Ruminations on the hobby
I was reading Teri's Charlie Brown post and trying to think back on what influenced me towards wood working. I have come to realize that the decision to woodwork really came from no outside influences. My dad never woodworked. The only thing I can think of him working on was a model train table. I can't remember my step dad doing anything in wood besides maybe a ramshackle doghouse. I really don't know why I was drawn to wood. I always enjoyed "This Old House" and "New Yankee Workshop" growing up, but I didn't do anything about it until my first marriage in 2001. One of the first things I did was to get a miter saw and a cheapo table saw and build myself a workbench. Those tools went the way of my first marriage, but when I entered my second to a woman who actually supported my hobbies, I was able to replace them fairly easily. I'll tell you one thing, my wife hesitated ever so slightly when I told her I wanted a $400 jointer, but she hasn't batted an eyelash since I built a raised panel door for the staircase storage area. She has seen what I can do with a bunch of cheapo tools and now she wants to know what I can build with some high quality ones. Thats what enabled me to spend $800 on my new router table. Sure we have to plan these things out in advance, but it is a whole lot easier now. I told her I wanted to get a $1600 table saw a couple of months ago, and she didn't even hesitate. She just said, "Okay, let's figure out a budget for it for summer of '08." So I think the biggest influence to get me started in woodworking was inside me, but the best influence to keep it going was my wife. Thanks for reading.
Rob
I was reading Teri's Charlie Brown post and trying to think back on what influenced me towards wood working. I have come to realize that the decision to woodwork really came from no outside influences. My dad never woodworked. The only thing I can think of him working on was a model train table. I can't remember my step dad doing anything in wood besides maybe a ramshackle doghouse. I really don't know why I was drawn to wood. I always enjoyed "This Old House" and "New Yankee Workshop" growing up, but I didn't do anything about it until my first marriage in 2001. One of the first things I did was to get a miter saw and a cheapo table saw and build myself a workbench. Those tools went the way of my first marriage, but when I entered my second to a woman who actually supported my hobbies, I was able to replace them fairly easily. I'll tell you one thing, my wife hesitated ever so slightly when I told her I wanted a $400 jointer, but she hasn't batted an eyelash since I built a raised panel door for the staircase storage area. She has seen what I can do with a bunch of cheapo tools and now she wants to know what I can build with some high quality ones. Thats what enabled me to spend $800 on my new router table. Sure we have to plan these things out in advance, but it is a whole lot easier now. I told her I wanted to get a $1600 table saw a couple of months ago, and she didn't even hesitate. She just said, "Okay, let's figure out a budget for it for summer of '08." So I think the biggest influence to get me started in woodworking was inside me, but the best influence to keep it going was my wife. Thanks for reading.
Rob