Hey Folks,
I’ve been reading articles on the site for a few weeks, and decided to give this discussion board a go, so I’m saying hello 🙂
I’m a telecomms field engineer based out of new orleans, and I spend most of my spare time making furniture for my new house. My wife is from peru, where I grew up (I was born in fl), and hasn’t been granted her visa yet, so the distraction is welcome 😉
As far as my woodworking skills go, they are slight, at best 🙂 But practice practice practice! So far, I’ve made a large computer desk/workbench from 2×4’s and a pair of oak-veneer door panels, a couple small shelves, a very basic bed, and a strange thing that is supposed to hold keys and mail. Currently working on a pine coffee table of my own design (not ground-breaking, I’ll post a pic when I get the finish done), a red-oak picture frame for a wedding picture, and a small trinket shelf out of the scraps I had left from the picture frame stock.
I’d like to get some sort of classes in on woodworking, I’m good at heavy stuff (built stages in highschool), but all I’ve been able to do so far with a chisel has been to screw up my work pieces 😛 Anybody know where I could get some of that? I’d be happy to apprentice work for free on saturdays if that were an option, with the understanding that the only thing I can do reliably well is sanding, and use a table saw 😛
looking forward to much discussion,
Aleks
Replies
Look for the string "Woodworking Camp" under the Knots General Discussion
Aclark,
you are doing great! Keep it up. You came to a good place to meet other woodworkers of all skill levels. You obviously are self-motivated, and quite self sufficient. Those are great qualities for a woodworker. You are looking to improve your skills, and you have a computer. That's a great start. Go to Google, and type in something like "New Orleans woodworking", and see what pops. Find a local school where you can take a class, or a local woodworker who is willing to give you a lesson or two. Any established woodworker in N.O. should be able to give you some tips on where you could go to do some learning locally.
There are lots of great woodworking schools across the country, but you'd be better off if you could go to one near where you live. The next thing to do is to go to the library and look under woodworking. Check out some books. When you find a few you like, you can buy them cheaply in "used" form on Amazon.
I think most woodworkers are self taught. Those who had fathers who were woodworkers are very lucky. Those who got early apprenticeships are very lucky. The rest of us did what you did -- got some tools and some wood and made some sawdust. Important thing to do is to stay safe. Best way to do that is to get a few lessons, and to do a bunch of reading.
Hope that helps. Please post another message with the progress you are making in finding a school or a teacher or some books.
Enjoy.
Mel
Measure your output in smiles per board foot.
Well, I grabbed a few books off of amazon.Box-Making Basics: Design, Technique, Projects
Taunton's Complete Illustrated Guide to Box Making
Building Small Projects: The New Best of Fine Woodworking
The Big Book of Weekend Woodworking: 150 Easy ProjectsI'm hoping those have technical tips here and there, but mostly I learn by doing. I googled for some woodworking places, I found a couple of places that look likely. In both cases, I think I could trade some woodworking instruction for a bit of web design and hosting ;) We shall see, I'll give a call on monday.http://yurika.zomgames.net/upload/sweepers_furniture_shop/ <-- pictures~sadly, my camera isn't very good.
Photographs notwithstanding, you are moving! At this rate you will be able to give lessons once you finish your current project. Excellent, keep posting.
Aclark,
WOW! I saw your photos. To me, you don't classify as a newbie. You're well on your way. As mufti said, you could give lessons. I am glad that you resonated with my response to you and bought some books, and looked online for some classes. I think that is a great way to start. But don't forget your library. Many woodworking books are very disappointing. Many are absoultely wonderful and worth their weight in platinum. If you have had a chance to look at them first, then you are disappointed less often. On Amazon, you can look through some of the pages of some of the books. You could search Knots on the word "Books". There have been a lot of posts with recommended lists of books. THere is one recommendation that just about everyone agrees with. Buy the set of three books by Tage Frid. Now here is one personal recommendation. Based on what I have seen that you have built, and based on my personal assessment of books, I recommend Bill Hylton's "Country Pine: Furniture you can make with the table saw and router". You can find that one used. It works you through a series of projects that are nice to have, and that increase your skill with each project. It also has a series of Lessons on each new skill. If you write to Knots for advice, you will probably get a lot of it. Then your problem becomes: what advice should I take? For instance, why should you take my advice?? Good question. I would advise that you don't take my advice blindly. If I or anyone else recommends a book, don't just buy it. Check into it. See if it suits you. Much advice you will get is based on what the other person likes to do. Some folks just use handtools and seem to want you to do the same. So read a lot, but take everything with a grain of salt. Make your own judgements. Think about what other people say before you do it. If you read lots of stuff on Knots, you will begin to see that you really resonate with some of the folks, and that they really sound like they know what they are talking about. For example, there is a guy on Knots who calls himself "joinerswork". His name is David Ray Pine. Look up his website at
http://www.davidraypine.com/
Once I read a number of his posts, and looked at the stuff he has built, I pay attention to this guy. He is a phenomenal woodworker. There are a lot of great woodworkers on Knots. Many people who are on Knots, like Ray Pine, are professionals, and they are very willing to give advice to others. Look up people's websites when they list them, to get an idea of who you want to pay attention to. Some of these folks are among the best in the world. Others are like me -- serious but only hobbyists. This may be the message you receive that advises you to evaluate the advice you get and the advisors who give it to you, before you take it. Keep us posted on your progress. Send in a message every so often with photos. You apologized for yours, but they are just fine,and they give others a sense of your skill level so they can respond to you more effectively.Enjoy,
MelMeasure your output in smiles per board foot.
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