How did you learn woodworking?

Jeff Horton

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The Heart of Dixie
My mother in law asked me a question yesterday that made me think. I was showing her my progress on my sisters wine cabinet. She was looking at it and said "Where did you learn to do this??" It kind of caught me off guard and my best answer was "from books and magazines".

The more I thought about it I realized that up to two years ago I had never really built anything furniture wise. For many years I have wanted to and knew I could. I have bought books, read, studied. Did some basic woodworking and fair amount of carpentry building our 3 homes. I did get serious about turning for year till we moved and I lost my shop for 7 years.

Now in the house 2 years and I have an (almost) fully equipped shop. I am building furniture for our house. And I have just taught myself from reading book and magazines.
 
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David (LML) has been doing some form of woodworking since his teens, and I got into it when I quickly determined that the only way to spend any quality time with my spouse was to be in the garage/shop with him. I started out small – sanding, holding, catching – then moved on to helping him with finishing. We do custom furniture and cabinetry – when we can get the commissions – and we build all our own furniture and cabinetry. We've had a side business for as long as we've been married. Now we work together on designing things and in the shop building things. We also have the laser business which we acquired a couple of years ago which is starting to be our primary business. David also gives "woodworking lessons" to a couple of friends, and he repairs machinery when called upon. I guess I've just picked up all I know by osmosis and by doing.

Nancy (75 days)
 
On the Road to Eagle Scout !

The rest was/is the proverbial slide. God bless the Boy Scouts.

I DO wish Lrs. Laird would have a word with my souse though. Just a nudge !
 
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I never had any formal training in WW. Wood shop was not offered at my high school. I learned some from my Dad. I learned some from watching TV, Norm on New Yankee Workshop and David Marks on Workworks. I also learned some from reading books, magazines, and internet articles. Also alot from just plain old trial and error. I have learned a great deal from making mistakes and then having to fix them.
 
I DO wish Lrs. Laird would have a word with my souse though. Just a nudge !

Your souse??????:rofl::rofl:

Seriously, Mrs. MacKay, helping spouse in the workshop is the best form of togetherness I've found with my husband. Try it, you might like it, especially when that togetherness leads to something for your home.

Nancy (75 days)
 
And I have just taught myself from reading book and magazines.

... and practising.

You missed a bit there in your sentence, Jeff. Hope you don't mind me correcting your "typo". ;)

...art

ps: never once saw a ww'ing show on TV? Wow, Jeff, that's amazing. (sarcastic? Who, me?)


pps: The closest I've come to formal training was two years of shop class in the mid 70's... grade 7 and 8. Otherwise it was messing about in my dad (the carpenter) garage when I was younger, which gave me a can-do attitude. Then many years later just getting started ... reading, watching videos, and trying it out. Starting small. Incremental improvement
 
What little I've done and learned has been trial and error...and lots of firewood, even back before I had a fireplace! :rofl: I had a semester of shop in high school, but it was a joke. Didn't really learn anything there. Probably learned more taking things apart as a kid than building anything. Learned some basic carpentry skills from my Dad, but even that was not a lot. Would probably be a lot further into woodworking if I had had someone to show me the ropes! So I still create a lot of sawdust. At least now, a good portion is sucked up by the cyclone. :eek::thumb::DJim.
 
My only formal woodworking education was in high school but that was nearly 50 years ago. I always liked working with my hands, taking things apart and putting them back together. The taking apart was usually more successful though. I bought a table saw and a few power tools about 20 years ago and mostly repaired things but then Norm came along and the rest, as they say (whoever they is) is history. Most of my woodworking knowledge comes from him.
 
