Getting Started in Woodworking: Skill-Building Projects that Teach the Basics (Paperback)

by Aime Fraser (Author) "It doesn't take a big investment to get started in woodworking..." (more)
Key Phrases: Skill Builder, Murphy's Law

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
While this book was written for any beginning woodworker, it has a special appeal for women. The projects, based on popular items found in fashionable stores and catalogs, are attractive, relatively simple to build, and have obvious appeal. And they are far less expensive to build than to buy. Each project is graded from simplest to most difficult, with each one teaching a set of skills that build on the skills learned in previous projects. "Skillbuilder" features in each chapter explain in detail the key operations or techniques being used to build the project. The book is written in a friendly, encouraging tone and includes not only a wealth of practical information, but also humorous tales of woodworking misadventures aimed at relieving beginners’ worry about making mistakes. Over·300 color photos and black-and-white drawings are included.

About the Author
Fraser began her woodworking career during high school. She has been a professional woodworker and boatbuilder. She teaches woodworking and boatbuilding in Norwalk, CT.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Taunton; illustrated edition edition (March 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1561586102
• ISBN-13: 978-1561586103
• Product Dimensions: 10.6 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #216,803 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

64 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great so far. Good layout, August 20, 2003

By	N. P. Ladieu (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

-----UPDATE----

There, as others have pointed out, a miscut in the first project. As a result I had a bottom way too big for the box. BUT I guess this was a good experience as I had to cut it down to size. Maybe she teaches us a lesson? Ha ha. Don't let the first project ruin the book for you, the rest of the projects are great!




I have an interest in woodworking as a hobby. I am coming from *zero* experience with woodworking and I really wanted a book that would hold my hand. The beginning of the book starts you pretty easily down the path explaining the layout of your shop and talking about workbenches and the various features you should look for. Then there is a large section on tools, what they are and what they do. Then it talks about wood. After reading these sections I feel like I have a good working knowledge of what I am in for. This is A+.

I haven't started the first project yet. I need to get some more tools and what not. This hobby can be very expensive.

The projects are laid out in a progressive order. You start out making a simple box and then each of the 5 projects gets more and more complex.

I really like how well this book is laid out. The projects have very clear illustrations and shopping lists. Each section has a "skill builder" of excercises you can practice on scrapwood when any new skill is introduced. This will help you a lot in reducing mistakes along the way.

I will edit my review again after I finish the first project.
----EDIT----
Finished the first project. The directions were confusing in, but overall we easily produced a great end result. Can't wait to start on the adirondak chairs

39 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed in errors, February 23, 2005

By	David Ashlock - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was very excited to get my hands on this book after reading some of the material covered. I have a woodworking background from a long, long time ago, but wanted a good refresher since so much has changed since the last time I held a block plane in my hand. I am currently finishing up the first project and am extremely disappointed in this book. The errors contained in the first few steps didn't become apparent until several steps later, causing me to basically toss aside my first few pieces of work. This is never a good way to start for a "beginner" like myself. I am going to have to draw up my own plans and do all of the calculating and measuring myself, since the author and editor can't provide it.

First example: Step 1 of the box project tells you to cut your 1/2" x 3 1/2" piece of wood into two 16" long pieces. Easy enough, as this was later chopped down to two 4 1/2" and two 10 1/2" pieces to make the sides of the box. WRONG!!!! The actual wood that should be used to make the sides of the box is the 1/2" x 2 1/2". First step already a mis-step, as the finger joints to be cut was specified to be 1 1/4" (which is correct for 2 1/2" tall side pieces). Fortunately, I recognized this mistype early and cut my finger joints at 1 3/4". I did have enough material to build 3 boxes when I first started - now I am going to be lucky to be able to build one, as a majority of my 1" x 4" (nominal) wood was mis-used. Frustrating. . . .

Second example: When you later cut the bottom and top of the box to begin working on the finger joints, you realize that the 4 1/2" pieces that you cut for the sides (and the 10 1/2" pieces as well) are too short, as the author tells you to buy 1" x 4" and 1" x 3" wood, but her actual measurements assume your wood is 1/2" thick, not the 3/4" thick that 1" nominal actually yields. Now the pieces that were cut from the wrong wood to begin with are useless as they are too short to form the joints. I suppose that you could cut the top and bottom pieces down further to fit, but then your box is too small to do much with other than admire. I began at this point to question my sanity as to getting back into woodworking, but as I have already squandered nearly $1000 in equipment, I decided to forge ahead.

Third example: The pictures are best ignored, save for the final project. They aren't presented with the text that they represent, so they can be more confusing than helpful. The author likes to use terms that I have either forgotten or never knew when referring to parts of tools, so I find myself re-reading and studying pictures until the concept of the written text dawns on me. I have small children, so my workshop time is limited to late at night - not the best time to decipher this text.

If you buy this book, be sure to buy some Post-It notes or book marks or tape flags, as you will be flipping back and forth continuously. The skill builder sections are nicely done, but appear in very strange places in the book. I would have put them all either before the projects or in an appendix. As it is, the first project refers you to several skill builders that are scattered throughout the pages of the first project (never on the facing page or the same page). This breaks the project text and pictures up too much.

The best thing that can be said for the first 1/2 of this book is that the projects look really neat, if you can survive the errors. I am now taking the approach to study the end product, draw my own plans, and learn the hard way (always a dangerous prospect when using sharp tools). If I could get a refund, I would - then spend the money on a different book.

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nice concept, poor execution, December 19, 2004

By	Thomas Smith (Bentonville, AR USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book since I am relatively new to woodworking and was looking for a book with some different woodworking furniture construction projects that would be fun to build and develop my skills. This book has about 5 different interesting projects ranging from simple box construction, adirondack style chair, bookcase, coffee table, and low file cabinet. All the projects will result in fairly simple yet attractive projects which are well worth the time spent working through. In the process of each project Fraser walks the reader through increasingly difficult woodworking skill building exercises.

Now for the bad news, as touched on buy several of the other reviewers there are numerous typos and innacuracies which I think are inexcusable being that this book is written by a former editor of a very fine woodworking magazine, and it is directed towards beginners which don't need the additional challenge of catching and working around type errors.

Because I liked the project, I skipped directly to the last project, the low file cabinet. The project starts out with an explanation of dimensions for the project, but for some reason leaves out a few of the key dimensions on the drawings. Then the text references photographs, but for some reason the photos don't match the text, or are not sequenced in the right order. Also, a few of the dimensions in the text are simply not correct, and unless you carefully study the provided dimensions in the drawings and make some visual scale estimates on the photos, you will end up with an incorrectly designed project. In spite of the inaccuracies I was able to successfully build the project, but it is imperative you check the drawings, photos, and text carefully and pick the source which provides the most accurate information to complete the project correctly. Not really something a novice woodworker should have to deal with. So I give this book 3 stars, a 4 for concept and a 2 for execution.