get me wrong: There are great masters on YT like woodworking masterclass by Steve Hay, but maybe for beginners, they might be hard to relate to and seem too “serious” or maybe even intimidating… Steve might be too much of a master of this craft and not a “maker” for beginners that just want to start with small projects.

(Before You read further, I must highlight now here, that I take April as an example, but these “takeaways” are also true for later mentioned makers and woodworkers. Therefore this section is longer than the others below.)

April (back then), instead of standing in the middle of a large woodworking shop, surrounded by tones of tools and gadgets, built things with fairly “beginner” tools.
She explains what she discovered while the build and what she has learned. She also shows where she messed up and takes it with a light heart and positive attitude, which is very important so you don’t get discouraged. Know that even for the most skilled woodworkers, things don’t go according to plan. So DIY and woodworking is also a bit “problem solving”. Or you might change your plans and designs midway. This is absolutely okay.

Learn! Don’t be intimidated!

With every project, April tackled new challenges or learned new techniques or worked (gained experience) with new tools or machines. And she didn’t / doesn’t limited herself in woodworking, but started also to learn about welding for example.
What inspired me, that she isn’t intimidated by the tools she learns or by the sheer size of the project. And even though I frequently operate dangerous power tools (i.e. miter, circular and chain saw) I AM intimidated by them. One of my biggest fear is the table saw. You have to have huge respect for these tools. And caution is, of course, good, healthy and recommended. But it can hinder or prevent you from going further or develop in any field.
Vital is also the is that she shows tricks on how to do a “two (wo)men job” alone.
One thing I loved about that channel was that her passion started and skills developed while fixing a drawer or shelf. In one video she said, she barely knew how to operate a power drill. 🙂 So she started a… blog. Which turned later into her Youtube channel. That is very relatable.

Advance on your dream

Nowadays she has advanced light years ahead: She has a huge shop (which was one of her largest YT projects), tones tools and machines (like a CNC machines, band saw, plainer and a woodworking table the size of Texas 😂), as well as various sponsors. Not to mention that she tours around a lot.
Again, don’t get me wrong, I am totally happy for her that she is so successful, but because of her speed of development (Which she worked really hard for I am sure) she lost me and I guess some of her followers, as we can’t do those project the same way. (Okay, quite frankly I am sooooo jealous about the size of her workshop 😂 )
She has technically become that Youtuber, where starting woodworkers see her videos nowadays, see all these tools and gadgets, watch how fast she rushes through the videos/project and might either click away or struggle to follow or copy a project.

And of course April SHOULD develop further and should NOT slow down for SOME of her fans/followers, and NOT “apologize” for her success, but I believe she LOST a certain connection to those who followed her from the beginning and have still just three to ten tools basically.

So I recommend for beginners to start watching at her very first videos, to get inspiration and motivation and continue for there.

Make your project more enjoyable by learning up on the basics

Once you’ve lost your “fears” or doubts about if you can pull a project off, and start your own woodworking projects, you need to learn the basics, buy tools, learn them, build jigs and solve problems.

To get started there are two channels I recommend: The friendliest woodworking Youtuber Colin Knecht. His channel is called “WoodWorking Web“. I really believe, he does that, to share knowledge the easy way.
He created tons of videos and playlist on tips and tricks on tools, techniques, jigs as well as smaller and bigger projects. Really a guy who loves his hobby as much as sharing his wisdom…I love his videos. He seems very friendly and takes also care of answering questions and comments of his followers.

Another channel that is not intimidating and easy to follow for beginners and more experienced enthusiasts is definitely WoodWorking for Mere Mortals by Steve Ramsey. On his channel, he touches in an easy to digest way really “basic” topics. For example how to use tools, what finishes to use, wood types, sews, etc..
Follow his channel to advance your passion.
Additionally to that Steve also provides “The weekend woodworker” courses where you can hone your skills.

Inspirational makers

To see beautifully made maker videos, that can inspire you, go to Laura Kampf’s channel. I would say she is the embodiment of a “maker”.
In most of her videos, she doesn’t explain about the project. She just silently goes through the project with nice shots of details. Her videos cover a wide variety of projects. Anything from a weird homemade carousel to building stairs.
These are not only well shot and edited videos, but while watching, you gather tidbits of information. For example what techniques she applied, what tools she used or what steps she went through and in what order.

Lauras videos on building a tiny house, also helped me to think outside the box! On my issue of my too small work shop , which I will explain in another post.

Anne of all Trades is the 5th channel I follow and visit frequently. Just like April and Laura, Anne just makes stuff and is not afraid of starting some project.

Final take away…

The take away from all those channels and this post is simple:
“Just make it..” Just start it. Worst thing that can happen is, that you learned something!
Start a project and learn! Be proud that you’ll made it…And if it doesn’t work out at first, find out how to make it work! Just don’t be afraid.