What Are Your Skill Building Projects?

Small boxes, quite a few challenges and they dont take a lot of wood. Squareness, joinery, design, and finishing in a small package.

Boxes are tricky, i tried to hand cut finger joints today … straight to the garbage bin lol. Nice suggestion ShaneA.

-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty

Mine isn’t very good. Just too many excuses of not having the time. I like to dream about it.
What little time that I have, has been tied up in learning how to use the tools. Lately, it has been hand planes and table saw setup.

Someday (kids out of school), I’ll make something.

-- I'll be a woodworker when I grow up. HHHOPKS

Handcutting finger joints must have been fun. Funny, it’s no trouble to hand cut a dovetail, but I have never attempted to hand cut a finger joint.

-- Michael and Matthew

hhhopks … what are you doing to work on the handplane skills? Ive got the gear but i think my technique is behind the curve. My “flat and sharp” is comin along.

Michael – It was a small 4”x5” 3 fingered rectangle, nothing extravagent thats for sure.

-- "there aren’t many hand tools as awe-inspiring as the #8 jointer. I mean, it just reeks of cast iron heft and hubris" - Smitty

I think any project is good. I would suggest building project that interest you and worry about the techniques for the project. Skill will certainly follow. If all you’re going to build is cutting boards all your life (that’s just an example) and you get really good at it, does it mean your not a good wood worker? I consider myself a decent woodworker, but I’d struggle with some of the scroll work and bandsaw boxes. I have no interest (in building them, I love to look at them), but ask me to build a complex gun cabinet and I’m all over it.

Build what interest you and you’ll improve your skills.

-- There is nothing like the sound of a well tuned hand plane. - http://timetestedtools.wordpress.com (timetestedtools at hotmail dot c0m)

I’m building a mantel clock case using dimensioned poplar to learn some basic plane usage. I am getting practice cleaning up and squaring wood. I put grooves in the side panels for the dial board and reeded the edges. The base is 2” x 2” that I beveled and mitered. For the top panel I used morticed styles and rails with a raised panel. I still have to dowel the major pieces together and make the back door, and then finish it.

The planes that I have: smoother, block, plow, small shoulder, and an antique reeding plane.

Building jigs and fixtures. You kill 2 birds with one stone by building skills while build devices to improve repeatability and accuracy.

-- "Actions speak louder than words but not nearly as often." - Mark Twain

I aint been doing much woodworking, I got to finish restoring my shed.

-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker

Pretty much every project I do. – lol

Even if I’ve done something dozens of times, I can always find somewhere for improvement.

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

well by my experience is as you start to get a big collection of hand and power tools you start to run into situations where you need to figure out how you are going to make a cut or what ever your working on. Then you find out you are going to have to make some kind of jig to make it work. I think that really helps add to your skills. As you get more hand and power tools your skills will get better because you can have all the tools you need and still run into a difficult situation and you will have to make a jig or something else. As far as what to build , make things that you have fun with. Just try different things with them. And i am not telling you to go out and spend a ton of money on tools but i will tell you it gets more and more fun when you get them built up. Just keep it fun and keep building and do alot of research on youtube and the internet and your skills will grt better and better.

First reading your title I instantly thought I just try to make my self get better on each project, but then once I started to read your response.. So that being said I don’t really have a good answer at your time.

-- It's made of wood. Real sturdy.--Chubbs Peterson

I really like shop storage projects for skill-building, I also try to do something new each time I build one.(I put dovetails on my router bit cabinet) It’s good learning, plus if you screw it up, you’re the one who has to look at it all the time. And sometimes they can be a good reminder in the shop to “not do that again” LOL

-- Lucas, "Someday woodworks will be my real job, until then, there's this http://www.melbrownfarmsupply.com"

I think repetition is key. My first job in carpentry was to cut studs to length (92 5/8”) and I cut thousands of them. I learned how to cut square and straight and it has served me well. I would say something with allot of joinery, like shadow boxes maybe?

-- StevieP ~ Micheal Tompkins - you were not here on earth long but left a giant mark on us. RIP Brother

My shop ‘furniture,storage, and jigs are where I practice. I have shop drawers with every type of joinery imaginable. My earliest wooden hinges are incorporated into a lot of shop storage and serve as constant motivators to improve my skills.

-- " I'll try to be nicer, if you'll try to be smarter" gfadvm