I have had no formal training. I have learned most from reading the various forums, then trial and lotsa error, and reading, reading, reading. Once in awhile I make something decent, the rest of the time it is precision cut exotic sawdust. :D
 
No formal training. As a child I watched my father build some major projects, garage, covered sandbox.....Then as an adult I had a neighbor who was a contractor. I was a field engineer for a company and my only responsibility was a single cat scanner. My neighbor invited me to visit the construction site of the house he was building. I showed up and was lending a hand to him and his crew. After that he offered me cash money to work for him part time. He put me in charge of the siding crew. After the siding was finished, he fired his crew and he and I completed the house. He bought a "fixer upper" and we demolished and did a major remodel on it. Then we built a log playground. One thing led to another. This was in Bend OR in 1977. In 1978 I got promoted to management and my family and I moved to Chicago. I bought a house with an unfinished basement. I had a finished basement when we moved to Idaho.

Basically....college text books on carpentry, talk with building contractors and inspectors.....watch TOH and NYW....learn...
 
No formal training other than a year of shop in HS. My dad was a hobby woodworker and I picked up a lot from him. Other than that, lots and lots of magazines, books, and hundreds of hours watching Norm.
 
My dad taught 4-H woodworking so I guess it started there in some degree.

Anything else, good or bad, was learned from other people I worked with or by trial and error.....and of course a lot of help has come from the forum too.
 
My "Paw Paw" was always making things (not furniture but "stuff"). I hung around with him a lot because my dad worked so long and hard, but when he was not working he also made "stuff" (or we went fishing). When I started in High School I decided to take a "Shop" class. Phillip Dillon (dead now) was an inspiration to me and guided me. Then in College, I studied under some of the finest craftsmen in the industry. Later after earning my degree in Industrial Education, I taught WWing and such until I retired several years ago. After Rump Resting for a bit and Heart Surgery I decided that I needed to DO SOMETHING!... So I made a mess in one corner of the basement and renamed it my Dust Bowl. :thumb:
 
i got into woodworking by accident. i needed a building for the back yard and almost had a heart attack at the price. over $5k and that didn't include the crane to lift it over my house. i went to the local depo and took pictures and measurements and built it for $1k including a solid steel door. it got my wife to thinking and the next thing you know here i am. very little experience and very little reading. although that is going to change since that seems to be the common denominator in most of the replys.
 
Jr high shop class, not a lot of encouragement from my Dad, although he was always puttering around :dunno:

Same as everybody else, plus attending wood shows and watching the demos and then I took this course although I didn't watch Norm as much as I watched David Marks

http://www.woodschool.org/basic.html

which helped me bring my game up several notches, but I still have LOTS to learn.

Jay
 
Took up woodworking after being thrown out of more highrise buildings in downtown houston than you have digits on one hand.:eek: Escorted out, "NO SOLICITING"!!!!!!!:rolleyes: Chased around from floor to floor on elevators till they nailed me, and escorted me out! Guess my cold call days were numbered! Took to building decks and patio shades with a pal in the apartment complex. Then to cabinets and plastic laminate with a real subcontractor. One thing lead to another. Then I found the Man.
My advise to anyone of any age wanting to learn about wood working, go to several tool places or saw blade sharpeners of reputation, in your area, listen up I am sharing pearls here, ask them who are the best craftsmen they know of, THEN ask them who is the best! Find the man, Plead with the man, Work for little or nothing for the man, and do the jobs that suck if that needs done. You will save years of trial and error by learning the right way first!
I learned more about trim work ( moulding, crown, coping, joints, design, and power embellishment ) while framing a house with the right man in one year than I did in 6 years trimming houses with a trim contractor. :doh: GO FIGURE!:rofl:
Shaz :)
 
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Actually, I used to sit on my Father's basement steps and watch him craft cabinets, cupolas, and other things of wood. It fascinated me when I was a little guy, and that fascination has stayed with me into my sixties. I have surpassed my Dad in ability to work wood, by far, and he knew that when he was still with us. So, I learned a lot from my Father through observation, and it taught me to watch very carefully what other woodworkers more talented than I do in their shops.

The lesson: observe carefully, very carefully.
 
Like most others I'm mostly self taught. Come to think of it my teacher was an idiot.

But more seriously, Shaz is right on. I have had the chance to work around some fine craftsman and finishers and learned a lot. But there is no substitute for experience in anything.
 
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