# What drew you in?



## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

I want to hear everyone's reason for getting into woodworking. I have heard a few really nice stories of people who got into woodworking through their grandfather taking them out to his shop when they were very young. I'm sure there are a ton of different reasons to start into the woodworking world but what is that reason? Unfortunately I have a pretty boring reason for entering into this unbelievably gratifying hobby. I'm pretty new to woodworking, about a year ago I started researching the different styles of furniture for my future home and was amazed by the detail and personalization of some of the pieces I was seeing. I knew it was going to be a long road but I went out bought a tablesaw and started down the slippery slope of getting addicted to buying tools and just learning everything I could about woodworking. I can't get enough of it and I know I'm not the only one. So Im curious to see how everyone else got into woodworking, I didn't have shop classes I definitely didn't have a father or grandfather who was a woodworker so if not for my split decision to buy a table saw I may have never gotten into it at all. How about all of you?


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## lysdexic (Mar 21, 2011)

Like you I have no "pedigree" although I've dabbled with carpentry throughout my life.

I went over to a fellow cubscout dad's workshop to build a *pinewood derby car.* He had a small workshop and the power over wood stimulated a lot of creativity. I would lay awake at night manipulating the shape and lines of that wooden car. I loved working with wood but I hated to have to go to someone elses house to do it.

I bought a drill press, miter saw, the basics. Then I bought a …...............

Handplane. Lord help me.

I hate to think of how much $$ I have spent because of those little wooden cars


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## lysdexic (Mar 21, 2011)

What the heck. Here they are.


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## Iggles88 (Dec 8, 2011)

Very cool cars Scott, I like you sat up at night thinking about all of the things I wanted to build and how I could be creative. One of the best aspects of woodworking is the fact that it is an art form.


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## CharlieM1958 (Nov 7, 2006)

My dad was always had a workshop. Not really woodworking in particular, just the assortment of drills , sanders, screwdrivers, wrenches, chisels, and whatever else your typical DIY type would have in his shop. So I grew up around tools, worked in a hardware store while I was in college, and even spent several years in a home center/lumberyard operation after I graduated.

But it wasn't until much later, about seven years ago, that I bought a cheap portable table saw on a whim. As soon as I saw all the possibilities that were opened up by being able to mill my own lumber to size, I was hooked. I've been buying tools and practicing the craft ever since.


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## TedW (May 6, 2012)

I've been doing home repairs and remodeling for the past 25+ years. Some time back a customer asked me if I could build a medicine cabinet. I said yes then figured out how. Lost money on that one but learned a valuable lesson, namely that… uhhh…. hmmm… what was that lesson again? Oh well, anyway, then I kept running into situations that called for a custom piece to be made, so I would make it, lose money, learn a lesson, forget the lesson I learned.. it's sort of an ongoing cycle. I guess it just boils down to I like working the wood and so I do it. Just started getting serious a couple of weeks ago, when I stumbled across this website. Yeah.. me serious… go figure.

Also, I like the smell of most woods, but not zebra wood… looks pretty but man does it stink! And that's how I was drawn into woodworking.


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## TheDane (May 15, 2008)

When I was in high school, I was not allowed to take 'shop', even though my aptitude tests showed I had an interest and inclinations for it. I wanted to go to college like my brother and sister, and my guidance counselor was quick to remind me of that every time I tried to sign up for one of the 'industrial arts' courses.

Click forward 35 years to the time we bought a house that needed a lot of TLC, and me with little or no woodworking skills. I decided I needed to learn some stuff, and once I got started in it, it was obvious that I had found something that would be satisfying and occupy my time in retirement.

That was nine years ago. I retired in January, we sold the project house, and bought a new home closer to our kids. We moved in two months ago today, and today I spent a little over ten hours in my new shop.

-Gerry


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## fge (Sep 8, 2008)

I have no pedigree. No shop time growing up. In 2002 I got married. Our small income could only get us a foreclosed or fixer upper home. So I had to learn some minor skills quick. In 2005 I had to build 2 vanities for another fixer upper home and I found some hidden talent and found a love for woodworking. Now in 2012 we have founded a small but growing cabinet shop and so far have been fairly successful doing what we love to do.


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## MontanaBob (Jan 19, 2011)

I've done home repair and update things, and always wanted to do some real woodworking, but could never justify spending the money on the tools one needs….Then I met a new friend that was a custom home builder, and I guess he saw that I did a nice job on building the porches, and fences, and remodel in the house…He was getting ready to retire, and he gave me a nice table saw, band saw, scrollsaw, planer, jointer, shaper, oscillating sander, blades,cutters for around 1500.00…All except the table saw are just like new. Thanks to him I can now make most anything my ability will allow…And I really like this site for the learning and ideas one can get here.


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## DonnyD (Jun 12, 2012)

as a child i loved to build things legos , treehouse, whatever in school i loved shop and drafting. A friend of mine worked in a cabinet shop and got me a job, when i built my first cabinet that was it.


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## Pono (Mar 10, 2012)

I got hit by a car riding a bike 16 years ago 
Once I was able to use my right hand again and walk after 7 months of rehab my neighbor introduced me to woodworking 15 years later I am still addictted.


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## stonedlion (Jan 12, 2011)

My father died young and I did not know him well as I was just a young boy. However, he was a draftsman and I inherited his aptitude for shapes and geometries.

In school I took drafting and shop classes. I found I was pretty good at drafting, back in those days everything was with a pencil on paper. But it wasn't challenging enough to hold my interest long term.

That same year I took shop class. As part of my final grade I did a repair/restoration on an antique chair with a broken seat. It was my instructor who clued me in that the chair was A) an antique and B) made with hand tools. I thought it was just an old, cool looking chair made of wood.

It was slow to sink in, but over the years I started to realize that woodworking held a challenge for me that drafting never would.


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## joebloe (Feb 13, 2012)

I have always liked building things.when I was a kid I played with erector sets and built all sorts of things.There was also Lincoln logs, building houses.I worked as a frame carpenter for many years.Then I lucked into a job doing custom woodworking.To me there was no better job than working your hobby and doing something you love.


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## RyanHaasen (Oct 29, 2011)

I started woodworking in grade 7 wood shop. The funny thing is, I never wanted to be in woodworking. I was suppose to be in art class, but there was a mistake in the class list and I was moved to wood shop, even though I really did not want to go. After learning how to make animal puzzles on a scroll saw, I was hooked. I got a scroll saw that christmas and my passion took off.


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## NANeanderthal (Jun 2, 2011)

*I got hit by a car riding a bike 16 years ago*
How was a car riding a bike? Ah, I crack myself up.


