Any woodworkers?

Partly distressed paint job and partly reclaimed from the Home Depot reject cart!

 

Thanks!!!

 

Woot! I can see the finish line!

 

How long have you been doing woodworking?

 

Let me know when to pick it up!

 

On and off since high school, so 30 years ish. I’ve started focusing on it the past 7 years or so.

 

Any advice on starting? I’ve accumulated some tools myself and did some projects before

 

Make boxes, lots of boxes, give them away and make more. Boxes are one of the best skill builders. Almost everything in wood working revolves around boxes. And you can incorporate different joinery in them too, that is also challenging and a good skill builder. Jewelry boxes are great places to start. Think about what kitchen cabinets are, just big boxes.

 

I like the make boxes comment. I’d suggest watching some YouTube videos from different content creators and find your style. Lots of them sell plans for their projects and they’re quite helpful for someone getting started. I suggest start with small projects so you can get a feel for it before you dive into something larger, where mistakes are more costly. And don’t get caught up in all the fancy tools until you get better at your craft. Tools just make it easier faster and more repeatable. They don’t necessarily make you a better woodworker.

 

Where you located?

 

A few more Xmas presents done for the year!

 

Very Nice!

 

Another thing I'll add to this is that going forward buy tools as you need them. Don't just buy them because you think you'll need them at some point. Skip the big router bit sets and just buy new bits as you need them. Most of the big kits have bits in them you'll never use. Only exception to this advice is clamps, lol, you can never have enough clamps. Pipe clamps are great when your starting out because they are economical. I Still use them today and they are a part of my shop. I would say that half my clamps are pipe clamps.

 

This post is 2 years old:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/any-woodworkers.271012/page-563#post-28868871

 

Very cool!

 

Probably still don’t have enough clamps sometimes

 

Exactly

 

Find a project you need around the house and get started. I never really made practice stuff. I just messed up a lot along the way. Unfortunately, the mistakes still continue to happen. I started with bottle openers and corn hole sets and moved up to outdoor planters. Learn how to break big projects down into smaller more manageable pieces. At this point, 8 years later, not many things truly intimidate me anymore.

 

I wouldn't consider myself qualified to give any kind of woodworking advice, but the one thing I've learned over a few projects I've done: give yourself time. I tend to want to rush things to get them done, so I don't spend enough time sanding, don't give enough time for glue to cure, don't give enough time for finishing stain/oil/clearcoat, and just generally rush everything. Given I'm not expecting "great" from my own ability, I live with it; but I'm pretty sure I could make some serious improvements to the quality of things I build by just simply giving it the time it deserves. Some things can't be rushed; and when you make those costly mistakes of rushing your glue/finish, you might as well just start over. Same applies for the rest of the process: give it time, make small adjustments, and measure 27 times.

 

Good advice.