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HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List ### Intro to Woodworking — Build a Small Shelf
Okay. Before we cut anything we need to gather what we're cutting it with and cutting it from. I kept this list short on purpose. I feel like people see a big shopping list before class even starts and they lose interest before they've touched a board.
Buy the budget column and you're set for this class. The nice-to-have column is stuff I'd pick up slowly, over the next year, not all at once. I'm still against the big starter kit thing. A few good tools beat a bucket of cheap ones.
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Wood
Budget: One 1x8, pine, 6 feet long. Pine's cheap, it's forgiving, and it doesn't matter if you mess up a cut, you're not out much. Get it from the lumber aisle at your regular hardware run, whatever's closest, Home Depot or Lowe's both carry it.
Nice-to-have: Nothing here, honestly. Save the hardwood for your second or third project once your cuts are straighter. I get a little tired of people wanting oak before they can cut a straight line in pine.
Timing note, this actually matters: buy your board a few days before class if you can, and let it sit in your garage or wherever you'll be working. Utah air is dry and boards move as they adjust to it. Elevation messes with your baking times, dryness messes with your wood. Same idea. If you buy the board the morning of class it might still be settling in on you during the cut.
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Tools
Budget tier (this gets you through the whole class): - Tape measure, 16 or 25 foot, doesn't need to be fancy - A square. Combination square is fine. This is the one tool I'd tell you not to skimp on if you skimp on anything else. Before I had a decent square I was eyeballing right angles and wondering why nothing lined up. Mary got me one for my birthday years ago and it changed more for me than any other single tool. - Hand saw, a basic crosscut saw - Pencil, a regular one, not a fancy carpenter's pencil, just something you won't cry over losing - Sandpaper, one pack with a few grits, 120, 150, 220 - Wood glue, any basic carpenter's glue - Clamps, two, doesn't matter what kind as long as they open wide enough for your board
Nice-to-have: - A cordless drill. We'll have a few in class to share, but if you're going to keep doing this, a drill is the next thing I'd buy. - A block plane, for cleaning up edges. Not required. Fun once you have it. - A stud finder, only if you're hanging the shelf on drywall at home later and want to do it right the first time.
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A note on hand saws before you ask
Yes, we have power saws in the shop and yes we'll use them. But for this first build I want you cutting at least one piece by hand. I feel like everybody wants to jump straight to the table saw, and I get it, but there's something about feeling a hand saw bind up in a bad cut that teaches you what the power tool is doing at full speed, where you can't feel it happening. It's a little slower. That's fine. Slow is fine.
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Shopping notes
- One hardware run covers everything on this list. If you're doing a Costco or Macey's trip anyway, the hardware store is usually a quick add-on stop, not a special trip.
- Don't buy the biggest sandpaper pack they sell. A basic multi-grit pack is plenty for one small shelf.
- If the store is out of 1x8, a 1x6 or 1x10 works too, we'll adjust the cut list in class. Don't stress over the exact width.
Bring what you've got, even if it's not everything on this list. We'll figure out gaps together in class. That's kind of the whole point of doing this in a group instead of alone in a garage.
Handout```markdown
```markdown # Handout 2: Cheat Sheet — Core Techniques & Settings ## Intro to Woodworking: Build a Small Shelf
Quick version of everything we talk about in class. Tape it to the wall near your bench. I keep a version of this near mine too, not because I forget it, but because I like the reminder.
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Measuring
Pick one edge on your board and call it your reference edge. Every measurement for that piece comes from that same edge, every time.
Don't measure twice from two different spots. That just gives you two chances to be wrong. Measure once from the same place, consistently, and your errors don't stack up on you.
Mark with a small V or a single tick, not a fat pencil line. A fat line has two edges and you can cut on the wrong one without noticing. I've done this.
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Squaring Up
Check square before you cut, not after.
Set your square against the reference edge. If there's a gap anywhere, your cut line isn't square yet.
A good square is worth the money. It's the one tool I'd tell you not to skimp on.
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Dry Fit (do this every time)
Before any glue touches wood, put the whole thing together dry. No clamps, no glue, just see if the pieces go where you think they go.
This takes two minutes and it saves you from finding out the hard way, the next morning, that you glued something upside down. I feel like this is the step people skip because they're excited to get to glue. Don't skip it.
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Cutting (hand saw)
Let the saw do the work. Long, even strokes, light pressure. If it starts to bind or wander, stop and check your line, don't force it through.
Feeling a cut go bad with a hand saw is useful information. It's the same thing happening with a power tool, just slower, so you can feel what to watch for.