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## longgone (May 5, 2009)

When around 7-8 years old I would go out in the garage and watch my Dad & Uncle build Pirogues. They would give me small tasks that i found fanscinating and apparently started my woodworking fire burning. I built soap box derby cars for 3 years when I was around 12 through 15 years old. What fun!!! I took woorworking classes in 7th, 8th & 9th grade in school and loved every second of it.
I spent many years building custom interiors in sailboats and motor yachts including alot of repairs and restorations.
I have built a lot of furniture and for the past couple of years have been creating sculpted boxes. At 64 I am as passionate about my woodworking as ever.


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## Pono (Mar 10, 2012)

Yeah you are laughing….


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## live4ever (Feb 27, 2010)

My parents are both retired research scientists who grew up in another country. The extent of my "man's work" experience growing up was occasional yard work with my dad. So naturally I felt a huge void to fill once I bought my own home - I wanted to know the ins and outs and be able to fix anything. When it came time to remodel the kitchen, I tackled much of it myself, acquiring tools and learning a ton in the process. To save a little cash, I opted to try finishing the cabinet doors myself - a risky DIY project for the first-timer, but I learn quickly and proceed cautiously.

Well, somehow, that little foray into finishing inspired me to put together a woodshop. It was around the same time that I discovered several inspirational sources for learning on the web, including Marc (WoodWhisperer) and LJs. Marc was particularly inspiring for me because he's about my age and in a previous life had a similar job/career path to me. I related to him and he really made me think I could get into a hobby that otherwise seemed too difficult or too inaccessible for me.


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## timbit2006 (Jan 6, 2012)

I owe my start to woodworking to Ultimate-Guitar.com. It all started when I wanted to refinish my Peavey Raptor Taiwanese guitar a nice gold. I learnt a lot about guitars doing that. Then I wanted to make my own, I started making one but never did finish it as I had very minimal tools and had no idea how to do the neck(Now it would be easy; this was about three years ago.). I started shop class in grade eight but that really didn't do anything for my woodworking passion as it was more or less cookie cutter projects. I started making stuff at home at about grade nine, I built an entertainment unit and cat house with no knowledge of woodworking; they actually turned out really good. Grade ten went by; built an oak shaker style end table and started my oak Telecaster(Guitar). Grade 11 went by, the passion sorta died for the whole school year. 
Instead of going to grade 12 I enrolled in the Dual Credit program where you go to college instead of wasting time in high school. I took a pre-apprenticeship course in Carpentry and Joinery(Obviously I liked Joinery better.) and that's when the flame turned into an inferno.

Here I am now, a 17 year old tool addict that cannot stop thinking about woodworking.


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

The Amish Gangster avatar I use is more than tongue in cheek humor, it is an homage to a long family line of woodworkers going back as far as family records go. It may sound sexist, but I was raised with the idea that men built and fixed things. My grandfather did, all my uncles did, my dad did. Almost all of the furnishings in our family home I recall as a boy were made by somebody in my family. The cobblers bench we used as a coffee table, the sewing table my mother used, the TALL steamer trunks that were blanket chests / end tables in the living room, all built by my father, some of them as I watched and handed him things he needed. The bunk beds and night stands in the bedroom were made by my grandfather, the master bedroom suite in my parents room was built by my great uncles etc… It blows me away when I meet a guy that can't seem to work with his hands and his head, and I try not to be judgemental, but I can't help but feel he, by his inability, is somehow less of a man. I know I'm bad… The good thing is, the guys I know that are inept with their hands, make up for it with an abundance of good character…

During junior high and high school, I honestly didn't do well, because to be blunt. I hated school at that point. Almost everything about it. My parents had just gotten divorced, and this was before divorce was "normal", and I was, well an angry kid without the guidance of a dad in the home… The saving grace in school for me was wood shop, and computer classes. To give you an idea of how long ago this was, we had Apple 2's… I made more hat racks, coat hooks, and skateboards than I could shake several sticks at… And for the most part it kept me out of trouble… When I hit my sophomore year, auto shop also kicked in…

It may sound funny to say in this politically correct era of nonsense, but to me at least, woodworking is more than what I do for a hobby, it's part of the fabric of who I am, it's part of my "maleness", in a weird way, it's woven into my identity. I totally blame my parents, and that, most likely is a good thing…


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## jusfine (May 22, 2010)

Interesting question…

My father built garages, wooden graineries, etc for extra money (he said it was to teach us about working for a living) when I was in school, but that did not take. All my life I never expected to end up a carpenter.

I met a nice girl whose father was a framer. Need I say more?

Married over 35 years, carpenter for same length of time.

I do love every aspect of construction, and especially when I can build something in my shop people are impressed with, it makes me feel good working with lumber and creating furniture or rebuilding a kitchen for a relative or neighbour.


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## SCOTSMAN (Aug 1, 2008)

I have always been good at working with my hands read 30 years making childrens orthodontic appliances and then getting into retirement and watercolours.
I realised that although my efforts were not bad that as a watercolour artist I would never be truly great or even truly good.
I now realise watching some so called experts teaching on tv that i should have stuck to it more as I am usually not impressed with them too much..
However I never wanted to do just one thing but did want to continue working in Art hence I consider my shop as an art workshop. 
Where i design and make things.
I don't like woodturning all the time, though I enjoy it immensly .
I like to depart from standing doing same thing day in and day out hence I then built myself and fitted out a machinist shop also so between woodturning machining and furniture design and downright theft of other peoples ideas LOL I get by very satisfactorilly.
I should have simply just answered 
The smell of wood shouldn't I lol 
anyway that's what did it for me.
I am thinking when I am not in my woodshop about it all the time such is my love of this wood hobby.I learned also there are some really beautiful people involved in woodworking also including many here I love you guys a lot you have been very kind to me over the last four years.Alistair


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## chrisstef (Mar 3, 2010)

For me it had always been "how'd they put that together". So as a young kid i always took things apart, my bicycle, tonka trucks, legos, my nintendo zap gun, you name it, i took it apart. I guess ive always had a facination of how things go together and come apart. In HS i took auto shop instead of woodworking but always liked working with my hands. I worked at my friend's families lumberyard for a few years and took an appreciation to lumber. When my grandfather passed away about 6 years ago my uncles, cousins, and myself sat around a case of beer for about 5 hours going through all his old tools which were mostly mechanics tools but buried inside those shelves were woodworking tools as well, planes, saws, chisels, and the like. Most of them were my great grandfathers we think. I took most of them home with me and started researching them. Needless to say i tuned them up, made them work, and here i am …. addicted. I know Pop would be proud.


