# What...was your first woodworking project?



## Dadoo (Jun 23, 2007)

You young guys won't have any problem with this but us older guys…?

I'm not sure, but I think my first real project was building a new breakfast nook table for a (real pretty) neighbor lady back when I was 15. That's 35 years ago boys (and girls). I made it out of 3/4" plywood with a laminated top and edgeing, one leg and a French cleat to attach it to a wall. I remember using a 3lb coffee can to draw the corner radius' and cutting the whole thing with dad's jigsaw. It turned out real good and was strong too.

And then, my mother (still) has a simple ski rack I made around the same time that was maybe 3' of 3/4" pine with 8, 3/4" dowel pegs drilled into it to hold the skis. There was a routed edge on this one, so I had to have made it in high school shop. Yep…It was where I learned the name "Roman Ogee". Ha! A little reminiscing here!

Do you remember your first? (Oh…In case you're wondering, the neighbor lady paid me $20.00 for the job. Hell. I was 15, she was real pretty, husband was a 250lb drunk. She could've kept that $20…I wouldn't have cared less!) (And her name was Marty!) HA! It's a swiss cheese memory, but it's all there.


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

(interesting that your remember her name!) 

well.. let's see.. my first ever woodworking project that I did by myself, (not counting some pyrography)
oooooh think,, think.. what was it.. oh yes, let's just go back and look at my project listings!! 
There it is: the first woodworking project by MsDebbieP. built 393 days ago.


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## Brad_Nailor (Jul 26, 2007)

8th grade woodshop, a cribbage board made out of red oak. First time I used a router, table saw and drill press. I covered the neighbors cribbage board with craft paper and marked the holes and then use that for a template to drill the holes. It was originally supposed to have turned legs but one of my glue ups exploded on the lathe…either I pushed too hard with the tool or banged the set piece in too hard..or did a crappy glue up. All I know is I got hit with a couple pieces of fast moving oak and ended up in the nurses room! Needless to say the cribbage board ended up being a table top model! man, that was…..34 years ago…and I still don't like to turn!


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

Sounds like she made quite an impression on you. I'm glad you spared us the more intimate details. ROTFL!

I guess my first WW project would have been my pinewood derby car when I was in Cub Scouts. (You and I are about the same age, Dadoo, so that was 40+ years ago).

Of course I had a little help and instruction from my dad, especially with the finish. He was into making gunstock lamps at the time, and my car ended up with a french polish finish that put the other kids' painted wrecks to shame!


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## GaryK (Jun 25, 2007)

Jr. high wood shop. A wooden spoon, then a chessboard. Then nothing for years after.


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## JonJ (Nov 20, 2007)

When I was around 10, I got interested in old sailing ships for some reason, and started carving little models out of oak limbs that fell in the yard. I think the first one I made was the USS CONSTITUTION- that was my favorite.


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## Greg3G (Mar 20, 2007)

I think I was about 7 or 8…my Grandfather set me up with an old table pedestal. I cut circles out for the top (2) the bottom (2) and small ones (4) that I used for pad feet. I stained and varnished myself. I think my dad still has it today.

My first school woodshop project was a small box. I still have that box on a shelf in my office.


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## rikkor (Oct 17, 2007)

Cribbage board. Very uneven drilling, I might add.


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## FrankA (Jan 20, 2008)

It is rough trying to remember almost 40 yrs ago but I think my first was a pinewood derby car while in cub scouts. I junior high shopclass I made a book stand that a cookbook sits on, for my mother.


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## Karson (May 9, 2006)

My first was a bookcase that I made in High school shop. My mother had it in the house. and when my parents passed away, my sisters got rid of it I guess. I've never seen it in years. It was built with Red Oak.

The second was a stereo cabinet with speakers. It might have even be just a Hi-Fi because stereo was just coming out at the time. It was built with Walnut.