Check the board for hidden screws or nails before you cut into it, especially reclaimed wood. Look at the wood, not just the line.
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Drilling
Pilot hole first, always, especially near the ends of a board where it wants to split.
Match your bit size to the screw. Too small and you'll split softwood pine pretty easily. Too big and the screw has nothing to grab.
Clamp your piece down. Holding it with one hand and drilling with the other is how the piece moves right when you don't want it to.
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Sanding
Start around 120 grit, move to 180, finish around 220. Don't stop two grits early. This is the part that most beginners rush, and it's the part people actually touch on the finished shelf. Slow down here.
Sand with the grain, not across it. Across the grain leaves scratches you won't see until finish goes on and they show up anyway.
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Wood Notes (Utah specific)
Pine is fine for this project. Cheap, forgiving, good for a first build. No shame in it.
Utah air is dry. If you buy your board and cut it the same day, it may still be moving a little from the truck or the store. Let it sit in your garage a few days before you cut, if you can swing it. It'll behave better.
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If Something Goes Wrong
A crooked cut, a chip, a joint that doesn't sit flush. It happens. Sometimes you fix it. Sometimes you fill it, sand it, and decide you like the shelf better with the story still in it.
Not great, but it held. That's a fine outcome for a first project. ```
WorksheetHandout 3: Your Shelf, Step by Step
Handout 3: Your Shelf, Step by Step
Fill this in as you go. Don't try to do it from memory at the end, do it at each step while it's fresh. I built this checklist because I forget things too, and I'd rather you write it down than trust your brain at eight at night after a long class.
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Before You Cut Anything
- [ ] I picked my reference edge and marked it: __________________
- [ ] All my measurements are taken from that same edge (not two different spots)
- [ ] My wood has been sitting in the space for at least a few days, not straight from the truck
- [ ] I did a dry fit of all the pieces, no glue, just to see if they go together the way I think they do
The dry fit step is the one people skip because they're excited to get to the glue. I feel like that's understandable, but it's also how you end up gluing a joint upside down and not finding out until the clamps come off. Ask me how I know.
Cut List
Write down your actual final measurements here, not the ones from the plan. Wood moves, mistakes happen, this is your real record.
Piece Length Width Notes Shelf top Side (left) Side (right) Back/brace Squaring Up
- [ ] I checked each corner with the square before cutting
- [ ] I checked it again after cutting
- [ ] It's actually square, not "close enough" square
This is the tool Mary got me for my birthday years ago, and it's still the one that changed the most for me. Before I had a decent square I was eyeballing corners and wondering why my shelf never sat flush on the wall. Don't skip this.
Assembly
- [ ] Dry fit again, right before glue (yes, again)
- [ ] Glue applied evenly, not globbed in one spot
- [ ] Clamped and checked for square one more time before it sets
- [ ] Left alone to dry, not touched, not "just checking on it"
Sanding
This is where the project actually gets made. I know it feels like the boring part after the cutting and gluing, but this is the part people touch for years. Don't stop two grits early.
- [ ] Rough sand, edges and faces
- [ ] Medium grit
- [ ] Fine grit
- [ ] Ran my hand over every surface, eyes closed, feeling for rough spots
- [ ] Found at least one spot I missed and went back
Before You Take It Home
- [ ] Checked all corners are still square after sanding
- [ ] Checked for any leftover pencil marks
- [ ] Decided on finish, or decided to leave it as-is for now (finishing is genuinely not my strong suit, more on that in the next handout)
- [ ] Wrote today's date somewhere on the bottom or back, in pencil, small
That last one isn't for the class. That one's for you, twenty years from now, trying to remember when you made this thing.
One Honest Question
What's the one part of this build you're least sure about? Write it here, and find me before you leave today. I'd rather talk it through with you now than have you go home and guess.
_______________________________________________
It's fine if the answer is "all of it." That's a normal answer in week two.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Every single person who's taken this class has hit at least three of these. Me too, some of them more than once. Nothing here means you're bad at this. It just means you're doing woodworking.
My shelf's a rectangle, but not a square rectangle
You'll set it down and it'll rock a little, or the corners won't line up flush. Almost always this is a cutting angle problem, not a measuring problem. Check your saw was actually at 90 degrees when you cut, not just close to it. This is the whole reason I make people dry fit before glue. Set the pieces together with no glue, no nails, and look at it under a light. If it's off, you'll see the gap now instead of after it's permanent.
