Introduction

[bigstick509]

Welcome

[linear]

Hi niki! Good to have you here.

[jabe]

Aloha, good to have you on board.

[padboy]

Welcome Niki! Please tell us about what everyday "woodworking" life is like there in Poland. Do you have stores like our large "home centers"? What are your local hardware stores like? How difficult is it to buy nuts/bolts/screws and woodworking tools such as routers,bench saws etc.

[niki]

Thank you all for the welcome

Padboy
I’m only an amateur sharing the garage with my car (it has to be clean and empty every evening).

At the winter, all my woodworking is also “frozen”, we had already the first snow and the temperatures dropped below the freezing level, no heating in the garage, so, I have 4 months “Vacation”.

We have a few “Big boxes” but the WW hobby is still not developed here and many small things that you just pop-in to the HD and buy them, are not available here (for example: T track).

It’s only 15 years since they were “released” from “Mama Russia” control and influence, so actually, it is very young country.

Tools and machines are available here as in the rest of the EU, most of them are German (the expensive) or Chinese (the cheap).

But there are also good things like; when I made my kitchen (16’ lower, 16’ upper cabinets), I just ordered the Melamine plates cut to my dimensions. It cost me extra $30 but I got an accurate and clean cut plates delivered to my house, without the need to carry and brake down big and heavy plates and all the dust around.

The men-power here is very cheap ($700 salary is considered above average) and the Oak prices are ridiculous (everybody has them in his yard), 35 cubic feet (1 cubic meter) costs around $300~400.

niki

[jdschulteis]

[...]
The men-power here is very cheap ($700 salary is considered above average) and the Oak prices are ridiculous (everybody has them in his yard), 35 cubic feet (1 cubic meter) costs around $300~400.

niki

Welcome, Niki.

For those that don't like to do the math, that oak comes to $0.71 to $0.95 per board foot, about half what my local sawmill charges.

[SHADOWFOX]

Welcome aboard, Niki!

There's a lot of wonderful folks here! Definitely one of the best woodworking community on the web.

I am a newbie to this hobby and I greatly appreciate your current contributions of skills and knowledge. Looking forward to the next one

[niki]

Thank you Jerry
Daily products are very cheap here (even the Germans are coming here for shopping), but the Bosch 4000 TS costs $1,200 (in USA, $500) and the M12V router, $550 (~$150 in USA), just to give you reference point.

Thank you Chris
Because my skills are not “something to write home about”, I’m forced to make jigs that will make my work “idiot proof”.

niki

[mater]

Welcome to the forum Niki. We are glad to have you join and enjoy yourself.

[Workman]

Welcome, Niki. I had the opportunity to spend several weeks in Poland in 1991. Nothing close to a "big box" store then (but the most incredible "flea market" in the world in Warsaw). Original in the box Sears and Craftsmen items sold as flea market finds. Is it still there? Love your simple jigs - they fit my memories of making things work when the tools and/or materials can't be found (as easily as in the big box stores) and fits our hobby well. Perhaps this distinguishes the "craftsman" from the "assembler"? Keep up the good work.

[niki]

Thank you Mater and Workman

Workman
If you mean the flea market in the Warsaw Stadium, it’s still there but the Warsaw municipal government decided to close it very soon and I wonder where all the Vietnamese and are going to go.
A friend of mine calls it Saigon.

Since you’ve been here, they opened a few “big boxes” but they are owned mainly by French companies and all of them are more concentrated in construction materials and tools (they are still building the country), very little woodworking.

Chesch
niki