The Newbie Woodworker

Is Powered Up worth the cost?

by Dan Thomas 2 min read

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From the very beginning, I struggled with whether Steve Ramsey’s “Powered Up” online course is worth the price. See this post and this post for more info. I think I’m ready to answer that question now.

Short story, which leads to my answer:

I was walking through Home Depot today to get some carriage bolts for another project, when I saw some guy with half a sheet of plywood in a cart. When I saw the plywood, I said “Oh censored”. Why?

  1. I instantly knew that Home Depot had gotten in a shipment of that nice pine plywood I used on the first project. The same plywood that was $15 cheaper than the crappy plywood I’ve been talking about the last couple of days.

  2. I should have waited, instead of buying the stuff I bought (hence the expletive).

  3. I wish I had asked about the pine plywood before I bought the other stuff. This is one of the downsides of being an introvert.

    Now this is where it gets interesting:

  4. I realized that I knew what kind of plywood that guy had in his cart, with just a glance. (I went to the plywood isle to verify it, and I was right.)

I got to thinking…

On the short drive home, it dawned on me:

  • I never would have learned any of this had I not taken Steve’s course.

  • I never would have tried different materials, and wouldn’t have known that there’s decent plywood besides Baltic Birch. (I already knew there was indecent not-so-decent plywood.)

  • I probably never would have tried assembling a carcase with rabbets and glue. Not that I’m a fan of it yet, far from it (I’ll talk about this in another post).

  • I probably never would have learned that in woodworking, “carcase” does not mean what’s left over after Thanksgiving.

Which leads me to this

If I were to judge whether the course is worth the money, based solely on the contents of the course - the videos, plans and SketchUp models, the private Facebook group, I’d have to say no, it’s not worth it. You can get project videos and plans for a lot less money.

But the thing is, I never would have. I might watch the videos, but I probably wouldn’t have gotten the plans, and I certainly wouldn’t have tried to build the projects in the way Steve is teaching - it’s out of my comfort zone.

Taking Steve’s course, and forcing myself to build projects I probably don’t need, and probably would never attempt otherwise, in a manner I wouldn’t have tried otherwise, is giving me the type of learning experience I never would have gotten otherwise.

So now I’m thinking this may end up being the best $2001 I’ve ever spent.

By the way, that’s just the cost of the course. Don’t forget the cost of all the materials, and things like buying a Pocket Hole Jig.

Still worth it.

Would it be worth it to you? If you’re not going to build the projects, then don’t buy the course. Otherwise, only you can decide if it’s worth it to you. But hopefully, I’m giving you enough insight in this blog so you can make that decision.

Let me hear your thoughts.

Later.

  1. Yes, Powered Up cost $200. My understanding is that the previous course, “The Weekend Woodworker”, cost less. And I know I said at the start that I wouldn’t talk about the cost of the course, but I changed my mind. How can anyone make an informed purchase decision without knowing the price? ↩

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Older: "My love affair with Baltic Birch..." Newer: "Wascally Wabbets - Router Tabl..."

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