I started learning woodworking at the age of six from my great grandfather who was the First Apprentice Carpenter/jointer for the Washington D.C. Masonic Hall and later, the Master Carpenter for the Detroit Masonic Hall. He was in his late sixties when he let me in his shop other than to sweep up. I have fond memories of those days. He was a hard teacher! He would only use hand tools, make his own finishes and sharpening tools was his Holy Grail. I spent my first summer sweeping, sometimes with an old paintbrush because "Dust was the enemy to finishes".

He did have a sense of humor, like he had me believing that his large green Mason Jar labeled Rotten Stone, "Smelled worse than an old outhouse on a hot summer day in August" when I was young. My early summers were spent sweeping, sorting brads, nails and screws into the correct bins. He had a wall of bins that he had made. It went from my knees to the ceiling of his shop. The wall covered one whole wall. When I came to visit my grandparents, who lived next door to him, my first job was to help him sort out his tool chest and learn to clean and, when I was nine, sharpen his tools.

I have a modest garage work shop with 3 band saws (8,12 and 14" with a 6" riser with the carter mods. Ridged table saw, Craftsman bench top drill press, router table, B&D miter saw, Craftsman bench 8" disk/belt sander, 6" grinder, 8" variable speed grinder sharpening station for my lathe tools. Jet 10x24 and a Jet JWL 12x36 lathes 125 psi compressor (soon to be piped shop wide). For dust and chip control: Craftsman 8 gallon and 20 gallon shop-vacs, 2 Hp w/t cyclone (soon to be piped shop wide with 6" main trunks and 4" branch trunks) two stage dust control system. I plan to also plumb the 20 gallon Craftsman wet/dry shop vac throughout the shop too with 2 1/2" sealed clear pipe for connection to hand power tools.

For the last twenty, or so years, my passion for turning has grown to the state of obsession.

I am a retired research scientist with a prior background in filmmaking (20 years+ with multiple awards). I ran a research lab for U of Alaska, Fairbanks and U of M Ann Arbor for years before working for the Govt in Washington D.C..

Wonderful story, Robert! I'd love to have your shop, it sounds like more than "modest"!!

I really like the turnings you have posted.

Thanks, I am in the midst of redoing the shop. At present i am using steve's ball making tool It is fun and easy. Though I found I had to re-sharpen the cutter

Lewis Kauffman said:

Wonderful story, Robert! I'd love to have your shop, it sounds like more than "modest"!!

I really like the turnings you have posted.

I have seen a procedure by Mr. David R. Smith but it is more of a free hand technique. Sometime could you post a pix of the tool?

Thanks

Robert Elliott said:

Thanks, I am in the midst of redoing the shop. At present i am using steve's ball making tool It is fun and easy. Though I found I had to re-sharpen the cutter

Lewis Kauffman said:

Lewis Kauffman said:

I have seen a procedure by Mr. David R. Smith but it is more of a free hand technique. Sometime could you post a pix of the tool?

Thanks

Robert Elliott said:

That's neat! When you said about sharpening, I guess the tool has a removable bit.

I made a tool/jig to taper my rolling pins. It has a 1/4" x 1/4"  removable tool stock cutter.

Robert Elliott said:

Lewis Kauffman said:

I wanted a guitar.

I was po and couldn't afford a nice one.

So I made a nice mahogany 12 string guitar modeled after a Martin 12 that I had in my shop for repair.

Bought Irving Sloan's book on guitar making  and one by Martin.

The tools in my shop were:

Crapsman Contractor 10" TS ( still have it),  Crapsman Track sander, Avacado  plastic K Mart B&D 1/4" hand drill, Half sheet vibrator also K-mart B&D plastic crud, some files a couple of garbage pile chisels, a couple of found hand saws, a Plastic K-Mart jig saw also B&D.   I used to make finger joints with the hand held jig saw.  I did not know what I couldn't do.

It was all down hill after that.

Still have the guitar though it's been through a flood.

My dad was one of this "jack of all trades". Most of the things he did were more in the framing line. When I was in my early 20's he and I started making barn style utility buildings. He did most of the cutting and I did all of the toting. I was also the "go getter" and the" bring it here" person. Oh and I got to "hold this for me" a lot also.

We precut all of the pieces on a craftsman RAS. Never used a table saw until I got my first one. I found I really enjoyed working along side him and it was very satisfying to see a pile of lumber become something useful to someone. Kind of like the "reveal" part of many of today's shows, it was fun seeing the person look at their me building when it was done.

So I got my own tools and started the never ending process of collecting tools. Although I enjoyed the framing aspect of woodworking, I really wanted to make furniture. So I set out to collect and setup s shop to do that. However I spend more time making cutting boards than I do on really nice furniture. But it keeps me working and keeps me in lumber and allows me to keep collecting tools for the shop.