Chris Thompson
07-11-2004, 8:10 PM
I thought I'd announce myself as a newly reborn neaderthal.
I began buying woodworking equipment four years ago, while working a high paid dotcom job. I was collecting gear with the intent of turning my two car garage into a woodworking shop. That got complicated when my scattered mind also decided that if one hobby was good, two was better, and a 1973 MGB in "almost running" condition took up residence in the right half of the garage. And so, I always had this stack of equipment in the garage doing nothing, disorganized, and stacked in a corner, unusable. Over the last four years, one kid became two, and two became three. Free time? What's that?
This year I decided enough was enough, and decided that I was going to reclaim my dreams of woodworking. I made myself a very rough but strong utility table out of 2x4 and 4x4. Not a workbench, but I had no other place in the garage to set stuff, other than the floor, or the trunk of said 73 MGB.
I learned something in making that bench. Many people talk about woodworking as therapy, and it's not just idle chatter. I was calm, contented and smiling, despite the fact that I'd been laid off from my job just the week before and was having trouble finding work. As I cut dados in 4x4 stock to lap in the 2x4 runners, I was almost giddy as the sawdust flew.
So I've spent the last few weeks reading everything I can about shops and woodworking. I've laid plans to sell the MGB hulk and reclaim my garage. And a chance random post on the forums over at bt3central.com by Don "Pappy" Griggs about refurbing old Stanley/Bailey metal planes really made the lightbulb above my head flicker to life.
And slowly I read the bulk of the Neanderthal forum here. Every time I'd see a brand name (Disston? Who's that?) I'd open another browser and find out everything I could. And so, I feel like I now have to come clean... I've become a neanderthal, albeit a very green rookie one.
In my dazed excitement of my conversion, I spent some time at ebay late last week and, well, kind of went overboard. Headed my way by US Post are ...
Bailey #5C
uh, another #5, this one not a C
Bailey #4
uh, another Bailey #4
Marples/Record #4
A nameless #4
A Nameless #5
And, thrown in with one of those Bailey #4's, for free, was yet another #5, and a no-name block plane of some sort.
So, I'm one of you now. Please be prepared for a barrage of newbie questions.
I began buying woodworking equipment four years ago, while working a high paid dotcom job. I was collecting gear with the intent of turning my two car garage into a woodworking shop. That got complicated when my scattered mind also decided that if one hobby was good, two was better, and a 1973 MGB in "almost running" condition took up residence in the right half of the garage. And so, I always had this stack of equipment in the garage doing nothing, disorganized, and stacked in a corner, unusable. Over the last four years, one kid became two, and two became three. Free time? What's that?
This year I decided enough was enough, and decided that I was going to reclaim my dreams of woodworking. I made myself a very rough but strong utility table out of 2x4 and 4x4. Not a workbench, but I had no other place in the garage to set stuff, other than the floor, or the trunk of said 73 MGB.
I learned something in making that bench. Many people talk about woodworking as therapy, and it's not just idle chatter. I was calm, contented and smiling, despite the fact that I'd been laid off from my job just the week before and was having trouble finding work. As I cut dados in 4x4 stock to lap in the 2x4 runners, I was almost giddy as the sawdust flew.
So I've spent the last few weeks reading everything I can about shops and woodworking. I've laid plans to sell the MGB hulk and reclaim my garage. And a chance random post on the forums over at bt3central.com by Don "Pappy" Griggs about refurbing old Stanley/Bailey metal planes really made the lightbulb above my head flicker to life.
And slowly I read the bulk of the Neanderthal forum here. Every time I'd see a brand name (Disston? Who's that?) I'd open another browser and find out everything I could. And so, I feel like I now have to come clean... I've become a neanderthal, albeit a very green rookie one.
In my dazed excitement of my conversion, I spent some time at ebay late last week and, well, kind of went overboard. Headed my way by US Post are ...
Bailey #5C
uh, another #5, this one not a C
Bailey #4
uh, another Bailey #4
Marples/Record #4
A nameless #4
A Nameless #5
And, thrown in with one of those Bailey #4's, for free, was yet another #5, and a no-name block plane of some sort.
So, I'm one of you now. Please be prepared for a barrage of newbie questions.