Quick introduction & thanks

[Dom Campbell]

Hi everyone,

As a long time lurker of SMC, I thought it was time to register once and for all and say thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experiences, it has been a true help and inspiration to me.

I wanted to give a quick introduction to say hello, and show some of the projects that have led me here.

Having always made things (like bike wheel tables), over the past few years I have slowly made the transition into focusing nearly all of my attention to working with wood. The project that started it off was the need for some saw horses, as I was getting increasingly frustrated with the shop bought ones we had in the shed...

Not wood but still made only with hand tools:
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So I, as is my way, bit off more than I could chew, and took on the Paul Sellers saw horse build as my first ‘real’ project, needless to say PS made it look much easier than it was, but I was, and still am, pretty proud of how they turned out - the compound housing joints for the legs were not easy!

Tall Saw Horses:
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As time has gone on, I have fallen ever more into the japanese style of woodworking - both for the ‘romantic’ side, but also just as important the realities of my workspace. I don’t have a workshop (yet!), so my work areas need to remain fluid, so the use of planing beams, short saw horses, etc. I find this so much easier than trying the Western way, without any vices or a solid workbench to plane/saw/mortise on. Now i can just stand or sit on the work - no problems!

Short Saw Horses:
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I also don’t have anywhere to keep my tools permanently, without the risk of rust in the shed, so I have built a japanese style toolbox to hold all of my best tools - the Stanley Planes now don’t see much action and live in the cupboard.

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Now I am embarking on the journey to make shoji - but at the moment I am just making all the jigs necessary, and practicing my sawing, mortising, and jaguchi joints. Once I have something to show, I will report back

I look forward to continuing this journey with everyone here, learning, and contributing my own lessons learned (mistakes?!) along the way.

Thanks,

Dom

[Frederick Skelly]

Welcome Dom! Glad you've joined us! Look forward to seeing more of your work.
Fred

[Stanley Covington]

Welcome! New viewpoints and new approaches are always a good thing.

Those are some kinda sexy little sawhorses you made! Sorta familiar looking .... (ツ)

Please continue to keep us posted on your excellent adventures.

Stan

[Mike Null]

Welcome Dom. It looks to me like you're off to a splendid start.

[Jim Koepke]

Howdy Dom and welcome to the Creek.

Long before regularly working with wood a lot of my time was spent working on bicycles.

Some good looking saw horses you have made.

Saw horses were one of my early adventures in woodworking. Still make them occasionally.

jtk

[Dom Campbell]

Thanks all, great to be here.

Jim, me too... racing as well as the necessary mechanical work took up a large portion of my early 20s, until a bad crash made me reconsider. That table was made with the wheels, then like taco shells, that I crashed with...

Woodworking now well and truly filling the void left by the lack of training 😂

[Jim Koepke]

Jim, me too... racing as well as the necessary mechanical work took up a large portion of my early 20s, until a bad crash made me reconsider.

It took me a couple of bad crashes to reconsider. My aches and pains have me still paying for it at times.

jtk