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How /Why did you get into woodworking

2K views 24 replies 24 participants last post by  lateralus819 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
Wood Working animal Art Fawn Snout


I think I know why I was drawn to woodworking at an early age LOL. All kidding aside, my dad was a carpenter and I helped him a lot while I was growing up. I guess it just came natural to follow in his footsteps.
 

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#2 ·
Back when I was like 4 or 5 y.o., when I saw some houses going up about 1/3-mile from where I lived, I just had to visit and see just what was going on. None of that "when I grow up…" nonsense; I wanna build me a house NOW! And things just sorta grew from there.
 
#4 ·
When I started planning my retirement, I vowed not to make the same mistake my Dad did. He retired at 62, but with no hobbies or recreational interests, he was driving my Mom nuts and he went back to work at 62 1/2.

I was 58 when I set up my first 'shop' (in the 'half' or a 2 1/2 car garage). I took a couple of classes at the local tech school, and started finding some real satisfaction with the projects I was building. Seven years later, we relocated to be closer to family and I now have a dedicated shop that is just about right for the work I do (turning and some smaller flat work).
 
#5 ·
I was working a full-time job and trying to start up a business at the same time. The stress was getting to me, and I started watching some woodworking videos online and figured I'd give it a try. Worked great for stress relief. I got to bang chisels into things with a rubber mallet, try to tame nature, and make cool things at the same time. Started with a Paul Sellers style workbench, and fell in love with the work.

Now I've given up on the startup, and moved into a house where I have an actual shop (with a shiny new Bandsaw, huzzah!) and can get started on the list of projects I have planned. Nothing beats coming home from a long day of work on a computer to be able to do something with my hands and make useful items.
 
#8 ·
Jeff, I know her! ;-) I used to build street rods for a hobby. Back in 2000 I sold the rod I had been working on and just cleaned up the shop. I stopped by Home Depot to pick up some bolts I needed for something and a guy was giving a demo on a wood lathe. I watched him for over an hour and when I left there, I went home and assembled my new lathe. The rest is history!
 
#9 · (Edited by Moderator)
Jeff…I hope you married that piece of wood

I got really interested in woodworking and tools when I was around 7 or 8 years old and would hang out in the garage watching my Dad, Uncle & Grandpa build pirogues. I was amazed at the beauty of the wood grains and how it could be made into anything you wanted. They would teach me a few basics and get me involved with the process and teach me about different tools. The passion for woodworking has never stopped
It sure was more fun as a little kid than going to play on the interstate.
I still have an old drawknife that belonged to my Grandpa and has 1914 carved in the handle.
 
#10 ·
Same way here Jeff. Dad was a carpenter while I was growing up. I used to work with him when I was about 11. They used to pay me $10 per day. I've worked off and on as a carpenter doing framing and finish work. Dad used to make shelves and other fixtures for the house, but he didn't do fancy stuff. Stuff was put together with drywall screws and the only sander he had was a belt sander back then. I learned the skill from him, but I've learned most techniques from watching tv and YouTube.
 
#11 ·
My father and grandfather were both carpenters, but that was not the major influence. I started mostly out of necessity. When I moved into my first apartment. I needed to build a custom sized platform bed to fit the narrow space. It fit with about 0.25" to spare. When I purchased my first house, I renovated the bathroom and built a vanity. It just mushroomed on from there. I am largely self taught and watched the New Yankee Workshop and This Old House in the early days.
 
#12 · (Edited by Moderator)
Two months into marriage, I was a couch potato growing in width and vegetating in front of the TV, laptop, and smartphone (all at the same time). My wife pulled the plug and yanked every device away from me saying "get a hobby…how about woodworking". I stared at the empty void between my couch an TV and realized that I didn't have a coffee table and a dangerous spark ignited within me. And so the journey began…

<disclaimer>All events are truthful…just maybe not as dramatic…</disclaimer>
 
#13 ·
Necessity. We needed furniture. Kids needed toys. Then other people and kids needed things made.
40 years later I just do it for me.
 
#15 ·
During a tour of Norway back in 82 I became interested in wood carving. I bought a bunch of gouges for carving there and took some lessons at California Carvers Guild. Looking for things to carve on I made about fifty fireplace bellows. I no longer carve but make small artsy crafty items and sell them here in Texas.
 
#18 ·
When I was 11 yrs old my dad had a 1948 Monkey Wards 8" tilting table, table saw sitting in the basement and I built a doll house for my sister with dads help at the saw. Two years later we gutted and remodeled a 100 yr old home and I watched a carpenter build the kitchen cabinets. I've been addicted ever since.

I still have the MW TS and just put it back into retirement after a year of using it while my tools have been in storage.
 
#19 ·
When I was about twenty I wanted to sail around the world. I built a ferro-cement boat and then realized that I had no idea how to finish it. I started applying for jobs at shipyards in the hope of learning the necessary skills but it backfired. I got hooked on building and never did sail off into the world's oceans.
 
