First off...Welcome Annie.

How's the leg?

Rather than answer each question, I'll just write a dissertation, and you can take from it what you want.

In my real life.....I work in a parts store. I touch greasy things all day long. In my younger days, I liked to work on cars, soup 'em up, keep 'em clean and shiny and all that. As I've gotten older, and after about 30 years in the business, when I get home, I don't even like to change my own oil. I hate working on vehicles now, and the only reason I do it at all, is because I can't stand to pay someone to do something I can do myself.

Now...what's that have to do with woodworking? Nothing really except it's what replaced other interest. Sawdust don't ruin my clothes, or get me in trouble for tracking it through the house like grease does.

I really only took up the hobby seriously in 2006. I bought a few tools, and set up shop, and started doing some internet research on the use of said tools. That's when I found this place.

There's a durn good chance, that this place probably saved me from hurting myself, by reading first. I had no idea what a "Kickback" was, or "Climb cutting", or any number of other things that can hurt you if you don't do it right. (Ask Pop what those terms mean, if you don't already know.)

I have no one in my family, or circle of friends who are woodworkers, so everything I know, I pretty much learned here. I can post pictures of my projects, and get a pat on the back, and more importantly, get true criticism on how I could have done it better.

This place has a way of encouraging you, without making you feel like an idiot. For instance, one of my first projects was a clock I made for my Mom. I don't have a lot of cash to throw at my hobby....(Sent two kids through college...ask Pop again what that's like.

), so a lot of my lumber is reclaimed/scavenged from shipping pallets and such. Here's a picture of that first clock.

I thought it was pretty decent at the time. I was proud of the way I used plugs for the numbers, and got them aligned right. Looking at it now, I can tell the top and bottom are too wide, and Lord knows why I put the shaker pegs on it.

Nobody here made fun of it though, they encouraged me to keep pluggin' away. The most telling comment I got on it? "I'm sure your Mom will like it".

Here's the last one I made. I'm just kinda showing you that I have improved, and that's part of the joy of Woodworking. Learning from your mistakes.

I think my favorite part about woodworking is taking some ugly piece of trash wood, that nobody is going to do anything with, and turning it into something sorta nice. I make a lot of boxes. I don't use plans, I just start building, and let the wood tell me what it wants to be. Sometimes, it really does want to be firewood, and if I mess it up bad enough, it becomes kindling, but that doesn't happen very often.

Here's an example. This ugly wood was part of an old bench that parts were rotten, and had to be rebuilt. I got a few of the seat boards that were still solid, and cleaned them up and made a box out of them.

Before..............

During..........

And after.............

Anyway......I doubt I answered many of your questions, but there's my thoughts off the top of my head. The stuff I build is pretty simple, compared to some of the absolute artist that do wood, but my family and friends don't know any better and the smiles I get when I give a box or clock away is payment enough for all the time I spend in the hobby.

Good luck on your project.

(I know all you other folks have seen these pictures before, but deal with it...this was for Annie!

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