The two boards don't sit flush at the joint
Usually a rough cut edge, sometimes a bit of sawdust or a stray splinter sitting in the joint you didn't notice. Wipe the joint clean and dry fit again before you decide the wood is the problem.
I measured twice and it's still wrong
I feel like this is the most common one and it's not really your fault, it's the advice. Measuring twice from two different starting points just gives you two chances to be wrong in two different ways. Pick one edge on the board, call it your reference edge, and measure everything from that same edge every time. Every mismatch in this class that I've traced back far enough started with someone switching ends of the tape mid-project.
The wood split when I was screwing it in
Pilot hole was too small, or not there at all, or too close to the end of the board. Drill a pilot hole a hair smaller than your screw before you drive it, especially near an edge. Softwood splits easier than you'd think even though it's forgiving in most other ways.
My saw cut wandered off the line
Hand saw or power saw, this is usually the blade binding because you're pushing too hard or the wood shifted on you. Let the saw do the cutting, don't force it. And check the board for a hidden nail or screw before you start. I keep a nicked blade on my shop wall from the one time I didn't look first.
Sanding and it still feels rough
You probably stopped a grit or two too early. This is the part nobody wants to hear because sanding isn't the fun part, but it's the part people actually touch on the finished shelf. Slow down here. Go one more grit than you think you need.
The glue joint popped apart
Not enough clamp time, or not enough glue, or (I've done this one) the pieces got clamped in the wrong position and nobody caught it till morning. Dry fit first, every time, no exceptions. It takes thirty seconds and it saves you a redo.
My board warped or the joint loosened after a few days
This is a Utah thing more than a you thing. Our air is dry and boards keep moving even after they're cut, especially if the wood didn't sit in your garage a few days before you built with it. Not much to do once it's built except let it acclimate longer next time.
I tried a fancy edge and it tore out
Router, chisel, doesn't matter which. Fancy edges are a "later" project. I stayed away from my router for two years after I tore out a shelf edge trying to get cute with it. Nothing wrong with a plain square edge on your first shelf.
It's a little crooked and I'm bothered by it
It's going to hold books either way. Not great, but it held, that's basically my whole shop motto. Fix what you can fix and let the rest be the story of the first one you built.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —and that's the part nobody warns you about, right, that the first cut is scarier than it should be.
ANDY: It is. I feel like people think there's some trick to getting over that, and there isn't, you just make the cut. But yeah, the first one's the worst one.
JESS: Okay, so for anybody just tuning in, this is the podcast for the shelf class, Intro to Woodworking, session one just wrapped tonight. I'm Jess, I run these podcasts for basically every class we offer, and this is Andy, he's teaching this one.
ANDY: Hi.
JESS: That's it? "Hi"?
ANDY: I'm better in the garage than on a microphone. I'll warm up.
JESS: Fair. Okay so tell people what happened tonight, because I was in and out but I saw a lot of pencil marks and not a lot of sawdust.
ANDY: Right, tonight was mostly measuring and marking. No cuts yet. I know that's not super exciting to hear about on a podcast, but the thing is, most of the mistakes in a project like this happen before anybody picks up a saw. They happen at the tape measure.
JESS: Wait, really.
ANDY: Yeah. So the big thing I try to get across on night one is, measure from the same edge every time. Not measure twice, that's actually advice I'd get rid of if I could. Measuring twice just gives you two chances to get it wrong from two different spots. Measuring from the same reference edge every single time means if you're off, you're off consistently, and consistent is fixable. Two different wrong measurements from two different edges, that's just chaos.
JESS: Okay, that's the tip. Anybody listening who isn't even taking the class, that's a free one, measure from the same edge every time.
ANDY: That's the one. If you take nothing else from tonight's episode, that's it.
JESS: Did anybody mess it up tonight?
ANDY: A couple people, and that's fine, that's what tonight's for. I'd rather they mess it up on a scrap board with me standing right there than mess it up next week on the actual shelf pieces.
JESS: Speaking of messing up, can I ask about the router thing? Because I heard you mention it in passing to somebody tonight and then you sort of moved on fast.
ANDY: Oh boy. Yeah. Okay so, early on, I decided I wanted a fancy edge on a shelf, one of those routed profiles, looks nice, rounds it over or does a little detail. And I did not know what I was doing at all, and the bit tore right into the wood, just ripped a chunk out of the edge, and it was not salvageable, I had to start that board over.
JESS: How early on is "early on."
ANDY: Early enough that I didn't touch a router again for two years after that. Purely out of embarrassment. Like, the wood didn't even know it happened, but I knew.
JESS: Two years!