#20 · (Edited by Moderator)
My dad grew up on my grandpa's farm and it was in the days when money was scarce and a man needed to be able to fix and build things. I kinda pick it up some there. The in 9th grade I got to take Shop and Foundry both in that year. I had some great Shop teachers and we made some really nice stuff….not the shelves and bird houses they teach in most schools.
At that time I was growing up on the Chesapeake Bay not far from the Naval Academy and had the fishing bug really bad. I really needed a boat. My dad said he would buy the wood and things like screws and boat hardware but I was to build it after my homework was done and not before. There were nights I remember working on that boat in our basement til 2 am. I followed a really poor set of plans and had to improvise and change many things. I worked all winter on the boat, a 16' flat bottom Cypress lap-strake row boat. Came spring and time to get the boat out of the basement and launched. I had never thought about the boat being too big to get out of there. My dad and I had to cut away some of the side of the house and some basement stairs to get it into the back yard. Before I could launch the boat my dad insisted I repair the house and build new stairs. This went really fast as I was eager to see if the boat would float and row. Now getting the boat to water was the next problem as we lived back several blocks from the river. Now you wouldn't believe how much a 16' Cypress row boat could weigh. I got all my pals and we wound up building a framework between 6 bicycles, getting the boat up on the frame and slowly walking this make-shift trailer to the beach. It had turned dark when we got there and launch and test run had to wait until the next day. One other substantial feature of the boat was it was lap-strake built meaning the boards overlapped with caulk rope driven into every seam. Many people call it "Clinker Built". Disappointingly the boat leaked like a sieve but 3 days half sunk and the wood swelled up, we bailed her out and she never leaked again. My dad even like my job so much, the next year he bought a huge motor for it. Now this was 1953 and the biggest outboard motor I had ever seen was an Evinrude 25 hp about as big as the 100 hps of today and only the rich could afford. We couldn't go that far and settled on a used Martin 100. This was a 10 hp brand name Martin but made by the National Pressure Cooker Corp. We absolutely ran the bearings off of it over the next several years. I went in the Army, was sent to Germany and didn't see that boat again for about 8 years but it held up and even lasted nearly 20 years before it was stolen. For all I know that big old heavy thing may still be floating someplace. Cypress will last forever.
Long boring story but that's how I was hooked and have been an enthusiastic WW for the next nearly 60 years. And now it is my therapy for all of life's pains and depressions… and it really works.
 
#21 ·
Grandpa built everything just the way the woodright did in later years. It was during the mid 50s that I began learning from him. He had no electricity so it was all manual labor. Today I generaly begin with unmilled wood and split it with hand tools. Froe and maul, sledge and wedges. Then I turn to draw knives rasps chizels and all the other hand tools. I do have a shop full of power tools but I still do the majority of the work by hand. Osteoarthritis has set in and I cant very easily hold the tools so I don't get much done lately. I one hour project lately takes as much as two weeks and the quality is no longer there, but after 60 years I just can't quit . It has taken me about 20 minutes to write this much, hitting the wrong keys even wwith the large ketboard is a pain in both back pockets.
 
#22 ·
I was raised in the trucking business, & we had livestock to tend to as well. My Father was by no means a carpenter!!! And I was to busy for any hobbies growing up. When I got to high school, I got into Ag & Wood classes, & kinda got an interest in ww. When I got out of high school, I went right into OTR trucking! And Drove for 35 years. In 2005, I started havin' some health problems, & my Sawbones told me I was gonna have to slow down some, get a hobby. A hobby, I said?! I ain't never had a hobby! So, my loving wife said why don't you take up wood working? It took me a long time to get slowed down to concentrate on a project. I started buying a few tools. A scroll saw, A RAS, drill, square, etc, & started doin' small projects a little at a time. In 2009, when my health quit me completely, my wood shop kept me from losin' my sanity!! And now that I can no longer drive at all, my shop is my safe haven. it gets me thru the tough times. Kind of a therapy, I guess. Helps with the depression, loss of work, etc. I am grateful I got into woodworking the way I did!
 
#23 ·
I got into it because of all the craft work my grandparents used to do, grandpa would do the construction, grandma would do the finishing/painting. I got further into it because of the overpriced, lightweight, low quality furniture available at most furniture stores.
 
#24 ·
I was in University for 8 years or so (and would still be there if I could afford to go back, I really love learning) but my research was in medieval church history and one day I realized that all of my work was abstract and I had never made anything tangible. I remembered really enjoying building model airplanes as a kid so I went to the hobby store and bought a kit and started putting it together. I built a dozen or so and got pretty decent at it but I quickly got bored doing the same thing over and over. About the same time I was visiting my little brother and he was building a bookshelf out of Wood magazine. I started helping him and was instantly hooked. I haven't had as much time or money to do the work that I would like to but I've read every book my local library has on woodworking (plus a few more thanks to inter library loans). Since being laid off from my job I've had less money for wood but a little more time on my hands so I've been working with construction grade pine and learning a lot in a wood that I don't feel too badly about screwing up in.
 
#25 ·
I used to watch my dad do carpentry a lot. Went on to BOCES to take building trades and built two houses, had fun.

Then i decided i HAD to build a cabinet for my guitar amp out of curly maple.

Had nothing but a few clamps, a sander and some glue! I got hooked.

I originally intended on building guitars but I've yet to try that yet! Too addicted to furniture.
 
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