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## matter (Jan 30, 2008)

I think the first thing that I ever made was a board- nailed to the hardwood floor when I was about four. My Dad didn't think a four year old could pound a nail through oak…

After that, The first thing that I remember building was a rocking cradle for my little sister's Cabbage Patch Kid with my Dad. Then a medicine cabinet, also with Dad, then a fishing rod rack (still right behind me) also with Dad…

Now I'm on my own, and still building most stuff with Dad's tools.


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## gizmodyne (Mar 15, 2007)

Pinewood derby of course. Then a pair of skim boards in middle school. California.


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## Radish (Apr 11, 2007)

Stacking circles puzzle, junior high school shop. Pine and orange shellac, from the nearly perpetually open gummed up jug of community shellac. Gawd awful workmanship and an even worse finish. It took forty years and dewaxed blonde Zinnser Seal-coat to erase the hatred of the nasty gloopy stuff.


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## SST (Nov 30, 2006)

Not my *very* first, but my *first furniture project from 8th grade shop class*(about 1959 or 1960).It's made of cherry and was gifted to my older sister & brother-in-law back then for their first house. I received it back recently when they downsized to a condo. It's been in the basement collecting dust and needs a re-finishing. Maybe it's time to do that and give it to one of my kids. -SST


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## RAH (Oct 14, 2007)

I was about twelve, 4H project, a rabbit cage with help from my dad.


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## LesHastings (Jan 26, 2008)

First piece of furniture was a lathe turned walnut bar stool in seven grade shop class. It had dissapeared for years, didn't know where it went. Two years ago I found it while getting my parents estate sale ready to go. I found it in pieces in my dad's old shop. Soon as I get it back together and re-finished I'll get it on here.


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## Alphie (Jan 13, 2008)

I took high school wood shop and made a real basic entertainment center to hold my 8-track player. Wow, that sure dates me, eh? Just recently the old "entertainment center" was trashed after using it for many things, most of which was not for its original purpose. It was in pretty bad shape at this point. I didn't do any projects for many years, until I purchased my own table saw about 10-12 years ago.


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## BelleCityWW (May 28, 2007)

My first woodshop teacher was a very demanding man and he had the skills to back it up. He could do some amazing things with wood. He taught us all the basics and gave us a good foundation to build on. He loved to use the bandsaw and taught us to do so, every project that we made included a trip or two to the bandsaw. I loved that class! The first project was a hand carved nut dish. I posted pics on my projects page. After we cut the basic shape out on the bandsaw we had to hand carve the rest. Then he had us make some tables. We even got to do a little turning on the lathe and make a set of candle sconces (sp?) He was a paste wax man. IIRC we finished all our projects with paste wax. I really enjoyed it.

John


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## RyanShervill (Dec 18, 2007)

First wood project ever? A key fob in grade 7. We took a trip to the high schools wood shop and made these things…they were a 1" X 1 1/2" piece of 1/4" walnut, to which you attached a picture then poured that heavy epoxy over to make a 1/4" layer. I still remember my "picture", It was a garfield cartoon saying "I'm not over-weight, I'm under-tall" LOL…gave it to my (4' 11" tall) mom  
I guess my first "real" project was a large plate rack made in Grade 9 wood shop….still hangs up on the wall at my brothers house.


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## 8iowa (Feb 7, 2008)

In 1954, in 9th grade woodworking class, I made a gun rack for my Mossberg 410 shotgun. My second project that year was a trestle type coffee table. I still have both of these projects - still have the shotgun too!


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## griff (Feb 6, 2008)

first one that i can remember was a cedar chest that i made for my mother. in mt industrial art class while i was in high school. i seen it a few weeks ago,i had forgotten about it


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## saddlesore (Oct 17, 2007)

Other than Jr. High woodshop, my first functional piece was a doghouse with an offset door, double walls of 1/4 plywood to sandwitch insulation. It had a removable top for cleaning. After 20 yrs, it has house 4 different family members, including my son one memorable summer night when his Mom was very angry at him!

