Woodgears
Matthias Wandel's site on woodworking projects, homemade machines, and engineering-minded tools such as bandsaws, marble machines, and puzzles.
What HN says
HN commenters praise his videos of building his own tools and recommend the site as an example of valuable independent web content.
Stats for nerds
123HN people shared it
61linked in comments
3.5Kstory points
Jun 2026last shared
Top posts on HN
- 1Woodworking for Engineers25 people · 719 points · first shared 2009 · 293 comments on HN
- 2Wooden combination lock4 people · 439 points · first shared 2009 · 58 comments on HN
- 3How long does a freezer stay frozen when the power goes out?2 people · 427 points · first shared 2020 · 370 comments on HN
- 4Beginning Woodworking4 people · 290 points · first shared 2015 · 88 comments on HN
- 5Jenga Pistol2 people · 278 points · first shared 2014 · 24 comments on HN
- 6Testing the strength of different wood species1 person · 256 points · first shared 2021 · 77 comments on HN
- 7Wood Joint Strength Testing2 people · 219 points · first shared 2019 · 90 comments on HN
- 8High-tech automatic infrared heater aimer1 person · 155 points · first shared 2019 · 37 comments on HN
- 9Binary marble adding machine10 people · 130 points · first shared 2007 · 21 comments on HN
- 10Templates for Cutting Gears from Wood3 people · 113 points · first shared 2019 · 42 comments on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
- evlapixFeb 2012
Sometimes I come across grand hobbies/challenges like this that inspire me to challenge myself in similar ways..
1/4 scale grave digger:
http://www.youtube.com/user/rcWizzard/videos?sort=da&view=uMatthias Wandel's various projects:
http://woodgears.caGiant robot project:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL13A11662BDE6EB83But at some point, I end up convincing myself that it's a bad investment of my time. Some examples:
- The above referenced 1/4 grave digger project would be an awesome test of my fabrication skills. But when it's done, I won't enjoy playing with it. 1000's of hours for "push stick forward, vehicle goes foreword". Kind of like lego's, the fun's all in the build.
- I'd love to get into woodworking, but I already have all the furniture I need. Why would I invest in a 1k wood shop (that's CL prices)? What would I create with all the tools and experience? I'm not going to quit my job as a programmer to become an entry-level woodworker.
- I'd love to build my own sawmill (kind of like Jaimie), and build from nature in general. But where would I get wood? Can I make it cheaper than store bought? Do I have the time to invest so that I don't wind up having to go to the store anyway?
- I'm really fascinated by CNC, 3d printers, and metal casting. I want to be able to make my own stuff, and excuse myself from a consumer culture. But those things all involve pretty significant money/time investments. And who are we kidding? After that huge investment,…
- megrafJul 2022
It's a real great message, yes, they gave a shit. They gave a shit because the author likely paid >10,000 CAD. Yes, ten thousand Canadian dollars. Or $7692 USD. This is significant to me because I feel like for a table (conference room or not!) anyone asking for that type of price point _should_ give a shit. I'm all for nice furniture (in fact, I've built some) – but I'd say some of the cape-wearing folks who really care are often doing so behind the scenes, or, if you're lucky: in a position at a company (or their own company) who really has pride in what they're doing.
I think the author found a company who gives a shit, but I'd also like to point to other makers who give a shit without the five-figure price point.
Here's a small list:
- https://woodgears.ca (you will be making these items yourself! Plans are ~15 USD)
- Dave Moore (https://www.youtube.com/user/dpmbn8)
– That one support agent who didn't give up :) - gitgudSep 2023
This is very impressive! I like how the 3D model has a “view cube” to show the orientation, and that it updates in real-time as parameters are changed
They call these types of programs [1] “configurators” and they’re pretty fun to play with, great for clients to see what they want, especially with workshop drawings as output!
It also reminds me a little bit of [2] Matthias Wandel‘s “wooden gear generator”, which I think has been somewhat profitable.
Maybe it would be good to highlight the parts of the model that are changing with the parameters. I know it shows the dimension that’s changing, but it would be even clearer to highlight the model itself I think
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Configurator
[2] https://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html
- TimBurrMay 2021
This might be a different Ask HN, but does anyone have suggestions on avoiding the content farm stuff? Searching reddit works, but amounts to being trapped in a walled garden.
I've found a lot of great stuff on random independent websites (i.e. https://woodgears.ca/, http://gizmology.net/) that have no Reddit presence. Filtering those out is a great loss.
Something like the Yahoo Directory (hierarchical tree of hand-sorted topics) could work, but that's long gone.
Thoughts?
- _jstreetAug 2020
Matthias Wandel has a website - https://woodgears.ca/ - which contains a lot of guides/useful things for woodworking. I don't believe he has any 3D modelling tools, but he does have some software to help with building wooden gears, and other useful things.
Doesn't strictly answer your question, but if you're looking to make "simple furniture" 3D modelling is not strictly necessary, you can do a lot with a few simple measurements and 2D-designing.
- aidosJan 2017
I also think it seems pretty appealing. There have been some interesting things on HN over the years about it.
I loved this talk about how the tools you use determine how you look at problems (Tim Ewald - Clojure: Programming with Hand Tools)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShEez0JkOFwAnd if you haven't seen him before, you're about to fall in love with Matthias Wandel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/Matthiaswandel/videos
http://woodgears.ca/