So...Here I go

Welcome aboard! 6×6 should get you friendly with yourself, that’s for sure!

-- You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. (Plato)

“Honey, I can’t work on the house without some decent tools. Right? Honey, are you listening?”

-- Todd A. Clippinger, Montana, http://amcraftsman.com

There is a fellow on here that joined not to long ago, can’t think of his name but he’s a retired marine. I believe he just has the chair he sits on and his knife but produces some spectacular carvings. I don’t think it’s about the amount of physical space you have. Welcome to LJ’s.

-- Better to say nothing and be thought the fool... then to speak and erase all doubt.

Tomcat – hang in there, you’ve got the right spirit and with some good hand tools you should turn out some beautiful work. Many of the guys here have small shops, and one of the guys actually works in his living room, using pretty much all hand tools. He produces some very nice work.

-- Bill - "Suit yourself and let the rest be pleased." http://www.cajunpen.com/

Welcome aboard. You will like it here, and will constantly be inspired by the works of others.

-- Maplewood, MN

It doesn’t matter how much space you have, you always need/want more.
You’ve got room for making small boxes, carving and scrollsaw work.
Think that you are sitting inside your tool box, everything will be within arms length reach without moving.

Thanks folks! My thinking was that craftsmen of old produced some beautiful work with just hand tools, so the lack of a table saw isn’t going to prevent me from doing good work unless I let it!

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

Hello Tomcat;
—-wow, I just looked at your temps down there in the south….50’s, 60’s, 70’s and so what about working in a 360 degree outside workshop….

When the weather up here in New England hits the 30’s and sunny, I still will pack out my sawhorse and workbenches and head outside to work, best workshop in the world. I can still remember the furniture I used to make at our kitchen table back in those early days and then I also remember working on wood in a small shed in the winter time with no-heat, no-power tools excepte for a drill and circular saw….those were when some of my best pieces of ‘wood art’ were produced. As I all-ways tell folks, if the wood is in your blood, no-thing will discourage you and you will find//make a way.

Don’t sell yourself short on hand tools and especially on those Japanese pull saws….but remember that with the pull saw, you need to let the saw do the work. Also there is a big difference between ‘western thinking’ and ‘eastern thinking’ when it comes to saws, chisels, and planes….plus different muscles in your body that you will be using. Explore all the subjects on these manners of thinking and then decide which one works best for you.

Remember you ‘can do it’ and let no-one discourage you from your destiny…..I alo have a small blackboard by the downstairs phone that says….’I can do’.

Now lets make some wood chips and welcome to LJ.

Thank you.
GODSPEED,
Frank

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/

”…my wife has this silly idea in her head that it should still be available for family use.” Sometimes our spouses don’t understand necessity. In time, if you’re lucky, she’ll watch Norm Abrams and David Marks with their tools and innocently ask, “Do you have one of those?” That is the time to pounce. In the meantime, hand tool skills are good to have and well worth developing.

-- When you give someone a chance it may well be their last.

Frank,

The only hesitation I have with a 360 degree workshop is the crime rate in this town. While I’ll be moving to a nicer neighborhood, there are no crime free neighborhoods anymore. Last thing I want is all my stuff to get stolen.

That said, I do plan on building an outdoor workbench, probably about 8’ long, for working with larger projects. Most of the projects I have planned can be done in the smaller shop, but the bookcase I want to build for my mother will be a bit trickier in there ;)

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

the challenge of your space will guide you to being a very skilled handtool woodworker. Lucky you.
(as for a table saw – who needs one??!!!! waste of money anyway haha)

and do you have an attic? One of the Lj’s has his shop in the attic. Sounds pretty peaceful to me.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

There’s an attic, but it might actually be smaller than the storage room ;)

I agree with you about the challenge though. It should make for some interesting work :D

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

Hi Tomcat;
—-well you’ve got me there, but yes I do know what you’re saying….
My only problem//blessing is that I live in the woods, far removed from the rest of the world, and yet there are even now the times when those dis-agreeable elements come into the woods out here.

Things have sure gotten sad in the world today, too much time between catching crime makers and bringing justice….of well I had better watch my opinionated mouth. But then I wonder how much stealing there would be going on if those that were doing the stealing knew about swift justice. If you steal with your hands and are caught….trial begins today, and if found guilty, then today we remove your hand….WOW!

....you see, we could be crime free again….

GODSPEED,
Frank

-- --frank, NH, http://frank.wordpress.com/

I’m in complete agreement with you Frank. What’s bad is the police here honestly don’t seem to care. It didn’t use to be that way either. My father retired from the local PD, and even he is ashamed of where the department has headed. When the law enforcers don’t seem to care, the criminals become even more brazen in their activities. It’s ridiculous really.

But I’d better stop now before I really get out of hand ;)

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!

Hang in there Tomcat, many of us are in little bitty places and still get it done. And as Russell said “Honey, come look at what Norm’s making….isn’t that cool? I could make one of those for you if I had a nice bandsaw like his!” Women like shinny things, go for the bait everytime…LOL Welcome, and don’t feel down..enjoy the great feeling of creating wonderful with your hands and don’t let ‘em get you down. :>)

-- Jim Hallada, Chesterfield, VA

My shop is half of a two car garage. The other half is used for storage since we don’t have a basement. I’m making do with the attic space but I hate putting perfectly good wood up there to use as floor over the beams to stack the growing number of tupperware bins. At one point I had this wild idea to send my son, daughter and lovely better half out shopping. Whist they were away I was going to throw away all the “junk”. She read my mind while I was eyeing a tupperware bin full of magazine articles, papers and other crap. She is a horader, I am not. If I didn’t wear it or use it the last 2 years, its outta here. You’ll find a way, I believe in it!

-- "Creativity is...seeing something that doesn't exist already. You need to find out how you can bring it into being and that way be a playmate with God."

I’m so impressed with people who can throw things out.
I am so appalled by people who throw things out.
I love going through the treasures of boxes… I love being able to go to a hoarder and say “say.. do you know anything about…” and next thing you know the info, the item, the book, the whatever, is sitting in my hands!

back to the small space…. no possibilities of hording. .. simplicity = creativity. Love that too.

-- "Functional WoodArt" by Debbie, Canada (http://www.execulink.com/~yohan)

what’s that saying… “the best projects come from small workshops”.. anyway.. something like that….welcome a-board and a knowledge of handtools is not a bad skill to learn.

-- Rob (A) Waxahachie,TX

Dang, I love this site. All the encouragement with none of the flames.
I am firmly in the Japanese handsaw school. I use a framed coping saw with the blade reversed for a lot of my general duty dimensioning. Cheap, new blades are a hassle free exercise and are readily available by the handful. And you couldn’t ask for a smaller footprint.
Good luck Tomcat, and welcome to LJs.

-- "Bordnerizing" perfectly good lumber for over a decade.

wow, In some aspect’s you are lucky….you are forst into using hand tools. with most people its it second to power

-- Do it right the first time. Becuase fixing it is a wast of time.

Partridge,

I guess that’s one way to look at it ;)

Thanks for the encouragement everyone :)

-- "Give me your poor tools, your tired steel, your huddled masses of rust." Yep, I ripped off the Statue of Liberty. That's how I roll!