This post has been a long time coming. It is also seriously long, so you may want to just move on. After nearly five years, I got to do some woodworking this weekend. I am notorious for giving too many details, but this is as good a place as any to tell at least some of the story.
My woodworking hobby began in 1994 after meeting my wife’s grandfather and working in his workshop. Before that I had never done any woodworking. I was instantly hooked, and began collecting lousy tools, and building (or should I say overbuilding) stuff. None of it could be mistaken for fine woodworking, but I was getting better and enjoying it very much. By 2006 I had collected a few tools, and started to really get the hand tool bug. However, my health was declining rapidly and we did not know why.
In July of 2006, I lost my job and we had to move into our camper for almost a year, so everything went into storage. I found a job in 2007, but health was getting much worse, and in May of ’07, at age 36 I had a stroke. It did not do any permanent damage, but it sure scared us both. My sister is a doctor, and she is the one that put all the pieces together, and the short of it is that I had severe sleep apnea. It took awhile, but we finally got a treatment plan, and in September I had a tracheostomy so that I could breathe at night. I kept it plugged during the day so that I could talk, but the trach itself brought many more health troubles. Once all our stuff was out of storage, I had tried to get the tools out, but after the second (of four) bout with pneumonia, the doc said absolutely no woodworking, dust, yard work, or anything of the sort. One of those bouts nearly killed me so I took it seriously. After two years, I lost enough weight (160 lbs) that I could have the next surgery in March of 2009. My jaws were broken and moved forward, ˝ inch on top and nearly 1 inch on bottom. It cured my apnea completely, and though the recovery from that surgery has been difficult, it is nothing compared to not breathing. I still have some weight to loose, but I am SO much better, better than when I was 25.
Well, I got a new and infinitely better job outside Abilene in January. We now live in the country and I am loving every minute of it. Unfortunately the garage is packed full of junk. We are slowly going through and throwing away, but it will be awhile until it is a usable workshop. However, this weekend, I got to drag out some tables, and do some work.
I have two nephews that will be turning two this month and in February. About ten years ago I built a version of Norm’s alphabet wagon for my first nephew, so I decided that would be perfect for getting back into the swing of things. We made a trip to Fort Worth about a month ago, so while there I picked up some mahogany, walnut and maple. A friend here helped me saw the walnut in half so that I would not have to waste so much for the letters.
I thought about titling this thread the 8 hour dovetail, in the spirit of Klausz and Cosman. When I made the cart ten years ago, I did box joints on the table saw. This first wagon is my first dovetail ever. I could not be happier that my brother’s first son will be the one playing with it. Without further ado, here it is.
They are far from perfect, but they are very strong, and that is what really matters. There are small gaps on all of them, but considering the tools I do have, I am very happy with the outcome. From start to finish they took over seven hours. Talk about efficient! I did learn a lot, and though my expectation is not perfection, I do believe that the next one will be much improved.
Here is a shot of the blocks. Some of them still need to be rounded on the edges, but the faces have been routed. The cart holds forty 1.5” x 1.5” blocks. I do not yet know what I will use for the wheels.
Here is one of the coolest things of all. My wife actually loves the scroll saw. She cut all 64 letters out on Saturday. She is into scrapbooking and has a cricut machine, so she also cut the letters out of self stick vinyl. They are the Winnie the pooh alphabet, and this is how they look. I will hopefully get the last few cut and glued in on Thursday.
Here is my makeshift workbench. Though functional, it is far from what I want to be using. Hopefully one of the next things to build will be a workbench.
I have been a lurker for quite some time, and have learned so much from so many here. I wish I could somehow thank everyone properly. Maybe I will be able to improve my skills enough to be able to contribute positively to the forum.
Well, this post has been abnormally long. If you have read all the way to the bottom, thanks for reading.
Paul
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Looks great
Originally Posted by Paul Hendrickson
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