Popular Post kmealy Posted November 8, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 (edited) At what point in your life (and year) did you start woodworking? I get asked this question occasionally, like this week. I usually respond, "Well, that's sort of like asking a singer when they started singing." I grew up in the 50s and 60s. I dinked around with wood some as a kid, but my father was not really a woodworker. Just a farmer, you know, fix it up yourself kinda guy. I got some formal "industrial arts" in seventh and eight grade. But not in High School. That was for the "shop guys" as they were known. Off to college in the 70s. After graduation, lived in apartments for a few years and built some things "just because I needed them for the home." Moved every year or two for about 5 years, which made it difficult to really get started. Then about 1980, started acquiring a few more tools, doing more reading and self-education, and took off as my primary avocation. About 2003, frustrated with my job and fearing the biennial layoffs, quit and started my own furniture repair business. Still here, still learning, still doing the work,though now semi-retired, part-time, and woodworking as a hobby "because my kids need things for their homes." Most of the people I know started out the same way. Edited November 17, 2017 by Ron Dudelston tags added John Moody, p_toad, Grandpadave52 and 6 others 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gene Howe Posted November 8, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 8, 2017 Started in 1975. Didn't realize how much fun it was until I quit building things for money. Grandpadave52, hatuffej, p_toad and 4 others 4 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post schnewj Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Keith...ya just told my story, almost exactly! Essentially, the same timeline, no formal training, though. I learned through reading, doing and asking questions. Most of my work has always been on the enjoyment side or home needs...I rarely did an outside job unless it was to help someone else, or to learn something new that I didn't know. Oh, and I'm still learning everyday. Al B, Grandpadave52, p_toad and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Smallpatch Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Graduated from high school in 54 and that week mom reminded me I would have a payment on my car coming due real quick so I better go to Lubbock and get a job. Dad had died when I was a freshman in high school. Next day I started stopping and asking for a job. I got three offers that day to come back the next day and go to work.. Furniture store delivery, auto parts delivery and a floor covering sales shop and he didn't say what I would be doing, sweeping probably.. Went home and told mom I got three jobs and she said then tomorrow real early stop and tell the other two why you chose one other and you are sorry..... She said be nice to them for which ever you choose you might in time change your mind so keep the door open so to speak cause you might want to ask them again.. She was a real smart lady, just a very poor lady. That furniture store taught me things from day one that I still do in my shop and working with wood is something I have always enjoyed doing.. Cal, Grandpadave52, Gene Howe and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stick486 Posted November 9, 2017 Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 '54... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Al B Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 (edited) I sort of played the part of handyman when I bought my first home in 1957. Didn't really get into woodworking 'per say' until 1976, when I purchased my present home. I added a 14' X 28' addition to the home and finally built my 20' X 22' garage, which ultimately became my workshop. My first big project was to build the oak kitchen cabinets for my home including 23 raised panel doors and 6 drawers. From there, bookcases, entertainment centers tables etc. Then turned to making band saw boxes. Don't get much time in the shop today but I still enjoy it. The years have slowed me a bit. Edited November 9, 2017 by It Was Al B p_toad, hatuffej, HARO50 and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HARO50 Posted November 9, 2017 Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Christmas, 1955. Grandma sent me a box containing a hammer, some nails, a coping saw and lots of small wood cut-offs from my uncle's patern-making shop. I've been butchering wood ever since, and I still have the tools! John Al B, p_toad, hatuffej and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post BillyJack Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 4 years wood shop 79-83. Working residential/commercial cabinetry since August 83..... My old wood shop teachers mother was good friends with my mother... My old shop teacher became a truck driver when wood shops started declining... Grandpadave52, p_toad, Cal and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gary Hanscom Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 