"Andy Dingley" wrote in message

If you don't know the difference between a joiner and a planer, then
find a local course, evening classes or the like, where you can get
hands-on with the machinery. Learn something, learn what the options
are, learn the basics of benchwork so you can learn more quickly in
the future, learn what you're interested in, learn what other makers
are already producing or what historical techniques have been.

You bring up a good point here. You can attend the best school with the
best teacher and walk away with nothing to show for it. Everyone learns at
a different pace and getting the information from the brain to the hands can
be difficult for some of us. Unless you have that flow going already take
it slow, doing a step at a time.