re: HOW DO YOU CARRY OUT YOUR PROJECTS?

Great topic and responses!
Like many have said, I spend many, many nights laying in bed and thinking about future projects. I’m not sure how many awesome projects I’ve built in my mind, but far more than I’ve built in my shop. The projects always seem so easy when I plan them…
Most projects that I’ve built start with a need, eg. a new kitchen table, followed by general design ideas, many internet searches for ideas. Then on to the rough sketches. Most of my previous projects were done from these rough sketches, simple design and dimensions and some joinery details. Recently I’ve been trying to improve my design process by making full sized drawings or small models.

Then comes the wood buying (the best part!). Generally, I’ll cut the parts to rough dimensions, then joint/plane them oversize and let them acclimatize for a few days before milling them to final dimensions. Joinery is usually tablesaw for tenons, router or drill press followed by chisel work for mortises and shoulder planes for final fitting. The limited amount of dovetails I’ve done are with hand tools.

Once everything is cut/dimensioned and the joinery is done, my typical pattern was to do a final sanding and then glue up, followed by finishing. I have started though to do some pre-finishing before glue up though to minimize the amount of work of cleaning up the glue squeezeout.

Woodworking as an amateur is an always evolving process!