Mike's Woodworking Projects
Woodworking has been a great hobby for me ever since I got the bug watching Norm Abrahm's New Yankee Workshop back in the 80's.
My first real wood working machine was a cast iron Craftsman Table saw I bought in 1987. This is still the center piece and work horse of my shop to this day (2020!). Since then I have added a Miter Saw (on my second one, but should have bought a compound sliding style), Band Saw, Jointer, a couple of Routers, Router table and Drill Press and various hand held tools.
My next upgrade will probably be some better clamps or a lathe or a planer... I guess I will need to find a major project that just has to have one of those things.
I am very much an amateur but, have built some pretty good furniture over the years. One DVD I got a while ago was from WWGA (wood workers guild of america) it builds a standard cabinet and demonstrates lot's of really good techniques. So, if you can find "Wood Workers Guild of America - Essential Woodworking Techniques" I recommend it.
When I do my own design I combine my two favorite hobbies woodworking and excel spreadsheets. I take a crazy amount of time to create a spreadsheet often with not just a cut list but, the wood layouts (also figuring least amount of waste and least expensive), build instructions and sometimes even to scale drawings of the project. All fun for me.
Safety First! Always wear eye protection no matter how simple a thing you are doing. Know how to safely use your equipment. Always keep your fingers and hands out of harms way. Always have equipment unplugged when doing set up. Always think about the operation before you do it. Always think about kick back and how to avoid it. Use the blade guards whenever possible.
AND... always enjoy it... it's a hobby (most of the time)... take your time, keep things unclutterd. Deal with the dust.
"Why buy it for $100 if you can make it for $200!"
Projects
Note: I started this part of the blog in 2020 so earlier projects may not have a photo.