I’ll be darned. Freeplans.com actually appears not to be a rip-off. Their deal is pretty simple: it’s a list that publishes free woodworking plans, with advertisements. They promise not to sell your name for anything else, and to make it easy to sign off the list. I just got the first plan, and it was high-quality step-by-step instructions on how to make a cherry bookcase. Pictures, clear instructions, the works. I’m impressed!

(I used a “tearoff” email address, so I’ll know if they sell my name. Basically, it’s a one-shot email address that forwards to my regular address–if I start getting spam, I can know where it came from and delete the email address, ending the spam).

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