PW Derby! Great fun, and as much an ego trip for the victorious dads as the kid! My engineering classes convinced me that nearly frictionless axles and having the weight forward would be more critical than a streamlined shape. i remember having a brick on wheels when I was a Cub Scout that finished third, so we polished and polished on the axles, and cut out a basic '32 Roadster shape for my son's car. This was before I got back into woodworking, so was working with a B & D sabre saw. (Sorry LJ's ) It took first place at troop level and second at District.

Great post! Brings back a lot of memories for the LJ's!


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## Harry72 (Feb 2, 2008)

My 1st project was a Xmas present for my parents about 5yrs ago.
It has no finish on it here, just made with cheap pine… many mistakes on it, but thats what woodwork is about.


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## cabinetmaker2 (Feb 5, 2008)

my first project was a foot stool that I built in my dads shop, my dad was a german cabinet/ clock maker, he has since passed, my mother still has the stool,,, that was around 43 years ago, Damn dont time fly….
I was just 13 at the time.


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## mrtrim (Oct 11, 2007)

i made a cutting board for my mother in shop class . thankfully i dont have a pic ! so ill post my first real project . years ago i leased an 11,000 sq. ft. building which had been a desoto dealship gone bust . half of which i used as my autobody shop and storage for antique cars waiting for restoration . the other half i subleased to a custom furniture maker . we were both quite taken by each others abilities in our trades and started . teaching each other our trades . under his direction i built this stereo cab. and speaker tables



in return i helped him restore his comaro


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## Brad_Nailor (Jul 26, 2007)

oh….so your also "Mr. Bondo" ?


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## mrtrim (Oct 11, 2007)

lol good one david . nope just an old tin knocker !


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## Critterman (Dec 20, 2007)

My first was in Jr Woodshop also, a match holder with a striking stone glued on. My parents held onto that stupid thing for about 25 years before I finally told my Dad to throw it out (it was a family joke for every time I went to visit) LOL I guess I have to admit I didn't show much promise in WW back then. I don't remember anything after that for a very long time, when I got back into WW then it was a seedling starter box, with auto lift window that really got me going again. And THAT is a nice camero there "MR Bondo" [GRIN]


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## RobG (Dec 8, 2007)

It was a small nail box in woodshop. It was made entirely with hand tools and we were marked off for every 1/64th of an inch we were off. None of the hand tools were remotely sharp and I still have nightmares about getting the dimensions right. One of my friends that I had woodshop with came over a while back and I told him to take a couple stroke with one of my planes. He said,"Wow that's how they are supposed to work?"


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## cranbrook2 (May 28, 2006)

I failed woodworking in school , they wanted me to build stools and wooden cars and i didn,t want to so that didn,t go to far. 
At the age of 15 i started building houses and renovations and woodworking came natural after that. My first piece of furniture was a canopy bed.


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## roman (Sep 28, 2007)

Grade 9 shop. I made a really ugly thing that you put on the table for a hot pot/pan. That was about 35 years ago,plus minus and Mom still uses it up the cottage. For the next five years ot more my woodworking skills took a downward spiral…................very humble beginnings


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## Dadoo (Jun 23, 2007)

This was going well, and now that there's 1000 more members…time for a bump.


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## Tangle (Jul 21, 2007)

Hog gates! lots of oak hog gates! My old man was a hog man and we needed lots of hog gates. Made with 8 penny nails and they had to be clinched. I still hate hogs. Except as pork chops, bacon or ham.


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## snowdog (Jul 1, 2007)

Wow! that made for fun reading, great posts all.

My first project was for (guess) my mom. I stayed home from school that day, I was about 7? I went down into my grandfathers shop and found a 1×12x16 piece of pine and with a chisel roughly carved out "I love you mom, happy Mothers day" or something pretty close to that. I think she still has it. I'll have to see and get a pic of it. I stained it with some dark (I know now) wallnut stain and gave it to her, probably still wet, that night. Needles to say she loved it. I know it has hung on the wall in her last home (the one I grow up in) until she moved 5 years ago. That was 42 years ago.


