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My first real furniture project was a cherry coffee table that we still have. There are plenty of flaws to be found for sure, but all things considered, I think it came out pretty well.

Prior to that I did build two matching headboards for my daughters out of 2x6 pine, but I didn't consider those real furniture.
 
In school, as a "Project" the first thing I made was a door knocker, a woodpecker on a board, with a string on it, pull the string and the woodpecker knocked. My parents still have it hanging on the basement door. :D
 
My first working with wood was when I was about 8 years old. Dad use to carve/shape/rasp out his own golf head woods. And I learned from him.

The first project I can remember that wasn't a golf club was a hand carved old shoe, which my mom still has. My first power tool project in school was probably a light box (really in vogue in those days) What I would consider my first major project would be a clock I did in 9th grade that won that years Wood Award. I still have the clock.
 
I must have made a rubberband-powered paddleboat in Cub Scouts. :dunno: I definitely made some little airplanes out of popsicle sticks, toothpicks and glue. :rofl:

But I never took woodshop in school, and my dad was more of a mechanic than a woodworker. So...

... the first thing I can remember designing and making (mostly) out of wood was a camera tripod - when I was 21. And yep - I still have it!

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The design allowed for 3-way motion :rolleyes: but it didn't do a very good job otherwise.

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1) The hole in the triangular piece was too big for the dowel, so I had to adjust for the inevitable "droop" with creative placement of the legs, etc.

2) The screw that I used to hold the camera to the tripod didn't have the right TPI (I didn't know much about that, either) ... but it worked. I was careful not to strip the threads in the camera body.

3) I didn't know about grain direction, or pre-drilling holes (or anything else, really) so the vertical piece split very early on.

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Still, I used the tripod to take a few pictures with my SLR ... but not very many. A few years ago I got my first "real" tripod ($18 at Wal-Mart :eek:) but I guess I haven't learned much from the past. Check out my lighting system!

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Putting wheels on this cannon may have been my first ever wood working project. I couldn't have been older than eight. I also made a couple knives but don't recall if they were before or after this. Still have those also. I found this cannon in an abandoned barn in Michigan where my folks had a summer cabin. It didn't have wheels but there were (still are) wear grooves showing the diameter of the original wheels. I cut these wheels out of 2-byes with a coping saw and soaked with stain. Screwed on with some all-thread rod and it has remained that way for 60+ years. I showed the cannon to an expert and he said it was made about 1800-1820 by a craftsman, probably a blacksmith, who knew "a little something" about cannons. It shows styling from several eras and countries so he, no doubt, was working from memory of things he had seen. It doesn't have an adjusting screw or wedge. Meaning it is not for firing a projectile. It is a signal cannon. 1" bore. I sometimes fire on 4th of July.
 

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I can't remember if it was the pinewood derby car or the bird feeder. I made both with my Dad when I was in cub scouts. (in the early '80s)

I still have the pinewood derby car....some place. The bird feeder lasted between 15 to 20 years in my parents side yard feeding birds and pesky squirrels alike.
 
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I've made some plywood dog and cat houses and nailed up some crooked basement shelves over the years, but my first thing I would consider a woodworking project was a turned bowl from some glued together scraps of oak. Our cats ate from it for a long time but I now have it sitting on a shelf as a keepsake.
 
My first woodshop project ever was this little cutting board I made for my grandma when I was about 6 or so. Granddad cut the shape out of a piece of scrap maple with a jig saw, but he let me run the sander and drill for the hanging hole. I reacquired it after my grandparents passed away, and I've used it ever since, until about a year ago, when I noticed it was starting to crack.

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My first woodshop project ever was this little cutting board I made for my grandma when I was about 6 or so. Granddad cut the shape out of a piece of scrap maple with a jig saw, but he let me run the sander and drill for the hanging hole. I reacquired it after my grandparents passed away, and I've used it ever since, until about a year ago, when I noticed it was starting to crack.

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Cracked? Should have treated with olive oil. ;)
Repair with a butterfly. As long as it's you doing it, the sentimental value will just be increased.
 
Mine was a racing car that only worked downhill, we drove it sitting on it with our feet put on the front axe that turned around a bolt in the center. I tink I was 10 or so.

A string attached to the end of the shaft before the wheel was the only thing we could cling on. Sometimes we didn't use the string and just hold our ankles with our hands.

The wheels were used ball bearing wheels given by a car repair shop, that were inserted snugly on the rounded ends of the shafts and held in place by two or three nails dug transversally.

I still do not now how we didn't get killed by any car because we were just going downhill on the street with all the traffic.
See attached sketch.
 

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Mine was a racing car that only worked downhill, we drove it sitting on it with our feet put on the front axe that turned around a bolt in the center. I tink I was 10 or so.

A string attached to the end of the shaft before the wheel was the only thing we could cling on. Sometimes we didn't use the string and just hold our ankles with our hands.

The wheels were used ball bearing wheels given by a car repair shop, that were inserted snugly on the rounded ends of the shafts and held in place by two or three nails dug transversally.

I still do not now how we didn't get killed by any car because we were just going downhill on the street with all the traffic.
See attached sketch.
thats simple you foreigners drive on the wrong side of the road anyway:) now we know why.. they start out silly and keep going that way:D
 
thats simple you foreigners drive on the wrong side of the road anyway:) now we know why.. they start out silly and keep going that way:D

YOU LARRY,!!!!
I almost can't write this because I'm laughing so much that tears run from my eyes.:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

BTW We drive on the same side as you do, I'm in Spain not UK or Japan!
 
Used to make all sorts of multi-fire weapons out of strips of tire inner tubes and wood to stretch them on. I think the best one had something like 8 or 10 before I had to stop and reload. We had some pretty sadistic toys in my neighborhood for amusement. My first "commission" was an absolutely hideous spice rack in 8th grade shop class that hung on the kitchen wall for a number of years.
 
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