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## Infernal2 (May 20, 2012)

I started early, poking around in my grandfather's shop. Most of my working life I've worked as a side job in some sort of contracting field. When I had the opportunity while serving in the military I would also keep a side job doing small work. When I retired I picked up and took up restorative contracting again. Now that I'm away from doing it as a job, my interest in hobby woodworking is enough to keep my hands from going crazy.

I guess its something about making something out of nothing.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

The course was called "Introduction to Industrial Arts" in my 9th Grade year. Six weeks each of drafting, wood shop, metal shop and plastics shop. The school was surprisingly well equipped-My eyes were opened.

I took drafting first and knew what I wanted to build for my first woodworking project. It took some convincing, but, while the rest of the class built the exact same basic tool tote, I made a gun rack from plans I had drawn myself.


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## BTimmons (Aug 6, 2011)

My uncle is a professional woodworker and has been since before I was born. Although I grew up in the Dallas / Fort Worth area and he's near El Paso, it was always neat to visit his shop whenever my family made it out there. He makes some really cool stuff, but I certainly enjoyed watching the process of making things. The lathe was neat to watch, and the mortising machine blew my little mind. A machine that drills square holes? How neat is that?

I also did the pinewood derby thing in scouts, and I was a full time Lego fiend. I would still have all my own Legos were it not for the fact that I gave them to my nephew. I always had an aptitude for drawing and design, so that fits in nicely with woodworking.

Being a cello player, a few years after high school I got a sales job in a local violin shop. When I wasn't seeing appointments, I had precious shop time to learn how to do some detail setup work on violin family instruments. How to sharpen tools, ream peg holes and taper the pegs to fit, setting soundposts, stuff like that. But the real kicker was learning how to varnish. Those lessons threw open the gates of consciousness in a big way and crystallized my love for the beauty of wood.

Years go by, a few jobs here and there. Eventually I get my own house and I start spending time in the garage trying to make things. I join up here, and the rest is history.


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## MarkTheFiddler (May 29, 2012)

Well Lumber Jocks - I had a lot of exposure to working with hard wood and the big machines when I helped my pop in his small Upholstered furniture factory. Honestly - I never counted that experience for much because we VERY rarely did finished wood work with those tools. I also did a stint as a helper for a refinisher for a summer.

Big Deal - You see - I'm not one of you all. In fact I have seen such artistry out of you all that I can confidently say I will never make it to your levels. On the other hand, I am so inspired by your projects that I am trying.

Why did I start? - Save money on home renovation.
Why will I continue? - You all.

I love this site.


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## Dustmite97 (Aug 1, 2009)

I got hooked when I first started watching The New Yankee Workshop. I was just amazed by the things you can make out of wood. I started playing with hand tools shortly after that and now several years later I have a pretty good collection of power tools and a nice shop.


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## Finn (May 26, 2010)

I started in wood carving. I looked for things to do decorative carving on and started making them myself. I do little carving now but I do a lot of inlays.


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## StumpyNubs (Sep 25, 2010)

The glory, definately the glory… and the chicks…


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## billybonkers (Feb 1, 2012)

I just love playing with my wood, I enjoy being in the shop all day just man-handling my wood. I love the feel of wood in my hands.


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## knotscott (Feb 27, 2009)

My woodworking was a progression from doing DIY projects around the house, which was a progression from watching DIY programs on TV. The DIY stuff started as a matter of necessity to avoid paying people money I didn't have to do work I could do myself. I was hooked on wwing from the moment I ran my first chamfer bit along the edge of porch post….


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

Stumpy got started making bird houses and painting the Stars and Stripes on them.
(Glory and Chicks)


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## AKSteve (Feb 4, 2012)

I come from a long line of Shipwrights and furniture makers, although my father didn't go down that path, I was always in awe of my uncles wood working and clock making. My Uncle chester used to build a particular boat and even made a model of it and it sits in the smithsonian. I just finally got a good space to start my wood working and I love it! I hope to open my own shop one day.


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## lumberjoe (Mar 30, 2012)

I love tools. Power tools are awesome. I also love to create things. I make my own beer, I cook, I sew, I build computers, I used to modify cars and motorcycles (and lawnmowers).


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## sixstring (Apr 4, 2012)

Always considered myself reasonably handy… built some decks, repurposed furniture, installed hardwood floors and that kind of thing. Mostly either for myself, or helping out friends/family. We started a family and moved back to California into a new house which needed furniture. Originally, we were shopping around looking for the right dining table, coffee table, etc… when it finally dawned on me that everything we were looking at was generally crap, or severely, insanely, overpriced for the quality.

So I took a woodshop class to brush up on my skills, but mostly for power tool safety lessons. They just happened to have this PM66 table saw laying around collecting dust. Long story short, I practically stole the thing for $350 without hardly realizing what exactly I was getting. After ripping some wood on this badboy, I was hooked. I've quickly amassed the basics… TS, planer, jointer, router, some hand tools and a shops worth of necessities… and I havent even started on my dining table yet! It's amazing how much I enjoy just milling wood but I'll be moving alog shortly so stay tuned.


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## sixstring (Apr 4, 2012)

My new motto: If you want it build it.


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## docholladay (Jan 9, 2010)

My father always had a shop and tools. He was compitent at woodworking, but his real hobby was always hot rod cars so, while I occasionally helped him to build things, they were usually very practical functional items and definitely not anything that could be considered "artistic." Where I really got my first interest was from this gentleman that lived next door to my grandparents. My sister and I rode the bus to my grandparent's house after school. Mr. Garrett was an elderly, retired gentleman that lived next door and he had a full wood shop behind his house. I would go over sometimes and watch him. He would give me scraps of wood and my grandfather would give me a hammer and nails. I never made anything worth keeping, but it was fun. At least, in my imagination, I made lots of cool things. Everything from battleships to cars, to whatever else I could think of. When I was about 12, Mr. Garrett passed away so, for many years, I never even thought about it again for a long time. As a teenager, I would occasionally help my dad when he needed some assistance. As an adult, I would get called in to assist a friend that was building a deck or any number of things. After my father died (12 years ago), I inherited his tools. I could not keep all of them because I did not live in a place with room to put them (still regret selling that Powermatic table saw). Still, I kept some old stanley hand planes that later I found out belonged to his uncle. When my wife and I got married 11 years ago. The house we bought, while not a total fixer upper, needed some work (finishing out the basement primarily), we decided to try our hand at it ourselves. Lots of tools later (some that were very bad learning experiences such as a cheapo table top table saw) the rest is history.