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## Chipncut (Aug 18, 2006)

This is my first serious project.

I made a lot of different things before this, but I can't remember them all.

Here's where I get a chance to try a widget.

( I just remembered that I used to make wooden rubber guns, that shot inner tube rubber bands.)


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## Grumpy (Nov 9, 2007)

I have a memory like lightening, in & out in a flash. But I think going back 50 odd years that it was a small french polished tray made at high school.


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## teenagewoodworker (Jan 31, 2008)

my first real project was a printer table (not the one i just made). it was pretty bad. to save some money i made the whole thing out of 1/4" ply and there were 1/2" dips in all the parts that carried weight. i put the door over everything and it was too big so to change the printer paper you had to open the door. i measured for paper and made a holder put i forgot to account for the ply and it was too small. the frame was 4 2×2's running up each side. also since the door was 1/4" the hinges when through and since i installed them after finishing i had to grab the hack saw and cut them off leaving spots where i cut through my finish. i didn't really have much instruction or experience at that point though. i just kind got the wood and built it. i still cant believe i did it though as the only two tools i had were a jigsaw and a drill at that time. my newer printer table recently replaced it though and the old one met a sledge hammer (my favorite way of getting rid of things to large to get in a trash can)


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## MsDebbieP (Jan 4, 2007)

*Ryan*.. while you were making your trip to the woodshop, we females were knitting a pair of ugly slippers and making a drawstring bag.. ooooh yah…


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## odie (Nov 20, 2007)

Dahoo you are devious. OK my man as I remember it …. It was over 50 years ago and it was a solid redwood boat (18"x8"x2") with a small airplane engine mounted on it. My father would get me started on a phase of it and then check on me from time to time. I was so proud of it and like to think he was too. We would then go to a pond in a park near us, start it and let it go. A great father son time.


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## Boardman (Feb 7, 2008)

Heh…wooden shoeshine box. I was about 7,8. Painted black on the outside, screamin' lime green on the inside. Don't know what eventually happened to it, but it was in the family at least 20 years.


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## SteveKorz (Mar 25, 2008)

Mine was a 12" by 16", 6 foot tall bookcase made from 3/4 pine (all I could afford at the time), about 18-19 years ago. I still have it, and it still looks great. Serves it's purpose.


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## JoeLyddon (Apr 22, 2007)

It was in the 9th grade…

I had to Design, draw the plans, and build it…

It was a bedside end table, mahogany, tapered legs, & one drawer…

... didn't know a dovetail from a quailtail… 

Later, someone saw it, liked it, and wanted to buy it… I sold it (not knowing what I was doing) for $20… Back in about 1951… I guess that made me a "Professional" ... yes?!  

I still have a scar in the tip of my Left Index finger where I slipped with a chisel, while I was cleaning out the grooves in the top… to hold the aprons… As I said, I knew nothing about joinery… It worked though.


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## ND2ELK (Jan 25, 2008)

I made a bowl for my mother in 7th grade shop. When my mother passed, we found it in the kitchen cabinets 51 years later.

God Bless
tom


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## bryano (Aug 19, 2007)

My first project was in 9th grade shop.


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## lew (Feb 13, 2008)

Mine was in 7th grade and we had a woman shop teacher from Massachusetts. I remember her saying, "If can't sar the board right you can't sar it at all." I think she must have been a retired Marine drill Sargent, judging from the way she terrified us. Miss Cleeves- still have nightmare and that was in 1957. Oh, the project, a wooden school tablet cover with my initials on it.
Lew


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## BigCM (Mar 13, 2008)

Wow, I envy you guys shop classes. We're making pencil holders out of pine…
Times-a-changing.
Remember field trips?


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## croessler (Jun 22, 2007)

9th Grade after taking a construction trade class on a lark my dad wanted to build a shed that resembled an old Penn Dutch Hay barn. I designed and built the roof trusses for the shed by myself. My dad and I worked on the frame up together. It took a couple of weeks to build during the summer; but it is still standing after 29 years and countless hurricanes.