ANDY: Two years. I'm not proud of that, but it's true. So we're not touching a router in this class, by the way, we're keeping this one simple on purpose. Hand saw, drill, sandpaper. That's plenty for a first shelf.
JESS: Which is very on brand for you, I feel like, the "buy fewer tools and go slow" thing.
ANDY: I do think that. A good square, a decent tape, one sharp saw, and a drill will get almost anybody through a whole year of small projects. You don't need the whole wall of stuff at the hardware store on day one.
JESS: Okay, last thing, then I'll let you go, because I know you've got a real job in the morning that isn't this.
ANDY: I do.
JESS: What's coming next session, for anybody deciding whether to show up.
ANDY: Next week we cut. That's the big one. We'll go over the actual measurements for everybody's shelf, and I'll have people do what's called a dry fit before anything gets glued, which just means you put the pieces together with no glue at all, just to see if they actually go together the way you think they do.
JESS: Is that a habit you picked up from experience.
ANDY: It's a habit I picked up from gluing a joint upside down once and not noticing until the clamps came off the next morning. So, yes. Very much from experience.
JESS: That's a good one to end on.
ANDY: It's a true one, anyway.
JESS: Alright, that's session one. Bring your wood a few days early if you can, by the way, let it sit in your garage before you cut it, Andy will explain why next week.
ANDY: Dry air. It's a whole thing. See you all next week.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but you have to finish that thought because I feel like people are going to want to know how a stool becomes a plant stand.
ANDY: Right, sorry. So this is the step stool I built for Mary, this was years ago, so she could reach the top shelf in the kitchen. And I built the whole thing, and it's solid, not great, but it held, and then she tries it out and she's still like four inches too high for what she needed.
JESS: You overshot it.
ANDY: I overshot it. I measured the shelf height and just, I don't know, added some for good measure I guess, and it turned into this stool that's taller than a stool should be. So now it lives by the window with a fern on it. She calls it "the tall mistake." That's its actual name in our house.
JESS: I love that you have named furniture.
ANDY: We have a few pieces like that, yeah.
JESS: Okay so for people just joining us, this is week two of the shelf class podcast, we're not in the workshop right now, this is just Andy and me talking through what's coming up before Thursday's session.
ANDY: Right, last week was mostly, here's the wood, here's the tools, don't panic. This week's session is where we actually start cutting.
JESS: Which is the scary part for people.
ANDY: It's the scary part, yeah, and I get why. The thing is, most of the fear is really about measuring wrong, not cutting wrong. Cutting you can fix a little, sanding covers a lot of sins. Measuring wrong, you find out about it later and it's already too late.
JESS: So what's the one thing, if somebody's listening and they're never even going to take the class, what's the tip you'd give them.
ANDY: Okay, super simple one. Always measure from the same edge. Like, pick one edge of your board, call it your reference edge, and every measurement you make on that board starts from there. Don't measure from the left side one time and the right side the next time because you were holding the tape weird.
JESS: Why does that matter so much.
ANDY: Because your errors stack. If you measure twice from two different spots, people think that's safer, measure twice cut once, all that. But if both those measurements have the same little quarter inch mistake baked into them because you're using two different reference points, you just gave yourself two chances to be wrong in a way that agrees with itself. It'll look right and it won't be right.
JESS: That's basically what happened to your first shelf, right? Isn't there a story about that?
ANDY: Yeah, that's, I mean that's the one I always tell. My very first shelf, I cut one side a quarter inch short because I measured from the wrong end of the tape. Didn't catch it. Hung it anyway.
JESS: And?
ANDY: And it stayed on the wall for four years. Slight dip on one side, you'd have to really be looking for it. Mary finally asked, four years in, why does this side sag a little. And I had to admit, oh yeah, that's just wrong, I did that.
JESS: Four years!
ANDY: Four years. It held. That's kind of my whole standard for a lot of things, honestly, not great, but it held.
JESS: Okay so Thursday, people should bring what, the pine boards from the supply list?
ANDY: Yeah, and if anybody bought their wood early like I keep telling folks to, even better. It's so dry here, especially this time of year, that boards move a little if they've just come off a truck. Let them sit in your garage a few days before you cut, they settle into the humidity, or lack of humidity, of wherever they're actually going to live. Otherwise you cut it perfect on Thursday and it's slightly different by the weekend.
JESS: That feels like a very Utah problem.
ANDY: It is a very Utah problem. Elevation messes with your baking, dryness messes with your wood, everybody up here's fighting something.
JESS: So next session we're actually cutting our pieces to length.
