Well said Tom.

"Tom Watson" wrote in message
...
It's the kind of discussion that used to occur on the wreck
with some frequency.


Fortunately, Google allows you to dumpster dive back in time to retrieve
them.


I don't care if the plan is only, "I need a shelf that is big enough
to hold my wife's chotchkas." That is at least the beginnings of a
plan.


"...the beginnings of a plan." and here perhaps is where the confusion lies.
Some people need a thumbsketch, others a scaled specification. What are "the
beginnings of a plan"? It's subjective - the beginnings of a plan, for me,
may be too much for others. Plans are much more than a scaled drawing, or a
lot less - it really depends on your skill level and previous experience.
Isn't a story stick a plan?

Anyway, a plan does not have to be written down on paper. In fact, people
infer this. Plans existed long before writing ever did. Word of mouth, cave
drawings and other methods. The plan was an 'intention', or a method of
doing something. The written article is simply a method of conveyance and
documentation. So when someone says "a thumbnail sketch will suffice", what
they really mean is the rest of the plan is in their head.

People who create things without a plan, really mean "without a written
plan". If they truly do not have a plan, the project will fail. To
illustrate, to create something you must perform an orchestrated sequence of
events: recognise a want or need, envision what will satisfy that want or
need, define the details, selecting product, preparing, dimensioning,
assembling, finishing etc. This "orchestrated sequence of events" is a plan,
no? Try to remove one of the items in the simplified list above, or put it
out of sequence, and you will realise that every one of us has a plan, must
have a plan.

For those of us that have written a computer program (plan), we know just
how detailed and specific some instructions have to be, because the computer
starts from a point of complete ignorance. Fortunately, when dealing with
humans you only have to determine the level of knowledge of the person to
decide what level of plan is required, or desired.

A 'perfect plan' can only be 'perfect' for one person, and probably, just
for that point in that person's life. After that, their knowledge increases
and parts of the plan becomes superfluous.


Getting away from that, I've bought many books of plans for furniture.
In almost every instance I have found flaws. In one of Gottschall's
books I found a secretary that, if it had been built according to
plan, would have resulted in a construction that could not work, as
far as drawers and doors go.


Tom, you write "The Book", I'll buy a copy!


Let me say that I have learned a tremendous amount about design and
construction from reading plans. I have learned even more from the
deconstruction of old pieces during my attempts to repair them.


Inherent in "reading" is critical analysis, this will either take you to a
new level of understanding or highlight a flaw, as you've pointed out below.
The important issue for the woodworker is to critique the plan before the
problems surface.


What I've also learned is that most plans are flawed and, if followed
blindly and faithfully, will result in a project that does not
represent the design level intent of the plans. Even the
deconstruction and rebuilding of historically important pieces can
result in furniture that ignores the realities of wood movement and
therefore is doomed to failure.

The bracket foot is a good example.


I would dearly love to find a critical analysis written on the flaws of
furniture design, are there any?


I believe that we should be informed and excited by plans but that we
should not be slaves to them. That path is fraught with too many
problems. But, I would never give up looking at plans, as they are a
source of ideas and information that we can all use, once they are
passed through our own editorial function.

My final thought would be that we can all be improved by drawing our
own plans. There are problems that can be solved on paper that would
cost real time, money and effort in the construction phase. Drawing
your own plans allows you to play with all the elements of a piece and
their interactions. It is a tremendous help in the area of relative
weights given to the elements of a design. It is a great help in
figuring out the interrelationship of design elements that might
conflict with each other in the real world.

Paper is cheap. Time is irrecoverable.


Three paragraphs that summarise the use of plans beautifully, well said Tom!

Greg