I grew up in a rural town in Maine in a family (father & uncles) that mostly built their own homes. So I picked up enough on the way to know how to use a level and a hammer, plus a few other tools. After I was married, my wife and I bought an old house that needed a great deal of work. We eventually stripped it to the frame and redid everything interior, plus doors and windows, heat, plumbing & electrical. About that time I was helping one of my uncles build spec homes on a small scale. We worked evenings and weekends, and while I was throwing up 32 S.F. of sheetrock at a glance, my uncle was working on cabinets with more patience than I had ever seen in my life! Work on one corner for an hour to make it perfect. So when it came time to build our new kitchen (and the cost of manufactured cabinets was out of our league) I decided that maybe I could find some of that patience I had seen in my uncle. Long(er) story short, I borrowed some tools and asked a thousand questions and eventually built a pretty nice knotty pine kitchen. Only took me 18 months but what the heck! I found that working on those cabinets was the most therapeutic mental therapy I had ever experienced. So, I just kept playing around as a hobby and still thoroughly enjoy it. Cal, Grandpadave52, hatuffej and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gerald Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Started in 70 when we got out of college. Had loads of books so needed bookcases and a stand for the new stereo I had yearned for. Still have those bookcases in my shop. Did not get serious about it til 88 when I bought a Sears tablesaw that was on sale, still have that one to plus a shop full of tools. Stated turning in 06 and have bough 4 lathes so far. Al B, Grandpadave52, p_toad and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buckaroo Posted November 9, 2017 Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Answered this elsewhere but, Pa built truck bodies. Still remember those 1/4' bolts & nuts + speed handle & socket. Yall already read all of this so gonna quit. p_toad, Cal, HARO50 and 1 other 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post p_toad Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 When i was a kid it seemed i was usually the one helping my dad (hold the light HERE!) and help warm up the old hide glue to make repairs on some chair one of us kids had, erm, deconstructed. Played with wood, his old saw, hammer and nails (yes, we straightened the bent ones). Was not allowed to do "shop" so pretty much everything was an opportunity for mistakes (lol). Bought and old Craftsman table saw from one of the guys i worked with who was getting divorced; still have that saw - last use was helping one daughter's BF with a project he was doing. Used my old B&D power tools and still have them; the pro line are still really nice and my Piranha blades are the cat's meow on the saw. Don't have nearly enough room in the garage, but still good at making messes. HARO50, Grandpadave52, HandyDan and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post HandyDan Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Hammered a lot of wood into trees in the late fifties early sixties building tree houses. Can't say they were done well but we had a ball in them and slept in them many nights. Helped dad refinish the basement in the late sixties and other projects around the house. Early seventies I bought a van and paneled the inside, a couch that folded down into a bed and some cabinets. Camped in it for four or five years and sold it and bought a camper. Bought my own house and did the imorovements to it but didn't start my wood shop until the eighties. I was into welding and had a metal working/weld shop tooled up before starting the wood shop. Turning has become my niche in woodworking. Grandpadave52, Gerald, Cal and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Fred W. Hargis Jr Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Probably around 1980. Right after high school I married and was going to college and working family issues. My wife passed away leaving me with 3 kids and still in school...so there wasn't much time for anything. That was 1970, and it was 1980 (I had remarried) before things got slowed down enough to start hobbies. Even then it was still something I could only work in between the other family duties that still seemed never ending. So it was probably the early 90's before we became MT nesters () and I started doing woodworking on a more regular schedule. HARO50, Al B, Grandpadave52 and 5 others 7 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post hatuffej Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 I started in 1960 when I made a bookcase using black willow in high school shop. I won a blue ribbon for it in the school competition and still have the bookcase. Over the years, I made other home stuff of low quality as I acquired tools and experience. I got much better at WWing when i finally set up shop in my garage, and read magazines like Wood, American Woodworker, and Popular Woodworking, reading forums