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## matt1970 (Mar 28, 2007)

7th grade…book ends out of hand tools…


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## brianinpa (Mar 16, 2008)

In seventh grade wood shop it was a combined effort of all the students to make candle holders. Since they were a combined effort, I don't really consider these to be my first, but in 9th grade wood shop the entire class made the same style of cabinet. Here is mine. I made it 29 years ago now. It has been used by: me in my room when I was growing up to hold my "stuff'; my sister when I moved out (she put a wet cup on it and you can still see the water ring today - she's my sister so I gotta forgive her); my wife and I as a TV stand & junk/dust collector; my oldest son as a video game cabinet; and today my youngest son uses it as a storage area for his abundant supply of sheet music. It has been on the East Coast, West Coast, it even spent some time in the Azores (Portugal). It's been around and I am glad to say that I haven't had to do anything to it


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

Basswood handcut scotty-dog wallhanging. All handsanded. Anitque maple stain … 8th grade


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## trifern (Feb 1, 2008)

A maple magazine rack in 9th grade industrial arts class. Then I made a love seat in 10th, a dining room table in 11th, and then a queen size bed my senior year. I have never lost the bug, although I did take a 25 year break.


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## gusthehonky (Feb 26, 2008)

Does tree house count?


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## Denappy (Apr 26, 2008)

Several iterations of helping son with Derby Cars (and built some when I was a kid), Woodshop in school; but most recently a set of 4 cedar raised beds (4×8) for a vegetable garden.


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## juniorjock (Feb 3, 2008)

I'm not sure if this qualifies….... but….... I was about seven years old and I decided to sneak a hand saw out in the back yard. If my mom or dad had caught me my tail would have been blistered. Anyway, I had my eye on this small tree. I just knew if I could get it cut down I could build SOMETHING out of it. I didn't really have a clue what. But here I go. I grab it with my left hand and start to saw with my right hand (right above and on the same side as my left hand). On about the fourth stroke, there it went…. right across the back of my left hand. There was lots of blood and stuff, but that didn't keep me from getting a whooping….... I still have a nice scar to remind me about that episode. (from the saw…. not the whooping)


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## toyguy (Nov 23, 2007)

Grade 7 or 8, I built a letter/mail holder thing to hang on the wall. It was a piece of junk;..That was 40 years ago.

Just the other day, while cleaning out my Mom's house I came upon it, You just have to love Mom's that keep this kind of stuff.


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## Frank (Nov 19, 2006)

Hello Dadoo
--since I'm supposed to be showing safety conscious up-bringing….maybe I shouldn't count learning to build campfires out of wood in those forests of my younger days. But then after building all those forts out in the woods, a campfire sure seemed nice.

Always carrying a pocket knife with me, now and back then….hmmm, I think maybe I was born with a pocket knife. So I was whittling and carving and de-barking from way back when….my first wood projects though must have been those wooden boats and dugouts of small size that I as always sending off in the many streams around my neck of the woods. But then what about all the bows and arrows and spears and swords which I had to design and make, in order defend my forts from all those images of my imagination, that lurked in the woods around me….

Hmmm, ....now that I think of it though, maybe it was the bookmarkers I would carve for all those Hardy Boy books I used to read. Now this has really got my brain to thinking and analyzing, since those Hardy boys where always hanging out in upstate NY at camps of 'rustic'. Maybe my mind was being shaped even back then to forage in the woods for 'rustic' and 'wood art'.

Also I do have a small bookcase in my office here made out of cherry wood, from back in the days of my being 11 years old. I'll take a picture soon and post on here….