Doc


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## shopdog (Nov 9, 2008)

I started woodworking out of necessity.
I bought 2 acres of land in Costa Rica in 1976. Drove down in 1977 with a handful of tools, and some good books…and a determination to build my house. Working with tropical hardwoods, and no electricity, was a challenge. I built that house, and it's still my place 35 years later. I had never built anything before that house. I was a NYC taxi driver at the time, after dropping out of college.
I still spend my winters in that beach shack, and the rest of the year building decks and built-in bookcases. I love making sawdust.


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## Woodmaster1 (Apr 26, 2011)

It started in 7th grade shop that first project, a pump lamp out of hand tools. I love it so much I became a shop teacher and hooked several others on woodworking. It is hard to tell how many over the last 37years.


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## rhybeka (Nov 8, 2009)

I'm about the same mix as everyone above… my dad is a self made woodworker/diy sort and I would see what he would make and think "How cool is that?" and "how can I do that?" one of my first christmases I can remember, I got a hammer (small ball peen) and a saw (just a hack saw), and one of those cloth tool belts. In HS I was allowed to take wood shop and I was hooked - loved making shelves and there was even one 'homeowners/diy' class taught by the sam teacher that taught wood shop - learned how to wire a switch, patch drywall and some slight framing. Bought my first set of tools a few years after I moved out of the house (cordless due to living in an apartment and working in the no power garage). I still consider myself a noob, but I love the process of building something functional!


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## NiteWalker (May 7, 2011)

No deep story surrounding my woodworking.
Being a huge fan of fighting games, I decided that I wouldn't play on pad any more. At the time, commercial arcade stick options were pretty much non-existent, so I did some research online on how to build my own and got sucked in. I've been on a quest for the perfect arcade stick ever since.

Not a typical story, I know.


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Being 77, I grew up at a time when people were inclined toward DIY projects. Money was in short supply so if you wanted something, you made it. People back then had more hand's-on experience. Just look at old Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines, prior to 1950 and they were filled with DIY projects. There are a few speciality magazines available for those with such inclinations.


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## kizerpea (Dec 2, 2011)

I had no family in woodworking!!!!! when i walked into my first woodshop to have some bed rails made… thats when the wood bug bit me..20ish years ago..the guy in that shop help to get me started..how to pick out the right tools..picking out the right wood for projects..screws,joints,sanding…before that i probley couldn,t build a dog house…now i can build any thing i want..he taught me that if some one else could do it , then i could to…no exceptions…no matter what it was…when i was born all i could do was eat, poop, cry an sleep…everything else i had to learn…O almost forgot got to have a mcgiver handbook…lots of info in there!!!!!


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## cutworm (Oct 2, 2010)

A long journey. Trying to be like a few craftsmen from my younger days. Never getting there but I keep trying.


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## kepy (Mar 5, 2012)

I have a piece of furniture that was made by my great-great grandfather and moved by covered wagon in the 1870's. It continued on down the line and I was privileged to work with my grandfather in his shop.


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## woodthaticould (Jan 11, 2012)

Thanks for the great question.

What drew me in was drawing. Years ago I worked as a draftsman for an architectural woodwork company in Paterson, NJ. I wanted very much to escape that boring, unfulfilling, and ultimately doomed occupation, but I lacked the confidence and/or ability to make that happen. It was one of the three biggest mistakes of my life. Now, late in the game, I've decided (with much encouragement from the great woman in my life) to do something with my reverence for design and my simple wish to make things.


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## DaleM (Feb 18, 2009)

It started with the simplest of things. I built a large backer-board for my dart board. Since I had a jigsaw and a drill from that project, when my wife started talking about things she wanted, I said I could make it rather than buy it and things went from there. I started with small things and started buying more tools as I needed them and built a workbench and a larger cabinet. At some point the bug really bit me and I decided I wanted to learn to carve and turn as well as building flat things and then there was no turning back.


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

Some people like the smell of napalm in the morning. Others like the smell of wood in the morning.


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## wormil (Nov 19, 2011)

Also no pedigree or background in woodworking or carpentry. My first experience was making a bowl-like thing with a router in Webelo Scouts (between cub & boy) at which I did okay but didn't find especially interesting. Then in high school I took industrial arts class and found a love of woodworking. Later I started building shelves, stools, then progressed to furniture and now to musical instruments. During my younger life "creativity" was discouraged as that would "never get you anywhere" but in my forties I'm rediscovering my creativity.


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## doughan (Apr 22, 2011)

got my girl friend preggo and had to quit college and get a job…...the kid wasn't a mistake….his mother and the results were!


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## DamnYankee (May 21, 2011)

Started to poor to hire so had to do a lot of DIYing for our first house. This grew into carpentry, which in turn grew into woodworking.
My Grandfather was always handy, though I don't remember doing any woodworking with him.
My Father occasionally knows which end of a hammer to hold without prompting.


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## Kookaburra (Apr 23, 2012)

Well here is the view from the other side. I was not allowed to take shop or drafting or any industrial arts classes. I was expected to take Home Economics. My dad can barely handle a screwdriver to open a can of paint. My grandfather built boats in his native Sweden but I did not get exposed to that as a kid. I had no opportunity to make a bird house or a pinewood derby car or anything. Creating something with my own two hands was not valued in my immediate family (good grades and good behavior were!). I lived in downtown apartments during my post-college years and worked hard and played hard.

But somewhere on my list of things I eventually wanted to do was build a solid piece of furniture myself - along with learn to speak Spanish fluently and visit every continent.

So when I spotted a notice for woodworking classes through the local parks and rec department, I jumped at the chance. We could make whatever we wanted. Many "students" signed up year after year simply to have access to all of the shop tools. My first project was a cherry desk organizer - that took me about 4 weeks. Then the rest of the term faced me with long empty hours and that life goal rattling around in my brain.

So next I tackled the sofa table, I so proudly posted as my first project here. Despite some detours in my life since then, I have always had a project or two going.

And like billybonkers says above - there is something about running my hands over a beautiful piece of wood that makes me happy.

I have enjoyed reading all of your stories too - this is a great thread!


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

Like so many others, it was in my DNA!

My mother was into all kinds of crafts, my father did some woodworking, maintained his 5 apartments and had a small workshop, and I started small kits, crafts, wood shop in high school, and my dad's shop later.

I had a short break from wood working while going to school and living in a space not big enough for anything more than a hand saw.

One of the first purchases I made after getting a job, and out of school, is the Craftsman table saw that I still have. I am self taught so all mistakes are mine!

And, as they say, *"the rest is history!"* Or history yet to be written!


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## HalDougherty (Jul 15, 2009)

I got started woodworking because I've always looked at things I wanted and if I couldn't afford them, I'd build something as close to it as I could plus I was nearing retirement and I wanted a job I could work a couple of days a week and go sailing the rest of the time. Only it didn't work out that way… I spend so much time in and around the shop, that I don't get to use my boats very much these days.

