How did you get started?

[Warren]

I used to watch my dad. He was a master with the table saw. At age 12 I built a soap box racer. My dad supervised, but he never put a tool to the project. A real confidence builder for a kid. Didn't have a lot of use for the wood working skills until much later in life, but that was my intoduction. And now it's my avocation.

[eezlock]

getting started......

Well for me, it jr.high school wood shop, then high school wood shop, after that (a few long years it was building remote control model airplanes) then nothing for a long time. reason: no place to work and nothing but mechanic
type hand tools and drills. After my parents died in 1994 my two brothers and I inhereted the old homeplace, one brother died a year later, so my youngest brother and I wound up with the place, he wanted a new house for himself and his wife so I decided to move back home to stay. I inhereted my dad's old shop with the house ( a 24'x 24' wooden building with attached
covered shed on one side and rear. After a LOT of cleaning out tons of his
old business supplies and accumilated junk (40 years worth) I decided to use the shop to do what I wanted with it. I do some metal working, welding,
repairs to power equipment (mowers and the like) and my favorite......
WOODWORKING! It is not only my hobby and passion it is also the place
I go for that all important quiet,solitude, and to do what I want to do
when it is time . After years of not woodworking (about 40) I feel like I have started
over again, never lost the interest nor forgotten the lessons learned at school shop.
Always safety first! At age of 57, now it is more time than money to do things instead
of the otherway round. eezlock

[MilDoc]

Decided I needed a hobby. Always wanted to try woodworking. Bought a bunch of power tools (spent way too much). 18 months later still trying but enjoying every minute!

[billwmeyer]

I lived in a mobile home in Wichita, Ks, and the couch was trash. I found a free plan for a couch from Georgia Pacific, and to my wife's surprize, started and finished the couch in one day, except for upholstering the cushions. I only had a circular saw.

I had the bug, but in a mobile home I couldn't really get started.

Jumping forward a few years, I started watching New Yankee Workshop and I got the bug again. Then my daughter announced she was pregnant with her second child. I built a cradle for my grandson, and I have been hooked ever since.

Bill

[Knottscott]

I first got into DIY home repairs and projects as a matter of necessity. The first time I borrowed a router for some porch ballisters catapulted me into wwing....I was really excited by the idea of running a bit across a piece of wood and changing it's whole look...

...the timing was good too, my dearly departed father had just left me a small insurance fund that seeded the first tools in my shop. He wasn't into wwing, but was a tinkerer and definitely would have approved!

[Papa]

How did you get started?

Back in 1948 when I was in the 6th grade, the school district installed an old railroad car equipped as a woodworking shop behind our elementary school. All the older boys got to take shop. My first project was a sailboat-shaped what-not shelf that my mom kept on her wall until a fire destroyed it in 1964. I've been bitten bu the woodworking bug ever since.

Papa

[sacherjj]

My dad had a construction business when I was a kid, so I got to play around with making odd things as a child. I never really made anything serious for quite a while. After college, I didn't have any place in the apartments where I lived to do any type of projects. As soon as I was given part of a garage, I started thinking about it. I was given some veneered MDF and decided to make a bookshelf/printer stand for my girlfriend's office. One $30 Skil circular saw and $100 Skil router (I didn't know any better at the time...). I cut down the sheets with the saw and dadoed with the router. Took a long time to make and finish, but it was fun. The I found this site and got at BT3100 on sale for $199. It has been down hill from there. My last project was a 10" x 12" shed with two lofts and a sunroof. That has taken a while, but been a good learning experience.

[gsmittle]

I've been building theatrical scenery for most of 30 years. Every so often we need to make "fake furniture," things like tables and safes and pianos. Since the audience is normally far away, we don't worry about tight-fitting joints, etc. Just build it out of dimensional lumber, slap some gaff tape or muslin on the cracks, and paint it!

That got me interested in how real furniture is made, and then several years ago I happened upon Nahm on PBS. As soon as I got the room and some cash I bought my BT, and the rest is history. (Not great history, but history.)

Unfortunately, developing a woodworker's sensibility has slowed down my scenery building--now I worry about the joinery...

g.

[crokett]

When I was a teenager I made a fair bit of money selling rabbit hutches. Just 2x and ply construction, nothing fancy. I'd build the assemblies (2 sides a back and a roof) paint 'em and shingle the roof then take 2 or three to the shows we went to. Included a screw kit and assembly instructions. I always sold out and got orders for more.

About 6 yrs ago after I bought my first house somebody asked if I could make a plant bench. I said yes and its gone downhill from there.

[onedash]

TIVO....I set a season pass for NYW,TOH and ATOH and got the bug....I built stuff in the past with a circular saw and cheap router and eventually got a POS table saw...But once I got TIVO and two incomes I was hooked....