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How did you learn woodworking?

Caught the bug when I was a little one spending summers with my grand parents in the Berkshires; my grandfathers hobby was building Shaker furniture. Unfortunately, he passed when I was 11 and so the woodworking was touch and go until we bought our house with a barn 5 years ago. Now I'm back in the seat with more space than I wished for and doing the Tod Evans method, but probably many more errors:D
 
I haven't learned woodworking and I think that is one of the things that makes it the most interesting. Every time I think I know how to do an aspect of it I see some thing that just blows me away even in the simpler things. And then when you get to the artistic side of things I haven't even started and doubt if I have the natural ability to ever do a lot of that even if I had the right training.

However even the simpler projects can be so rewarding. My son and I started an easel for one of my Grandsons. Time being what it is I ended up doing most of it. It was rather simple and the plans were from a magazine, however he told his teacher one year it was the best gift he had ever received.

So you don't really have to learn a great deal about woodworking for it to be very rewarding...


And as to learning I rarely tune into this list with out learning something. And that all adds to what Mr Porter started teaching me in the 7 th grade. Main problem is I have forgotten so much that I thought I knew, and the learning curve seems to get harder and the forgetting curve gets steeper. Any solutions?

Garry
 
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Garry Foster said:
I haven't learned woodworking and I think that is one of the things that makes it the most interesting.
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I was going to say how I learned from my dad and grandfather and I did learn a lot from them and still do from my dad. But, I think Gary hit the nail on the head with the quote above. Even if I somehow would someday be considered a "master craftsman" (that would be a long shot) I think I would still learn something about ww almost every day just as I do today.
 
In my ill-spent youth I was a rock-n-roller (sound familiar Vaughn?). Like most of my garage band/college student/part time job friends, I found money to be tight. I started building speaker cabinets and road cases for myself and others. This turned into a small side business for a few years.

Marriage, Real Job, Kids, Divorce and life in general ensued for a few decades. As I passed 50 I decided I needed something to do that I enjoyed. Scuba trips are occasional, snow-hiking is seasonal so woodworking it is. Been loving it for a few years and learning by doing.
 
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I watched my grandfather remodel his house. I don't recall this but I have been told many times. I took woodworking classes in Middle and High School. I obtained a collection of tools before going to college. Things such as work and school got in the way. I now have a house with a detached garage to work in. I hope to have it organized soon and start making woodchips.

I thought this would be a good post to introduce myself. :wave:
 
I took shop in jr High and High School but didn't do any woodworking during my engineering career. When I retired, I started taking classes at Cerritos College (a Community College) and can't say too much good about them. The people teaching the classes are quite good - good craftsmen and good teachers. You also learn safety in a formal setting like that. They are safety crazy because they absolutely, positively do not want any injuries.

I'm very satisfied with the way I've learned.

Mike

PS - Welcome to FWW, Bobby.
 
Other than taking Shop in high school, I learned what little I know from books, WW mags, TV and lately from forums such as this. Oh, and more than my share of lessons learned the hard way. But you never forget those and they prove invaluable.
 
interesting stuff.
My father never taught me anything, other than to respect people.
My stepfather, owned and operated a shop producing display cases, mostly in the 70s and 80s, for eight track tapes. He used pressboard stuff with plastic woodgrain look, cheapest stuff, and had the lucite doors that you could reach your hands into but could not pull the 8 track tapes thru.
Im sure many remember those units, he was big on those.
He also began his own line of stackable cassette, LP, and 6 track cabinets, which he ended up closing the business, new york cost were overbearing, and imported the cheap stuff from overseas.
Hes been gone sine 84, but he was brilliant at design and drawing his ideas in three dimensions.
I remember his shop manager, was a master jig maker.
A talent I was told.
I worked for him as a young teen, mainly on the packaging end, sometimes the drill press, and when I got my license, delivery and the occasional run to the hospital when one of the tablesaw guys accidently took a bit of a finger off and I had to crawl under the tablesaw in 3 feet of sawdust with an icebag and retrieve the finger.(ouch)
A worker once tried to show me how to use the router to slot the edges for the plastic T moldings that would cover every edge of everything, but I saw the guys slice his finger while trying to show, me Inever touched a router again till last year.
I got led into building things 2 years ago when I refused to pay 150 bucks for an adirondack chair in lancaster PA.
Ive since purchased plans, and made chairs and tables out of white oak, redwood, red cedar, white cedar and pt lumber.
I love it, Id like to give up my day job, but Im just a total amateur.

I would love it if someone here could recommend a week long class in the northeast where I can learn basic joinery and finishing techniques.
Not old school, I want to use power tools and learn how to crank out a joint, not using a hammer and chissel.
If anyone happensto know of any school in north east are that accepts beginners, Id be obliged.
 
allen levine said:
I would love it if someone here could recommend a week long class in the northeast where I can learn basic joinery and finishing techniques.
Not old school, I want to use power tools and learn how to crank out a joint, not using a hammer and chissel.
If anyone happensto know of any school in north east are that accepts beginners, Id be obliged.
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I don't live in your area but around here the community colleges offer classes in woodworking and do a great job of teaching beginners.

Mike
 
Hi All,

My mother gave me 2 (hey! I just noticed...Computers don't have a "cents" character like the old typewriters) cents to purchase a hammer, my first tool. I purchased it from my father. I don't know how old I was...but we moved from that house when I turned age 5.

I've been around tools all of my life. The tools were for cars, model airplanes, electronics, etc. Very little was done with wood. The wood projects were things like a bookcase I couldn't afford to buy, a work bench (used for almost anything except wood), a door to the studio, etc.

