Hi all,  my name is Bill Woodward and i live in Titusville, Florida. i'm 64, almost reitred, just finished my very first dedicated woodshop in the back yard, and can now get down to the second love of my life!!  Woodworking and Turning. 

my lovely bride of 43 years is my first love and i still cant believe she has put up with me all these years!!  hahaha

i started woodworking at the age of 8, with balsa model airplanes. my dad was a WW II Navy pilot and Instructor, so i was introduced to airplanes early. in Jr High School, santa cruz, calif, i took two years of woodshop and became HOOKED!!  after building the basic projects as we went through the year, i enjoyed the jewlery boxes and other flat work. when we got into turning, i knew i had found my hobby calling. i still have some bowls and other stuff my folks saved from day one and now i can begin to learn a lot more with the new shop.

about 15 years ago, i recieved permission ot use half the garage for a shop and began turning again. my lathe was a drill driver motor, two speed, 1700 and 3400. my faceplates were Chevy intake valves, epoxyed to a piece of half inch plywood, trued up and a sacrificial piece of 2x4 glued and screwed to that. my turning tools were/are(still use them), large flat files that i used my dremel to create a tool. i made a roughing gouge, round scraper, parting tool and a tool with a sharp point to use in tight places.since i had small things to work with, the pieces were small.

i've tried some carving, but i dont have any creative vision so i have to have patterns to go by. and now my old hands dont take kindly to hours of using a knife and holding a small piece of wood.....

i hope the picture comes through. its of some past projects and they're sitting on my very first, new to me, ShopSmith, shich i have wanted for over 40 years! (the new shop is only 12X16 so this worked out perfect!!

I'm sorry to ramble on, but i figured an introduction was to let the group have an idea who is joining and they can maybe see if i can help in some way.....

take care, bill

Hey, Bill, welcome aboard and don't apologize, we love to find out a little about each other. I help out in the turning forum, so when you can jump over there and show us some of the tools and turnings you have made. Sounds like fun. 

 

And Hey, congratulations on getting the shop setup. Nothing like a place to go and make sawdust.

 

We are excited to have you here and look forward to exchanging ideas with you on the forums.

thanks John, i'll do my best.....this is a great bunch of folks you have here!!

hey bill!!

 

We all have our strong points and weak points so we're all here to teach and learn!!

 

And have fun!!!

Like the others said Bill, as long as your here, it's all good, we love ramblers! I can ramble too, sometimes these guys private message me and ask me what the heck was that you were talking about! Then I go back and read it and yep, I was rambling, heck, here I go again, rambling, this is the place for it though Bill, so ramble your heart out, we love reading what folks are up to. After all, interesting people are interested!

Thanks for being here, I love your story about how you got hooked into turning, wonderful.