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Ted’s Woodworking plans promise woodworkers and DIYers a project database of more than 16,000 plans. DON’T BUY IT, it’s a SCAM.
What do you get if you do buy it? The content package is far smaller than advertised, and consists of outdated plans ripped off of public and private sources. There’s no customer service, and it can be hard to get your money back.
Additionally, the projects and plans aren’t vetted, with reviews complaining about poor quality.
From what I have heard over the years, the better project plans are freely available from their original creators.
I have NEVER heard anything good about Ted’s Woodworking or their notorious 16,000 project plans bundle.
That photo of “Ted McGrath,” who is purported to be a master woodworker? It’s available for anyone to license from a stock photo agency. All signs point to “Ted” being a complete fabrication.
There are YouTube reviews peddling these plans, often with fake user accounts or bots contributing comment reviews and fake testimonials to further encourage buyers.
Now, there are scores of Instagram accounts using stolen woodworking social media content to drive plan sales.
What happens if they get caught plagiarizing others’ plans or projects? Nothing, they start a new account, buy more followers, and copy more social media content to push affiliate links to Ted’s Woodworking Plans.
For whatever reasons, Instagram keeps boosting these shill accounts and their 16,000 woodworking plans affiliate links, often with claims of a “limited time offer.”
Some woodworking product companies follow these scam accounts, for whatever reasons, which unfortunately helps to legitimize them.
If the folks running social media for woodworking tool brands can be duped by the Ted’s Woodworking Plans affiliates, you can bet that woodworkers and DIYers are falling for it.
If you’re going to buy woodworking plans, make sure you’re getting them from a legitimate source or maker.
Some of the 16,000 woodworking plan peddlers try to minimize the complaints of it being a scam, all the while still recommending it as a flawed product that’s still worth buying.
Others talk about how it’s a scam and terrible value, while promoting their own woodworking project and course packages that are – of course – only available for a limited time at a 72% discount. I wouldn’t be surprised if the “better” product is sold by the same company behind Ted’s Woodworking.
This isn’t a new scam – I first learned about it more than 10 years ago – but it’s resurging right now to prey upon a new generation of naïve woodworkers. Making things worse, they’re using DIYers’ and woodworkers’ likenesses and social media content to do it.
DON’T FALL FOR IT.