My first woodworking project that made any money was a great deal I ran into at Wal-Mart. A local store was closing out an overstock of turkey decoys. New decoys sold for $10 or more. They had a few on the shelves for $1.50. I asked what the limit on purchasing them was and the clerk said, "You are welcome to them all!" Turns out they had a truckload of them in the back. So, I filled my truck's camper and the cab with boxes of turkey decoys. What does buying turkey decoys have to do with woodworking? I had 4 different decoys, so I posted one of each on e-bay each week and they sold from $10 to $15 each for a few weeks, till everybody in the world started selling Wal-Mart overstocked turkey decoys! LOL I had to find a way to add value to my auctions without adding cost to my auction. I had a table saw and a drill press and a few other woodworking tools I used for construction projects around the house and farm, so I sat down and in one day designed a simple turkey call I could make on a production basis. Here's a project page where I explained how to make my turkey calls. The second day, I made about 100 calls, and dipped them in a stain & finish combination, then drilled holes in a 2X4 and stuck in a bunch of short dowels to support the calls while the finish dried. In 3 days I'd made a bunch of turkey calls that actually sounded great. For a long time after that my e-bay ad included a turkey decoy, custom turkey call (signed and serial numbered by the maker and limited to the 100 I made. I started the auctions with #100 and worked down. I had people trying to prebuy the low numbered calls. The auction prices jumped back up to $15 to $20 for the combination and I have never looked back. One of the calls is still in my turkey hunting supplies, but I use it more for calling coyotes.

I made the project page with my turkey call so woodworkers with limited experience could make something that will sell well at craft fairs and gun shows. It's simple to make and if you make a jig to drill the hole the same place in each call body, you can make another jig to hold the call body for the saw cut and automate the building process even more. Without any woodworking experience (I did have a lot of metal working experience) I made 100 calls in a day. The calls let me take a $1.50 investment and add a little bit of time and wood for a $15 to $20 return. The secret to making money in the woodshop is adding value. A tree in the forest has value, (average about $0.30 per board foot), cut into rough barn lumber it's value goes up to $0.60 to 0.75 per bft, dried and skip planed, the value goes up to at least $2.50/bft. (I've never seen anything that cheap at Woodcraft, Lowes, or Home Depot). Wood with outstanding color and grain carved into a gunstock or a Maloof style rocker brings the value up to anywhere from $40 to $200/bft! A walnut log 35" in diameter on the small end and 16' long has a little less than 1000 board feet of lumber in it. I've got a tree down now that had a butt log that size and 2 smaller diameter 16' logs. That one log will produce over 1500 bft of great looking wood for projects. Cut into 1" boards, it will be ready to use by September and cut into 2 1/4" thick boards it should be ready to use about this time next year. I log and saw for a week about every 3 months to have enough dry wood for my woodworking projects.

I couldn't have the woodworking skills and all the shop equipment I have now without the Internet and the great woodworking magazines like "Wood Magazine", "Shopnotes", "Woodsmith" and "Fine Woodworking". When I got started I found all the information I needed to learn woodworking and a world wide market for woodworking products. E-Bay was the first place I sold items online and Lumberjocks continues to help me find customers. The projects and blog posts here also inspire me to expand my skills and to make things I never, in my wildest dreams, would have thought I could make.


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## fussy (Jan 18, 2010)

My early years were in carpentry, and electrical, and plumbing; anything my Dad needed done that he didn't want to do himself. Some furniture repair, but no real furniture building. I got married in 1968 and of course we had to go furniture shopping. We made out ok as Dad was in the business and we bought wholesale. Good stuff, but really hard to tell for sure what kind of wood something was.

The breaking point came when my wife saw a big shelving unit at Shillito's in Lexington, Ky for which she was willing to pay $200 (1970 remember) and have me haul it back to Ft. Wayne in a 2 door SaTELLITE. I told her I could make a nicer one at the house for less than $30. She and her mother said I could do no such thing !! A woodworker was born. We still have it, although now, with changing needs, it serves in my finishing room.

As the kids came and grew, I chafed at the price and usually boarderline crappy stuff that was availBLE to buy and began my own furniture building oddesy. Now, I have a "honeydo" list including two a/c couches of cherry, "Lost Stickly tables of maple, an Eastwood chair in Sapele, a Stickley music cabinet, the Stickley cabinet from the cover of FWW by Peckovitch in quarter sawn oak, plant stands, etc etc. However, all this has been moved back as I am in the process of building bookcases (flooor to ceiling) in my daughter's house, and a bunk bed for my grandson (single on top, double on bottom), a desk for him and chair, plus rebuild the side bars of the little girls baby bed in preparation for my THIRD GRANDCHILD in October (Girl #2).

So there you have it. Just being cheep, not liking what is out there, not liking wood that looks fake, and allways believing I could do better. My family thinks I can. My goal is, when I am gone, to have my family and friends fight over what I have built like a pack of wolves over a dead moose.

Steve


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## DamnYankee (May 21, 2011)

fussy - had a Plymouth Satellite convertable in high school.


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## planeBill (Oct 21, 2011)

Watching my dad build guitars growing up. The way he never looked at anything else while doing it. The look of total concentration, like nothing else mattered at that moment. Seeing the beauty of each individual piece of wood, the smells. Dad was always very proud of himself after making one. Moreover, watching how the people who bought them acted when they saw them for the first time. Usually the first thing people would say was "Look at that wood". Wodd had to be something really special, and it is. To us anyway.


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## BigYin (Oct 14, 2011)

My grandfather was a stonemason & house builder, he taught me to cut stone and build. This included fitting floor joists and roof trusses, which led to flooring and boarding Scotch roofs… etc.
I trained as a heavy plant fitter who is now realy alergic to Deisel and oil so ended up in the water industry via steel erection, construction and running a concrete plant.
As I've rebuilt my own homes Ive had to learn more about carpentry. (and plumbing, electrics, plastering, alarm systems etc.)


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## RKaste (Jun 30, 2012)

My father got me started. He worked on the railroad as an engineer and would be gone a lot of the time but it would never fail on his day he was home we would be out in the shop and doing what called tinkering around and the talks we had and the storys. ill remeber though day till its my time to see the good lord.

When i had my shop in Virginia and i would come home from my deploy met i would take my sons and daughter out too the shop and just tinker around, and once my grandchild are old enough im sure we will be out in the ship and do some tinkering.

What a valueable lesson my father give me. Thanks dad!!!!


