Woodworking is like making a 3D puzzle
As I’ve mentioned previously woodworking is taking over more and more of my free time. I was working on my latest project at school this evening and thought about how woodworking is really just a giant puzzle, but in three dimensions.
The difference is you make the pieces yourself and there’s no picture on the box to help—you create that too. It’s very challenging and very rewarding. Sketchup is a great way to visualize this complex combination of puzzle pieces. Flipping into x-ray mode shows you the insides of your pieces, specifically the joinery (assuming you took the time to model it):
It’s hard to believe that it’s possible to keep track of all that and actually make it out of wood. But, slowly but surely it comes together. You end up with a lot of saw dust, wood chips and a few boards that are within thousands of an inch of where you wanted them. In most do-it-yourself projects around the house, 1/16th of an inch is about as accurate as you need to be. But in fine furniture you really do deal with thousands of an inch. And it’s actually easy to do with good tools. Taking off half a thousandth of an inch is common.
Back to our puzzle. What if after about 10% of your puzzle is assembled you can’t really count on the picture any more? As the pieces of your project start coming together there are always slight differences in widths or heights from your plan. These add up as you assemble your project. So you need to compensate for it. You start taking measurements off the pieces themselves and count less and less on your plans. By the time you’re done you aren’t even using your original project diagrams any more—the project itself becomes your reference.
Woodworking has been around almost as long as we have and it’s amazing how much there is to learn. But apply those time-tested techniques and, after tens or hundreds of hours, you don’t have a puzzle any more but a box or a table or a chair that you made yourself using only your hands and mind, and with little care will outlive you and even your children.