Thank you.
GODSPEED,
Frank

email at:
[email protected]


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## coronet1967 (Aug 2, 2007)

well my first wood working project was on the lathe a small goblet our of cedar i think it is running around my mothers house still. i was about 15.

my next project was a coffee table when i was 35, my wifes uncle had a piece of pine 22 inches wide and about 36 inches long the thing was beat to death but one side of it planned out pretty good at the local vocational school.

a friend told me that the best way to decide what i needed to do woodworking was to start with what i had and build a project so.

i had a table saw some oak barn wood , two sanders one high speed, and a nice piece of pine i spend about 4 months on that table mostly sanding the oak to smooth, lots of sanding disk.
i would change a lot of things about that coffee table now but it still sits in the living room and the wife will not let me touch it.

jay angel


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## jockmike2 (Oct 10, 2006)

Mine was a maple mallet on a lathe, never used a lathe again until about 3 or 4 years ago. That was about 46 years ago. wow. am I gettin old.


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## manilaboy (Aug 17, 2007)

Mine was banca (outrigger boat).A banca is basically a dug-out canoe with plywood nailed on a rabbet cut on the outboard side on the top so as to raise the side height. I made mine out of maybe a 3" x 14" piece of wood from a crate. Handsaw, a drill, a chisel and a hammer were all the tools that I had. I drilled some of the material out. Lots of drill holes because I only had a 1/4" bit. A chisel did most of the clean up and sandpaper finished up the carcass. I peeled a ply off a piece of plywood as the sides and oh yes stuck it on with TESTOR'S glue. I bet you all remember that. Push pins kept it in place till the glue cured. I cut a 3/8" X 3/8" x 14" piece as ribbing for the ply. I grooved it with a piece of a hack saw blade and mounted it on the ply. Rubber bands held it in place while the glue set. Man that was more than thirty years ago! I still can feel the excitement, enjoyment and sense of accomplishment I had with that piece. Don't know where it is now though. But I remember my son playing with it.


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## Steelmum (Jul 21, 2007)

My first woodworking project happened because I was taking a class to learn to tole paint. I was buying all my supplies from the local craft store, but I had to buy the project itself from the class teacher. When I was ready to paint projects on my own from a book, I couldn't find the projects I wanted. So I bought a jig saw and a sander. Then I showed the picture of what I wanted to make to the guy working at the local hardware store, he showed me what wood I needed to buy. (I sure miss that store). I moved the car out of the garage and never put it back. I found I needed a router and a bigger saw and…it just keeps growing, and growing and growing. A few years ago I built my husband a shed to keep his lawn mower and junk in.


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## Islandwoodworker (Mar 24, 2008)

It was a Boomerang book rack. Two boomerang shaped pieces with dowels connecting them to hold books. My Mother still has it. I was just a little guy …. a long time ago
David


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## MSRiverdog (Mar 3, 2008)

I built a boat, out of plywood, the old man wouldn't let me bring it to the lake, gave me fire crackers instead. He was good enough to not to say it wouldn't float very long. To me it was a boat, to him it was a box with an angled end, hey what ya want from a 10 year old? My Mother just shook her head.


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## Jens (Jan 28, 2009)

Not sure what came first, but I remember building seats for trees, rubber band guns, forts, and skateboards out of the scrap wood at my grandparents house. I don't even know why there was always scrap wood, since nobody was a woodworker! We used an old western saw, an old egg beater type drill (breast drill I think they're called?), and whatever nails we would find. Still had the hammer a few years ago, when remodeling our first house. Steel handled, the wrapping had disintegrated by then, so I wrapped it in electrical tape. I'm working on the drywall above the tub, and the top-heavy hammer spun upside down and fell out of the loop, chipping the tub! Dohhh! That'll teach me to be lazy and not look for the right hammer!

Thanks for this question, and all the responses, pretty cool.


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## thom (Feb 16, 2008)

My first project was just a toy but to me it seemed to be much more back then.

In 1952 when I was seven years old we lived up the inlet from the small community of Tenakee in Alaska. The old man who lived next door had a work shop in his wood shed that had a bench, vise, old hand saws, a jack plane, a couple of chisels, a hammer, and a brace with some bits. I remember him telling me it was OK to go in there but I'd have to be careful and not hurt myself. There wasn't any electricity but there were windows over the bench.