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## Simon2822 (Oct 16, 2011)

I needed a new bed and decided I'd try and make one. A lot harder than I imagined it would be but I still smiile when I see it and think "I built that".


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## Lumberzach12 (Jul 7, 2012)

My grand father had a shop in his basement and he used to take me down and built all sorts of things. Like crates shadow boxes baskets. I'll have to take a look around my house and ask my mom where she put most of it.


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## dust4tears (Jul 8, 2012)

I broke my back and got retired from the Navy (I am 31…now a disabled vet, 'stay at home' (I HATE the term 'stay at home, Mom/ Dad) dad.) I get 'wild hairs' to try new things…..calligraphy, pyrography, and making signs…

My wife is loving and lets me indulge my inquiries….and now I found out I am kind of competent at this…
So…..that is my story and I am sticking too it~


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## DKV (Jul 18, 2011)

The nonshop talk section drew me in. Some great times there and very interesting characters.


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## Notslar (Jul 17, 2012)

I guess you could say I have a pedigree. I helped my Dad build a kitchen table when I was around 8 or 9 years old. The first thing I can remember building were toy guns out of scrap lumber from Dad's DIY projects. By the time I was 11 or 12 I had build significant arsenal. I took the required woodworking classes in school and enjoyed them. As an adult I would much rather do the work myself if I am capable then pay someone and also get the satisfaction of making something. My most recent completed project were a dozen wooden crates to hold bottles for my homebrewery (Yeah, I brew my own beer). In the works is a set of bunk beds and a captains bed with drawers for my triplet sons since they are rapidly outgrowing their toddler beds which were built by their Grandpa.


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## RobAshtonDesigns (Dec 23, 2011)

well i have my grandfather to blame for my woodworking interest. As farback as i can remember i would hang out in Pepe's shop learning about tools. i think i have sawdust running through my viens. So i guess the next logical step was to go into construction ( which my grandfather was a master carpenter) learning all about building houses. As i grew older ive tried to get out of construction but the call of the tools and the smell of the sawdust always brings me back and i dont really know anything else. a few years ago at the age of 44 i had the chance to become a fireman/medic (which i took) and now i still am drawn to my shop. i guess its like being addicted to crack, i just cant get enough of it. My shop is my get away i check all problems and issues at the door and just let go. Its my happy place


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## dbhost (Jul 20, 2009)

It's for me, a combination of things. Long family history going back many generations. It's just what the men in my family do. My Dad, great uncles, and grandfather built every single stick of furniture, and most of the fixtures in our homes when i was growing up (okay most of it happened before I was born.) Dad still has a few of those pieces, and I have the plans for a few more. One of my to do projects is a pine cobblers bench that my parents had as a coffee table. The original is long gone as it got to badly damaged during a move and was discarded. I sure wish it had been fixed…

The wood projects I have done for the house, and family so far have all earned top spots in the respective homes they ended up in. Even the basic Camphor Laurel limb band saw box I made for my Mom a few years ago is sitting on her mantle holding flowers and photos… The story behind the piece far more valuable than the piece itself.

I hope and pray that one day, and soon would be good, LOML would be blessed with children, a son would be nice, but I can teach a girl as well… but I would love a son to pass this on to. Both of my brothers are woodworkers as well. Neither quite as deep into it as I, but both do turn out a project from time to time…


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## muleskinner (Sep 24, 2011)

I needed a source of mulch for the flower beds.


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## woodchucker29 (Apr 16, 2012)

as a kid i always enjoyed building stuff, particularly LEGO's. my grandfather had a little shop in his basement, which i suppose had some sort of influence on me. but really i started when i needed a new coffee table and didn't feel like spending money on one. so i got some scraps from my dad, borrowed a few tools from him and crafted up the best table i could, it sucked, and i have since trashed in and built another one which is much better.


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## BentheViking (May 19, 2011)

My dad always had a shop and tools, but mostly it was more along typical DIY projects and didn't have too much woodworking other than the perennial pinewood derby competition. Then in high school I took 2 years of shop classes where I got a first introduction to woodworking. Worked doing carpentry odd jobs during college and then moved to New Orleans after college to work with a non-profit rebuilding agency. Eventually got into the local carpenters union which is where things really took a turn.

The union was in the beginning stages of a collaboration with a few other trade locals, the local community and tech colleges, and Prince Charles's charity. The program was to teach apprentice craftsmen how to adapt historical building techniques for modern life. While I thought it would be more beneficial to be on the framing/rough carpentry team, I was assigned to millwork. Well guess the program organizers knew me better than I knew myself. While I had a introductory lesson to the tools in high school this was where I really learned how to use the tools and how to build.

After the program was over I got a job in a custom millshop, but it just didn't pay well enough for me to survive. So I got a job installing kitchen cabinets and coming to terms with the fact that woodworking 2 days a week is fine by me. Now I am in the final stages of buying a house and getting my first real shop together.


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## Milo (Apr 24, 2009)

Norm and David Marks.


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## cutworm (Oct 2, 2010)

The chicks….


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## bindernut (Apr 4, 2012)

Like others, I played with lots of lego's(which I still have), Lincoln Logs, Erector sets, etc when I was a kid. In fact, my best friend & i spent so much time playing Lego's when we were kids(we met when we were 4, now we're 35), that when he was the best man at my wedding last fall, he mentioned it in his speech. He then asked if I still had mine, because they were quite handy to make house hold items, and presented me with a napkin holder he had made for me. Needless to say, it was my favorite wedding present & lives in the center of our kitchen table. 
My dad had a small wood shop in the basement. I can remember him doing things in the basement when i was real little, and he'd set me up on his bench & give me a hammer or something to play with. Once i was big enough to use tools safely, i started doing things. He had an ancient lathe, and I fell in love. when i took shop in 7th grade(i went to a lutheran grade school, pre-kindergarden-8th grade), I was disappointed to learn I couldn't use the lathe till 8th grade. Didn't take wood shop in high school, but took some metal shop & drafting classes. Sometime in high school dad's old lathe broke, & I was without for a few years. when i was 18 or 20, my old gradeschool sold off all their shop equipment, and I got a nice old Rockwell lathe, metal bench, and Starett machinist vice.I messed with stuff off & on for a few years, but lost interest for many years. Last fall I decided to make dad a simple open top wooden tool box to carry his blacksmith tools in. Made from 3/4" oak, the handle pivots off to the side for ease of loading/unloading. Use the lathe to turn the ends of the handle down to make a snug fit, and remembered how much I liked using it. I made a few bowls & handles, and quickly realized i wanted a bigger/better lathe. I scoured Craigslist & got a real nice Jet with a bunch of tools & accessories for about 2/3 the cost of just the lathe. Made my wife a couple simple jewelry stands for watches/bracelets & rings & a cutting board. A couple months ago we had a big party for all our friends. Of course the wife used my home made cutting board & ice cream scoop out of habit, and had candy in one of my bowls. Everyone was wanting to know where we got the stuff & when I said I had made it all, i got requests for things. I made stuff for several friends. We were at some friends house 2 weeks ago, and it made me very happy to people using stuff I made. Of course now there are several projects scattered on the work bench i need to mop up so i can start on a nice wine rack i hope to be able to sell.