ANDY: Cutting to length, and I'm going to have everybody do it with a hand saw first before anybody touches the power tools. I know, I know, people want to jump straight to the fun loud tools. But I think you should feel a hand saw bind up in a bad cut at least once. It teaches you what's actually happening in the wood, the stuff you can't feel once a motor's doing it for you at speed.
JESS: You're going to get groans about that.
ANDY: I get groans every time. It's fine. I'd rather you leave Thursday with an actual feel for the wood than a fast, fancy cut you don't understand yet.
JESS: All right, that's it for this week. Bring your boards, bring patience, apparently.
ANDY: Bring patience, yeah. And a square if you've got one already. If not, we've got a few to share.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but you cannot just leave that where it is, you have to finish the story, what happened after Rodney stayed for three hours.
ANDY: We built a birdhouse. Neither of us needed a birdhouse.
JESS: Right, but that's the whole point, isn't it.
ANDY: I mean, yeah. He came over to borrow a drill. That was it, that was the whole ask. And then he's standing in my garage looking at some scrap pine I had leaning against the wall, and he says something like, that'd make a decent birdhouse, and I said probably, and then we just. Did it. Three hours later his wife's texting him.
JESS: This is Rodney, your neighbor.
ANDY: Rodney, yeah. He still doesn't really do woodworking. He just likes being in the garage when something's happening. I get that. Those are some of my favorite afternoons, honestly, the ones where nobody needed to build anything and we built something anyway.
JESS: Okay, I love that, but I also want to get back to the shelf, because that's what people signed up for.
ANDY: Fair. Fair, yeah.
JESS: So last session you guys did the cuts, right, everybody had their pieces cut to length.
ANDY: Cut to length, dry fit, checked square. This session's glue-up. Which sounds like the fun part, and it is, but it's also where people rush.
JESS: Why do they rush at glue-up specifically?
ANDY: Because everything up to that point has been slow and careful and a little tedious, honestly, and glue feels like progress. It feels like the shelf is becoming a shelf. So people get the glue on and they're clamping fast, and they don't check that everything's still square while it's wet, which is the only time you can actually fix it.
JESS: This is where the dry fit thing comes in, right? I feel like I've heard you say this before.
ANDY: I say it every class. Dry fit first, no glue, just clamp it exactly like you're going to glue it, and look at it. Make sure the pieces go where you think they go. I learned this one the hard way.
JESS: Oh, here we go.
ANDY: I glued a joint upside down once. Early on. Didn't notice until the next morning when I took the clamps off and looked at it and thought, that's backwards, that's completely backwards. And by then it's glue, it's not coming apart without destroying the board.
JESS: What'd you do?
ANDY: Kept it. It was a shelf for the garage, not the house, so it didn't matter that much, but it bugged me. Still bugs me a little. So now, every single time, dry fit first. No glue. Just clamp it up dry and stare at it for a minute. Takes thirty seconds and it's saved me probably a dozen times since.
JESS: Okay, so that's the tip, right there, that's usable for anybody listening even if they're not in the class.
ANDY: That's the tip. Dry fit before glue. Every project, every time, doesn't matter how many times you've done it, doesn't matter how simple the joint looks. Clamp it dry first.
JESS: I like that it's free. Like, you don't need to buy anything to do that.
ANDY: No, it's just patience. Which is, I mean, that's most of woodworking if I'm honest. It's not really about the tools.
JESS: You'd still tell people to buy a good square though.
ANDY: I would still tell people to buy a good square, yes. That opinion hasn't changed.
JESS: Okay, so, glue-up this week. What should people expect walking in.
ANDY: Bring the pieces you cut, obviously, if you missed last time we've got extra stock, don't worry about it. We'll do the dry fit as a group first, I'll come around to everybody's bench individually, and then we glue. It's messier than people expect. Glue gets everywhere. Wear something you don't care about.
JESS: And then next session is?
ANDY: Sanding.
JESS: Just sanding, the whole session?
ANDY: The whole session. And people always think that's the boring one, and I get it, I understand why it sounds boring, but honestly I think it's where the project actually turns into something. Most people quit sanding two grits too early because they're impatient to get to the finish. This is the part everybody's hands are going to touch for years, so we're going to slow way down on it.
JESS: You're bracing them for a slow class.
ANDY: I'm bracing them for a slow class. I am a slow teacher. I'd rather everybody actually get it than everybody move fast and half of them go home confused.
JESS: I respect that. Okay, bring your glued pieces, wear old clothes, next week we sand until our arms fall off.
ANDY: Something like that. It works.
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