In my search for wood working plans I came across Ted'd Woodworking plans as I'm sure many have before. It's the number one seller of these items on the internet. So I decided to do a little research on Ted and his plans.
My first question was who is Ted?
Apparently Ted McGrath is a fictitious character.
Does that mean it's a scam?
Not necessarily.
I've been in business over 20 years and I realize that it's quite common for products to use fictitious characters to front for their products. Have you heard of Betty Crocker? Mavis Beacon the typing teacher. Aunt Jemima, Uncle Ben's rice and countless others are all made up characters to sell products.
His photo is from a free stock image and his address is non existent.
That should not surprise you. Did you expect a fictitious character to have a real picture and address?
The guy behind the site is from Great Britain I came across his name but it's not important enough for me to remember it or repeat it here.
His products are sold through ClickBank.
That's not a bad thing.
ClickBank is an online retailer with a global presence, secure payment processing, reliable tracking and payouts, and an extensive affiliate network. This product is one of their best sellers and they refund without question within 60 days if you are not happy with the product. I signed up and if you decide to purchase this product from my links I may get a few bucks to cover the cost of my research. Only do this if you think this product is right for you.
The designs and videos are all compiled from free sources you could find on your own on the internet.
True.
How long would it take you to compile 16,000 woodworking plans and over 150 video's and assorted articles. In business there's a thing called the time vs. money proposition. It depends on how much you value your time vs what you would pay someone else to do something. It would take me months to compile all this information and I feel my time is worth more that a few cents an hour.
These are pirated designs.
This is a little more complicated. I'm not an expert on what is fair use and what can be patented, copywritten or trademarked and for how long it is valid. Many of these design appear to be from old magazine articles and such. I'm only after the information and will most likely only serve as inspirations for my projects. The professional woodworker community has a problem with this sort of thing. I'm no professional just a novice or beginner woodworker (at best) and I don't plan on selling any of my creations so it's not a problem for me. If you have a problem with this sort of thing then this is probably not the right product for you.
Is this the perfect product.
In my opinion No, it could be better. The projects are not indexed or cataloged very well. I don't think there are 16,000 design but there are a ton of them and I'm not about to count them all. A few of the video links are dead but not enough to make it feel like I was ripped off.
Is this the right product for you?
Only you can decide that. I was reasonably priced for what I got and it inspired me to make several of the projects (although I haven't finished many of them I plan to in time) but that's my own fault. All I can say is to download the free projects and check it out for yourself.
50 Free Woodworking Plans
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