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## Dana1972 (Jul 27, 2012)

I got into woodworking when my ex-husband was going to throw away an end table. At first I told him to go ahead then I decided I was going to fix it up. Well being a strong willed woman,... when he told me I wasn't going to do anything with it ….* I HAD TO PROVE HIM WRONG!!! *I fixed up the table. Raffled it off in 1 1/2 days of selling tickets and made *$424* off the table he was going to throw away. After that I took a liking to it. Took on many commissioned jobs and have done pretty well with learning more.


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## Dinger (Mar 16, 2012)

I also never had the ability to take woodshop in high school, however, I was at a friend's house one lazy Saturday afternoon and happened to catch The New Yankee Workshop and saw how relatively simple furniture building could be. Of course, as with all pro's he made it look easy, but I'm catching up! Now I actually have the ability and space for my own shop, I've been able to delve into the craft. 'Tis only the beginning.


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## Zinderin (Jul 24, 2012)

When I was in Jr High, they required us to take Woodshop, Metalshop, and Drafting … 3 months in each (just an exposure thing).

I was hooked the moment I walked in the shop and smelled the lumber. I have loved it ever since, and I can't wait till I retire (4 more years) so I can do it full time with abandon.


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## javaboy (Jul 22, 2012)

Some of my earliest memories are of my dad taking me to the lumberyard on Saturday mornings for wood, hardware, etc for typical DIY stuff around the house. I found the smell of the wood intoxicating and loved the bins full of nails, and racks full of tools and wood. I would mess around with scrap cutoffs in our basement shop while Dad made simple projects. Then when I was only 7, we moved into an apartment and Dad began pursuing an academic career so that was the end of our shop activities. It wasn't until I took woodshop in high school that I really became involved with woodworking. Even though I loved it, after High school I decided to pursue my other passion, airplanes, so I joined the USAF and became an aircraft mechanic. One day a buddy of mine took me to the Exotic Woodshed in Willow Grove PA. I was fascinated by all the exotic wood and by the futuristic looking furniture on display in the showroom. While there I bought a book by Dona Meilach titled "Creating Modern Furniture". That book blew my mind and became my bible. The AF base where I was stationed had a woodshop, and I started building a Nakashima/Krenov inspired coffee table from a slab of cherry. The base was a trestle held together by through tusk tenons held in place by carved ebony pins. I even inlaid a butterfly across a crack in the slab. I was very proud of the piece and put it in my barracks room (we were housed college dorm style, two men to a room). I don't think the table was there for more than maybe 2 or three hours when a friend saw the table and offered to buy it. I didn't really want to sell, but the amount of $$ he was offering made it hard to say no, so I sold it. That began a lucrative little side biz of making coffee tables, futon style chairs and sofas, stereo cabinets and speaker enclosures for my squadron mates. After leaving the AF I pursued several different career paths. There have been long stretches of time when I had no shop and did no woodworking at all, but somehow I always seem to find my way back to the wood.


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## rejo55 (Apr 5, 2012)

I really got into woodworking in desperation. Or house flooded twice in four years (six feet inside) and the second time, after losing everything we had again, I told Miss Honey Ma'am that we were getting the hell out of that creek bottom. So we bought a wooded acre, swapped the pine timber for clearing and levelling a site for the house, drew up a set of plans on a brown paper sack, bought 1100 landscape timbers and started building a 2200 square foot house. See my blog *Call It Rustic, Not Crude *
When you build a house from scratch with no idea how to do it, you naturally have to have some tools, so the first power tool we got was a 12 inch miter saw to cut those timbers. I bought the necessary measuring, marking and hammering equipment that I thought we needed and we got after it.
It was a travail, but when we got in the house I found that I had acquired a taste for woodworking and, having no money left after paying cash as we went for the house, I bought (for Miss Honey Ma'am) an open, metal roofed 16×20 foot carport, which I immediately commandeered. 
Pretty soon the tools that had been given to me and a few that I acquired overran the place, so I bought another car port and attached it to the first one, So my shop is 16×40, but ill-arranged. One of these days I'm gonna hafta get it organized.
The idea was to have the tools to make the necessary repairs, because, like Shopdog and MrRon, I didn't have much choice, and i *hate* to pay somebody to do something that I can do myself. I suppose the work ethic that my Granddad instilled in me back in the '40's and '50's has finally paid off. I was essentially raised by him on a small farm in North Louisiana. My dad was a CPA and worked in town, so Granddad and I worked the farm. He was a woodworker, blacksmith, miller,(we had a gristmill and milled for the community), sugar cane syrup cooker (we didn't have a syrup mill, but our neighbor did, but he couldn't cook syrup without burning it). I hung around Granddad until I was old enough to make a hand (about nine years old, and he had me in the woods on one end of a Simonds six-foot crosscut saw, cutting fire and stove wood, white oak fence posts, and any other wood that we needed.
I don't want to keep rambling, but one night I discovered LumberJocks. I eavesdropped for about two weeks and decided that this was the best place I had ever found. The folks (most of them) seemed like the kind of people I would love to know, and I feel that I do know a bunch of them.
Lord help me, I got to reading the tool gloats and am now addicted to flea markets, garage sales and good ol' ebay. I find myself slobbering over the old Bailey planes and if Miss Honey Ma'am doesn't step in every once in a while I'll probably bankrupt us.
Y'all have a good'un
Joe


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## MrRon (Jul 9, 2009)

I get a lot of pleasure out of building things.


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## Tennessee (Jul 8, 2011)

My real start was in 1971 when I had to make some extra money. Our little bungalow only allowed me to do it in the attic! My first "table saw" was a circular saw mounted upside down in my only bench, with a footswitch and a 2X4 and two clamps for a fence. I remember arguing with my wife over a reconditioned Sears router for $35. I did have an unlimited supply of wood from a veneer plant that existed close by. Saturday scrap sales and I would stack it all on the top of my Chevy Nova. Remember paying 15 cents a board foot for white oak. The attic was handy in that I ricked the wood right there on the trusses in the corner to let it dry. I built all kinds of things to earn extra cash, and it went from there. Never really quit. No pedigree, no high school shop time, just tons of books, lots of errors, and documented successes. Also refinished professionally for 12 years in that stretch. Now I am in my 42nd year.


