How did you get your start?

[Joe Shinall]

Ok, so I'm bored and enjoy everyone's conversation on here. I've always wondered how everyone got into woodworking.

My story:

Been handy all my life, come from a family of DIY'ers. Mainly because we were broke and had to do it ourselves. Everything from home repair to car repair. I built my first engine at 11. Put up my first sheet of drywall at 12.

One day about 2 years ago I wanted a new entertainment center but couldnt find one to fit my 50" tv without paying a grand! Went to borg and bought some birch ply and oak for face frame and with a circular saw, some c clamps, and a one of the boards for a straight edge I made my cuts. Needed a way of joining them so I bought my first piece of woodworking tools. A Kreg jig and wood glue.

Never saw or knew how to build something like a cabinet, I just looked at my kitchen cabinets and saw how they did the face frame and went from there. Built the middle of the center to house the tv and was going to do bookcases for each side. Still working on that (2 years later), but that's another story. My avatar is of me sitting inside of that piece. I tried to stain it and screwed it up of course, so I ended up painting it black and I just put some molding on it this week to try and make it look not so boxy and plain. I am now getting around to starting those bookcases.

Anyways, I had so much fun I started Googleing woodworking stuff like crazy everyday. I found this site and saw that a UniSaw was a great tool and found a great deal on one and bought it. Let's just say it's all down hill from there. I'm a self taught, self screw up, woodworker now and would never have it any other way.

So what's your story?

[Josiah Bartlett]

My dad built a log home when I was 3 years old and I got to play with all the scraps. When I was a teenager and I wanted an electric guitar I made one. I found a Delta contractor's saw at a yard sale when I was 16 and dragged it home and used it for 10 years until I could afford a Unisaw, and its been a slippery slope from there.

[Neal Clayton]

dad was a real estate developer, so i kinda grew up on job sites. didn't really take to it right away, but grew up in new orleans so always had an appreciation for architecture and such from ages past. wound up in the software business out of college but when that kinda dried up, i needed something to do so found an old house to work on and been doing this since.

[Mark Woodmark]

When I was a kid, I watched my dad build things....or try to. He would begin with a plan and then start to build, then he would get his tractor stuck, which happened on every project he built, he would start cussing and screaming. This caused him to do even more stupid things until he either gave up or hurried through the thing and turned out the worst piece of s@%t you ever saw. One time he built a wheel barrel. most beautiful thing you ever saw, had two wheels. It was painted two tone green. Only problem was the handles were too low, so that when you picked them up to move the thing your load slid out the front. Then there was the wood fence. Got the post in ok, but he tried to level each slat that run horizontally between these post instead of following the ground. Thats when the whole nieghborhood got to hear the cussing and screaming. Anyway back to the question. I decided I wanted to do better than he did with building things. I figure in another 10 or 12 years, I will acheive this goal.

[Joe Scarfo]

I discovered Nahm and New Yankee Workshop right after I bought my first house.. a 1000 sq ft fixer upper...

Been accumulating tools and buying fixer uppers ever since... Rigth now I'm working on a 4000 sq ft monster that incl a separate 1300 sq ft heated and insulated garage workshop.

I will will miss watching Nahm.

[Bill LaPointe]

My Dad was always building or fixing something and always let me help. Kinda grew from there. Served a machinist apprenticeship as a youngster, although I never really worked at the trade. Always loved tinkering and building, a lot of DIY stuff. Operated a commercial surplus and salvage business for many years and we built many missing or broken parts for the equipment because they were no longer available or too expensive to buy. When I sold that business I kept a lot of the tools that are in my shop today. Built 3 homes for my family over the years, because I enjoy doing that kind of thing. We have also operated several pawn shops for years (still have two that my wife looks after) so I am able to take home "the good stuff". Semi-retired several years ago and pretty much live in my shop doing whatever seems like a good idea at the time. Have learned more in the last few years from folks like yourself than I ever did on my own.

[Dave Gaul]

I would have to give credit to my Dad.. he has always been a DIY'er, so I always watched & helped as a kid. My first personal ww'ing experience as a kid was in Boy Scouts, making the Pinewood Derby Cars!

I have always loved all things wood, and buying wooden pieces always seemed overpriced to me, so I started making things myself!

[Prashun Patel]

Wow, I give my dad credit for a lot of things in my life - but my love for woodworking/tools isn't one. He wouldn't know a tablesaw from a tablespoon.