My son, Glenn Bradley, is the one that enticed me into woodworking about a year ago. I'm very glad because we have a father/son thing going on this. However, we work the opposite of the other people who made entries on this thread. Glenn is teaching and educating me, his father. It is rough going for him too. Even though I am (scratch that and substitute was) a genius, like the rest of the family, I am now 82 and I am sure Glenn is tempted to use a large hammer to drive facts into my head. We talk on the phone almost every day and sometimes several times a day

I am accumulating tools as fast as possible. The Wood Working Show last March got me into enough tools that I could make something. However, it has mainly been installing DC, designing shop, etc. Am going for lumber tomorrow to build laundry cabinets for the LOML, Myrna and to build a woodworking bench. Like most people, I have enough vices...however, I don't have a bench to put them on.:rofl:

I have purchased several books, take several woodworking magazines, and get my tax money's worth, borrowing books from the library.

It is scary thinking that I am actually going to build something that is going to have tolerances, need to function well, not be a disgrace cosmetically, etc.

Remember, experience is the best teacher. Trouble is that it is so expensive.

Enjoy,

Jim
 
I have learned everything from this forum. :eek: Ok seriously I wish that I could say it all came from my dad , but he was a cartographer. So I guess it all started back when I was a kid building rafts and tree forts in the neighborhood when i was a kid. Who would have thunk I would be doing it for a living back then? It really took off back in school during a grade 8 when I did 1 hr a day in shop and by grade 12 I was loving it enough to do 3 classes a day in wood shop. (I wasn't really much for the academic stuff and math wasn't my strong suit ) after high school I worked teaching bartending and working bars amd managing hotels with some courses in electronics along the way.

Actually it was my clients in the bar kind of got me back into carpentry as they got me into the carpenters union where I did my apprenticship and that was some 20 yrs ago. I haven't worked a day since then as the old saying goes " if you find something that you love doing you will never work another day in your life" I have been fortunate to have worked in heavy concrete forming, wood framing, heavy timber framing, steel stud, drywall, cabinetmaking, furniture making, boat building and finishing work. Everyday is a new thing and I have never stopped learning. Sometimes I even feel guilty charging people for the things that I build as even after 20 yrs it just seems like play to me and every day is a new learning experience. :thumb:

After doing a bit of everything and having the good fortune to have worked with some fantastic tradesmen and one divorce later and an up and coming marraige have I really settled down and really started putting my own shop together. The new LOML has given me the inspiration to get back into the furniture making and craft side of things (that along with age and failing body parts:rofl:) Now we just go shopping for ideas on the things that I want to build :rofl:and learning something new everyday. :thumb: Life is the adventure and when I stop learning is when I start getting old.:D
 
Jeff,

For me I learned the basics at junior and high school. After setting up myworkshop and joing an onlinre forum I learned a whole lot and still find that everyday in the workshop is a school day.
 
Jeff...I had woodworking in HS, and cut my thumb real bad the first day. Teacher said maybe I wasnt suited for woodworking. Just nailed stuff together back then (in the 50's). In the 70's the first wife got the ideal to get into selling antiques, so it was my job to strip and finish the old furniture. I really enjoyed going to auctions and finding the old painted stuff, anyway I learned how the furniture was put together and it really facinated me. I had to do repairs with old wood on most it, and came to learn the different woods. Back then had a nice table saw, rad. arm saw, planer, and other tools, economic times forced me to sell everything, and for many years had no tools and didnt do much woorwork, now I'm old and weak and jumping back into it, and surprised how much knowledge I did retain on working with wood, now all I need to do is get acurate, get acurate, get acurate!!
 
I would say I started learning in woodshop in high school, but that wouldn't really be true. One of my high school years there were twice as many people assigned to a gym class as there was supposed to be so they split the year in two and half of us got to take woodshop for the first half and gym for the second half of the year.

Shop class at that high school was a big shop with lots of cool big tools and little to nothing in the way of instruction. No real class time being told how to do anything, so I jumped right onto this big cabinet saw with a piece of plywood to make one larger piece into two smaller ones. Set the rip fence, pushed the board through the blade and then went to pull it back to make the next cut. Bet you can guess what happened then. :eek:

So, having learned my lesson about table saws, i.e. they are very scarey and dangerous things to be avoided at any cost, I made a bunch of aluminum ash trays out of sheet aluminum using a ball pean hammer for a good part of that semester.

Then I discovered the lathe. Now that was a cool tool, and I managed to turn a few small things on it.

The wood bug hit me several years later and I learned a lot from books and magazines and making do with the tools I could afford to buy back then. Wasn't till the internet came along and all of the info on it that I got really serious about it.

One of the most important things I have learned (other than some better methods and procedures for using a table saw) is that if you don't keep pushing the envelope, trying more difficult stuff, and pushing yourself beyond your current boundaries, you're never going to get better at it.
 
Sometimes I think I have never learned anything about woodworking.

Everything I know about woodworking has come from books, magazines, and the internet - and, of course, forums such as this. Like the rest of you, I have made my fair share of firewood.

I took a two-quarter shop class in high school forty-some years ago and made a maple wall shelf. Really don't remember much about that, though - I had other things on my mind at that time... girls, girls, football. I've always been a do-it-yourselfer and have learned all of that from books and trial-and-error.

There have been many times when I wished I knew another woodworker in my area who I could ask questions when I got stuck but have to rely on thinking the problem out or asking on the forums for guidance.

Jim
 
My dad was a carpenter, grew up building houses with him. Pretty much learned most of what I know from him and he instilled in me the confidence to learn anything. There is nothing he can't do and he's not afraid to try something new...just gotten wiser that he doesn't have the time to do everything...which I'm still learning :D
 
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