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## willoworks (Jun 1, 2011)

I started out while working in the office at a boatbuilding company. We had some really talented wordworkers out there and I became hooked after one started showing me some of his tricks. I had spent a bit of time in my neighbor's shop when I was a kid watching him but didn't have access to a shop until I started the job. I had to have my own shop then. I was really hooked and then laid off it for about 5 years until I knew I was going to need a serious hobby when I retire - hopefully.


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## helluvawreck (Jul 21, 2010)

There were a few tools around the house when I was young. My mother traded for and sold antiques. I repaired some of them. My father went into a manufacturing business making tables, hotel, motel, and nursing home furniture. It wasn't exactly antique reproductions but we ended up with a 30,000 sq ft plant that was full of woodworking equipment. We lost that business because of a three way law suit. My brother started another woodworking business and I joined with him a couple of years later. We are now in the architectural molding business and have a plant with over 160,000 sq ft. It has a lot of equipment as well. So I've been around wood and woodworking for 40 years or so. I've mostly worked with engineering and maintenance of our equipment but I have been a hobby woodworker for at least 40 years.

helluvawreck
https://woodworkingexpo.wordpress.com


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## 47phord (Apr 10, 2012)

It's all Norm Abram's fault! I would watch New Yankee Workshop and I would think, "that looks like fun!" Then I bought some tools and started doing it, discovered it wasn't as easy as it looked, which made me try even harder, finally had a project come out right the first time, now I'm hooked even if I'm still not very good at it.


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## bhack (Mar 19, 2008)

Another one for Norm, and I am naturally curious about the unknown. So I wondered if I could that.


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## starringemma (Aug 15, 2012)

My dad restores old and odd things like snowmobiles and also does auto mechanic work as a hobby. He was using the garage that is attached to our house but it was getting to full his future projects and he wanted a car lifting machine and needed a garage with a taller roof so he built a new garage behind the house and moved his shop out of house garage leaving me no choice but to commandeer the newly abandoned garage space. I've wanted to do woodworking for a few years now so I've been slowly acquiring old and very much used wood working tools mostly at auctions but never did anything because I didn't have the room. After my first project (a carrier box) about 2 months ago I was excited to start something else. I've made a few birdhouses and some more birdhouses.

I've enjoyed my new found pass time so much that it's been interfering with my Presidential campaigning.


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## Planeman40 (Nov 3, 2010)

An interesting question Iggles88!

I have always wondered what drives me to build things. The first recollection I have of an interest in building something is Christmas of 1944 when the extended family had Christmas at my grandmother's house. I remember a number of Army and Navy uniforms all around. My older cousin by eight years ( I was four years old at the time) opened one of his presents which was a pine wood kit to build an Army jeep. He looked at it for a minute or so and went on to other things. I crawled over to see what was in the box. After examining the plans and looking at the pre-cut parts I began to understand you put the parts together using the plans. It was my first revelation. I spent about a half an hour looking at that kit.

Then at the age of eight I was sent to a little day camp held at a local park one summer. One day when I was picked up after camp was over for the day we passed by two boys flying a control line gas-engine powered model plane in the park. I insisted we stop and watch. I was hooked. A few days later I dragged my mother to a local hobby shop and begged her to buy a model plane. I had no idea how to put together and my Dad, a WW-2 Navy pilot, assembled it while I watched. He bought an gas engine and we took it out for me to learn how to fly it. From then on I spent all of my time in the basement building model planes.

This continued through my teenage years and I got very good at building models, good enough so the owner of the hobby shop asked me if I wanted to work there on weekends and during the summers. I had just turned sixteen and I jumped at the chance. Now having a moderately good "income" for a teenager, I began saving my money to build a shop so I could make larger things. My first purchase was a Sears 6" metal lathe (made by Atlas). When I told Dad what I was about to do he thought I should buy myself a nice shotgun (Dad was an avid hunter) and took me down to the gun shop to look over the shotguns. I went ahead and bought the lathe. I think Dad was very disappointed.

I then saved up more money and then bought a Sears 15" floor model drill press (which I still have and use). In 1959 I began college at Georgia Tech while still living at home (I am from Atlanta, GA) and I was still working part time at the hobby shop. My next purchases were a used 16" Walker Turner bandsaw (which I still have and use) and a not very good 8" Sears table saw. So before I was out of college I had a passable but tiny workshop in my parent's home.

Over the years I have assembled a superb shop with all light industrial machines (mostly Delta machines from the 1950s through the 1970s) plus a really good larger metal lathe (I got rid of the little 6" Craftsman metal lathe) and a nice mill plus ox-acetlene welding, a large electric stick welder, and lately a MIG welder. The things I have accumulated over more than a half century of tool collecting are too numerous to mention. I am a confirmed "toolaholic"!

I was never around any workshops or relatives who built things when I grew up, though Dad had a few, but very few, hand tools to get thing done around the house. But I rarely saw him using them. I guess there is just something inside me that gives me pleasure to always be building something. I have always wondered about it.

Planeman


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## DKV (Jul 18, 2011)

Nonshop talk forum.


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## sdc (Aug 21, 2012)

Have always been interested in creating and building things. As a kid it was not wood bu LEGO, which I still enjoy immensely together with my 5 year old son. 
My grandfather had a well equiped shop and has given me some of his hand tools as he's retiring from working after retiring from his day job. I vividly remember comming into his job, he smell of whatever wood he was cuting and the finishing products. My garage/shop now smells the same because of the tools he gave me.
My dad is a DIY guy also, although not into woodworking. He's currenly restoring an 1970's OPEL Commodore. Just to say that working with my hands runs in the family.

I've only recently started down the path of woodworking and cannot ge enough, thinking of things I want to do and learn all the time.


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## NedB (Aug 21, 2008)

That's a long story… 
My father built Heathkit electronics, couldn't be bothered to have a woodshop… but I had a cousin who had a wonderful man-cave. I spent a couple weeks a year when I was just about 12 or so down visiting there, and he taught me the basics of using his drill press, bandsaw and sanding station. THose, plus a hammer and some brads were how I got hooked on woodworking. It took about 20 years for me to really get going afterwards… I moved in with my then girlfriend, now wife about 14 years back, and one of our kids wanted a captain's bed. We went shopping and weren't happy with what we found on the market. I said 'Heck, I can build something better than this stuff'... and I did… the bed I put together was far from pretty, but it was sure solid, and lasted a decade before we dismantled it last year. I got my first 'big' tool out of that bed project… a basic Delta miter saw, which I still have to this day.


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