I picked up my first tool after I bought my 1st house 10 years ago. I started doing 'handyman' type stuff for myself because I was (and am) cheap. That evolved into trimwork and light construction, plumbing, tiling. Once all the rooms were done in the house, I got bored and started doing small furniture projects.

I learned everything I know (which fits into a tablespoon) from the Internet.

I just love where this craft takes me.

[Troy Turner]

We lived in a house about 10 yrs ago that had an oddly wide (4'6") window. She wanted a shelf to go over it with a dowel that she could put a curtain on. So we went to the home improvement store to look at shelves. They had a 5' long shelf "kit" with braces for $35. That happen to be on the same asile as the lumber. Hmmm, a 1x6x6 for $2.75. Surely I can make this...she reminded me I didn't have a tool one and asked what I needed

Needless to say, $400 later, she had her $35 shelf I've more than paid for the tools just building what she shows me a picture of. Good thing is, she gets what she wants, it's solid, will last, and I love doing it.

[Larry Fox]

My dad definitely provided me with a good base as he is (and has always been) something of a "tinkerer" whereby he is always messing with something. This certainly helped bring out the innate curiosity about how things work etc. that I seemed to always have had.

I really got started into wwing when I bought an old house and started doing a restoration of sorts on it. I am not the sharpest tool in the shed for sure but have always been a pretty intuitive and spacial thinker and I looked at some of the wwing in the house and convinced myself that there was noting there that I could not do - and it turns out I was right (there was a lot of aborted attempts along the way to proving this). We have since sold the house but it really "stuck" with me because I love wood and there is something about the sensory qualities that is has (tactile, smells of some of them, etc) and the fact that it is a natural product and every piece is different that really appeals to me. I think that if it were more like metal I would not have stuck with it.

Another observation that I have made is that the wwing community is one of the more open, helpful and genuinely friendly ones that I have had occassion to be involved in and having that community to tap into makes it pretty easy to advance your skills (and comiserate over failures with).

[Chas Fuggetta]

I was a precision sheet metal worker for dang near 20 yrs. I've always liked working with my hands and don't like paying someone to do something I can do myself so anything that had to be done to the houses I've owned I've done myself. I still have an arm's long list of things to do.

I love the look/smell/feel/working of wood so much more than metal that I decided it would be a good hobby. The very first furniture project I did was a simple step stool for my daughter when she was 3. I made it out of some wood I had laying around, 1" walnut. Definitely not the wood to use for a piece of work made by a novice that's going to be used and abused. It now has lots of paint stains, nicks and dings, but it's lasted 5 yrs and still in use today.

[Terry Hatfield]

My wife had always wanted a dining table big enouogh for 8 or 10 to sit and eat. Back ini 2000 we looked at dining room sets and I convinced her that we could spend the same amount of tools and I'd just build it. It has been an excellent arrangement for both of us. I got a hobby that I love and a bunch of tools to make that hobby very enjoyable and she got the furniture that she wanted. Matter of fact, I've built pretty much every piece of furniture that is concievable for me to build in our entire house and now I'm building more to replace the stuff that I built originally. Love this hobby!!!

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[Myk Rian]

Always been mechanically inclined, beginning with tearing a clock apart that my Mom gave me. Never did get it back together.
Built and raced RC boats for many years, and sold them all when I started building and flying kites.
After I retired, my Wife wanted a lighthouse to replace the POS we bought up north. Then she wanted plant stands. Several thousand dollars later, I have my wood shop.

[Mike Harrison]

A EE for 35 years, I grew up having to make do, and became pretty good with my hands along the way. My father was handy with his hands as well. Over the years I collected a variety of tools but never developed a hobby, except Amateur Radio.

When I first retired I had a difficult time as I had had no other hobbies. THEN, I saw Norm and that was it. Been fifteen years or so now but I still enjoy the hobby.

[John Carlo]

Ben, my principal came to me and said he needed another teacher to be able to offer one additional hour of wood shop. I told him I had never even been in a shop and he said he said the two shop teachers would help me build some nice Christmas presents after school to get ready to teach second semester. (My certificate covered all subjects grades 7 and 8.) That did it! Then we moved into our house which a builder had left unfinished and the parents of some of my students helped us move in and gave me a Shopsmith as a gift and there we go. Today the shop is a 24' x 44' 1000 square foot heated and air conditioned garage in the back yard. Ben created an addict. Just ask my wife!