Some of the kids in town had boats and they would race each other by tying a string from their boat to long sticks to pull them as they ran along the beach. It didn't look to hard to me so I searched the tide line on the mile walk home. I found a 2X4 that would work and I remember cutting it about a foot long and making one end pointed with the saw. I used a chisel to round it up so it looked more like a boat in the front and tapered the back to resemble a stern. I nailed a piece on the front to be the pilot house and chiseled out behind that so it was hollowed out for a place to put cargo. Found a lot of 3 or 4 penny nails which I hammered around the edge of the deck and made a railing with some wire I found. Drilled a hole behind the pilot house with the brace and bit and put in a mast I cut from a piece of firewood. Used an ax for that and finished it up with a knife. Got some string from mom and tied the boat to a long (probably all of six foot) branch I found on the beach. Remember not being able to use it that day cause the tide was out and I couldn't run very well through the kelp beds and muddy bottom in front of the house but it did float and looked good..

Sure was proud of that. I remember playing with it most of that summer but I did loose it one day when the string broke and the tide was going out. Watched it till it was out of sight in the waves then walked back home with tears in my eyes. Every time I went to town that summer I kept my eye out thinking it might have gotten washed back to the beach but I never saw it again. Never won a race with it either since all the other kids were bigger and could run faster than me.

I've got good memories from those years. We didn't have electricity or plumbing, our running water was in a creek a hundred yards down the trail, and mom cooked and heated the house with a wood burning stove. Dad was commercial fisherman in the summer and trapped in the winter. I don't remember us having much back then but we were family and for me that was enough.

Sorry this is so long, guess I got caught up on memory lane


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## woodyoda (Dec 7, 2008)

My first woodworking project was a wood sanding block, made in the 7th grade, everyone had to make that, so I don't count it…....therefore my first project was a spoked magazine rack, make out of walnut…..I won 1st prize at the Santa Clara County Fair for that one…....and I still have it…..................................................yoda


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## Kindlingmaker (Sep 29, 2008)

I was 8 years old and made a simple black walnut tie rack and that was 50 years ago, still have it.


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## JohnGray (Oct 6, 2007)

7th grade book ends all with hand tools. That was 52 years ago.


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## LocalMac (Jan 28, 2009)

5th grade.(14 years ago) We were having art class. We all randomly chose five small pieces of wood from a box and had to glue them together to form something. Mine came out looking like some kind of giraffe. My mom still has it on display in her house. What a nice memory to think back on. Great topic!


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## Gene01 (Jan 5, 2009)

Turned a lamp. Osage Orange or "Hedge" as we called it. 1955, 8th grade. 3' long/high and 6.5 largest diameter. That was the LAST time I tried to turn any thing that dense/heavy. Took out a shop window when the piece flew off the lathe.


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## dusty2 (Jan 4, 2009)

A pine pig cutting board. Made from three pieces (shop class requirement). Must require some doweling. No power tools allowed. Edge joints are not all that bad. It doesn't get much use these days but it still has a place in the kitchen (on the counter top).

Pine…a bad choice (really bad) for a cutting board. I think the glue was a hot hide glue. That might not be a good choice either but it has held together for more than a half century.

Incidently, there have been some really fantastic projects posted with this thread. Some are so good….I would like to see what your subsequent projects look like.


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## mmh (Mar 17, 2008)

My first wood project with my husband was making our dining room table: http://lumberjocks.com/projects/10551. My first wood project solo, would be my first cane which was given to my Mom. She actually needs to use one when walking out at the store unless she has a shopping cart to use.

Why do mothers get all of the "first" projects? Is it because they're the only one who would appreciate them for their mud-ugliness or are they made for Mom out of love and despiration to give the ultimate gift Made With Love?

I've always been involved in some sort of craft or art so something handmade was usually an option since I didn't receive an allowance and creating was fun. Even years later after being able to buy lots of expensive things for my mother, I've always enjoyed making her something over buying a gift that may become obsolete. She has always shown great enthusiasm when I make her something. Even my Dad has encouraged me as they both met going to art school. I have kept a handmade birthday card my Dad created for me years ago. It's simple, but from the heart and his very own hands.