like PWW, and bought higher quality power tools. Now think I can make just about anything with sufficient quality to please or to sell. hat p_toad, HandyDan, Cal and 3 others 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Grandpadave52 Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Like most of you, started early recycling nails and old lumber for tree houses, skate boards and the like. Many of my friends had fathers who had served during WWII and seemed all had a small table saw, drill press and some even had a jointer. My grandfather (dad's dad) bought a Dewalt RAS in the late 50's, remodeled their house with it including building all cabinets, built-in etc. He was an unbelievable DIY'er who could do anything and a pretty decent business man for someone that only had an 8th grade education. He passed in '62 at age 50...dad inherited the RAS and also an 8-1/4" Skil circular saw along with many other tools. Between the RAS and Skil, I helped dad remodel 3 houses, convert a dairy milking barn to a farrowing house and many other projects. Dad eventually sold the RAS...I still have the Skil. Jr. High woodworking probably peaked my interest but it remained dormant through HS and beyond replaced by my love for working on cars, engines, speed then eventually agriculture and diesel engines. Once married, like most of you, the need to remodel and maintain property...I begin acquiring a few tools to go along with my Skil 3/8" VS drill I received as a birthday gift, my Disston crosscut handsaw, Blue Grass 16 oz, fiberglass handle hammer of grandpa's and Yankee Handyman #46 push drill; Craftsman 3x21 belt sander, 1 HP router, Skil 7-1/4" circular saw, 1/3 sheet pad sander, and VS Jig saw (still have all) I bought a new Craftsman 10", 1 HP table saw in late 1977 (still have) as my first stationary tool. Later, I bought a used Craftsman 10" RAS probably from the late 60's from an old guy retiring with all sorts of accessories (still have) then in the early 80's a used, Craftsman 15" floor model drill press...remodeled one house, plus some work for others, a few projects and built one house with those...life and work got in the way, so most sat idle for a number of years. Forced into retirement January of 2010, I needed something to do so started dragging out some of these tools and going to yard/garage sales accumulating more stationary tools...about the time I got ramped up, daughter got married & I immediately became a grandpa with 8 y/o & 10 y/o grand-daughters...add a grandson in less than a year after that plus grand-daughter's moving in with us fall of 2012, then SIL, daughter, and now 2 grandsons summer of 2015, WW'ing is on back burner again...sharing 1/2 of a 24x24 garage makes it a challenge too. Someday, maybe before my expiration date, my dream shop and WW'ing to relax will become a reality. HandyDan, Cal, hatuffej and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post DAB Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 took shop class in 8th grade (mid 70s), designed and made a piece i still have (table/bookcase) that drew inspiration from the Sears catalog. took shop thru HS, then got busy with college and career until about 2002, when i got married and then stocked a basement shop and built a kitchen from scratch for us. other projects followed over the years. now i have a heated 25x50 shop and make what i want, when i want. think i'll make a bowl later. after i finish designing a work table with drawers for my wife's studio. p_toad, Al B, HARO50 and 4 others 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gene Howe Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 Reading about y'all's varied paths to where you are now with your craft, is very interesting, enjoyable and inspiring. Thank you. p_toad, Harry Brink, Grandpadave52 and 8 others 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RustyFN Posted November 9, 2017 Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 I started in my early 20's. Grandpadave52 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Kelso Chris Posted November 9, 2017 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 9, 2017 I took shop in high school but never really learned much in class. The teacher had a side business and somehow managed to spend our class time dealing with his clients. That was is 1983, Flash forward to 1996 and we moved the family home from KY. We moved into the house on my wife's family farm. The place needed lots of work and I gradually started accumulating tools. For my daughters first birthday I built her a toy box. No plans, no real concept of solid joinery and no access to any material other than what was on the shelves at LOWE'S. I built it of white pine, birch plywood and mdf. Surprisingly it is still in one piece. Since then I've moved from a corner in the garage to a converted chicken coupe in the back yard. I've built probably 30 hope chests in the last twenty years along with several home projects. HARO50, Fred W. Hargis Jr, hatuffej and 5 others 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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