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## noknot (Dec 23, 2008)

my first was a napkin holder, and a blackjack table, both made at the same time in my grandfathers shop. he used to rent them in chicago. what a way to learn. its great that most woodworkers learned in shop class they need to bring that back into schools.


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## tbone (Apr 24, 2008)

7th grade. 1967-the Summer of Love. Mr. Long's woodshop class. I built a 'pump lamp' It was designed to look a little like an old fashoned water jack-pump. Move the handle-light on. Move it again-light off. I wish I still had it. I DO still have the 'Surrealistic Pillow" LP though.


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## Rustic (Jul 21, 2008)

My first woodworking project (that I can remember) I think was a block of cedar that my dad and I worked on to create a piece for a totem pole for the Indian Guides. This was an organization similar to the cub scouts. It has 4 sides with hand carved symbols of our "Native names" My dad was Tall arrow (he stood 6'6") and I was white feather. I will post pics in my projects in the next few days. This was done in 1975. It still looks like it did then. I was 8 at the time. I was lucky and have had many years of lessons in woodworking from my dad.


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## majeagle1 (Oct 29, 2008)

My first woodworking project was in 1959 in my 9th grade woodshop class. It was a Mahagony recipe box that I made for my mother. Would you believe she still has it and it's still in fairly good shape.


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## blackcherry (Dec 7, 2007)

I quest my first wood project was a request by my mom to cut a switch so she could *************** my ***est with….Blkcherry


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## bowyer (Feb 6, 2009)

Lets see…... I made a lamp in 9th grade out of black walnut for my mom. two months later it was broken when my younger brother and I got carried away wrestling in the house. My dad saved the center section that was about 18 inchs long and used it as a fish club( We lived in alaska at the time ) He kept it on his boat until 7 years ago when his health got to bad for him to fish. He still has it in his garage 36 years later.


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## Moai (Feb 9, 2009)

My childhood in south America dealed with a lot of toymaking in the 70's…...I remember making bearing-wheeled Carts & scooters in wood to race downhill, Kites with cane sticks, fishing sticks and small airplanes….that was a lot of enjoyment and woodworking


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## doyoulikegumwood (Jun 21, 2007)

well i was thinking it was a coffee table i made for my mom in high school but charlie mad me think i won most orignal disign in the pine wood derby in cub scouts i still have that car it was a load of fun to make i did it all with hand tools and with very little help my mother single at just watched over me makein suer i didnt cut off any fingers all i had was a coping saw 1/2" chisle and lots of sand paper took my close to a week but i did it and was very proud of my car didnt win any races but had fun non the less


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## Bureaucrat (May 26, 2008)

As part of a WEBELOS Cub Scout project each scout built a shoe shine kit. It was not unlike a basic tool tote but was double walled on the sides. A folded rag went in there on the other side the double wall was cut to receive tins of shoe polish.
Mr. Michaels, our leader rough cut all the pieces on the band saw and we were able to sand, glue and nail the kit together. The thing is still in use at my parents house some 47 years later.


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## Sean (Jul 2, 2008)

first one i can remember is a block of 2×4 my grandpa used to let me pound nails into when i was 4 or 5.
First one i can actually consider a project was when i was 22, in college. my dad got me a chess set for xmas, but i didnt have a box for it. so i went down into his shop and found some maple that was sitting around, cut and glued my self a box. miters wide open, bottom glued it with no dado or anything, just edge glued, top sitting on top with a couple of hinges.


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## MrsN (Sep 29, 2008)

20 years ago I was 5 and at my grandparents for a week during the summer. Grandma and I walked down to Grandpa's shop (he rented space where he "worked" and sold some of his stuff). I was bored with just pounding nails into wood, so Grandpa and I made a footstool out of some pine he had around the shop. My mom still has the footstool in her kitchen.


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