What is your approach to woodworking?

[diggerop]

I suspect my approach might be a little different, but I'd be interested to see how much.

The material I use is predominantly highly figured pine. This is mainly because my current wife, (I have had one less than Henry VIII,) really likes it and considers high quality timbers like Jarrah to be bland. (Not me Phully, it's the missus that thinks that.) Suits me, because with patience and a little conniving, I can buy it here for a song and she gets what she wants, I get tons of the stuff to play with and it's a very cheap hobby. (The pine is structural reject timber in the main)

I never buy wood for specific project, - a self-imposed restriction is that I must use what I have at the time. As I've acquired more machinery, that has become much easier. If my wife wanted something built from Tassie Oak, for example, the reply would be "Sorry, no can do." Same with a fixed design. Not interested. It's really not that much of a restriction, - most of us could build a world class heavy workbench from matchsticks if we chose.

I don't do plans and won't adhere to a specific design idea. I start with a concept, work out in my head how I'm going to achieve that with what I have to hand and let it evolve from there. (The "make do with what you have" approach instilled in me growing up on farm.) Not afraid to make radical changes as I go along. Surprisingly, I waste very little wood in spite of these changes. (Glue is truly a wonderful thing.) I'm no fine woodworker and don't aspire to be. Those of you who are professionals or skilled craftsmen would be doubtless be horrified by some of my approaches. To make something strong, functional, useful and pleasing to me is my aim.

Therein, lies the joy of wookwork for me, - the challenge and satisfaction of creating something that reflects my own (lack of) skills, experience and free will, - not what some plan requires of me. Sounds artistic, but I'm certainly no artist.

So what's your approach?

[D'ohBoy]

On Nov 12, 8:17=A0am, "diggerop" wrote, in part:

Like getting on a horse, or my politics, from the left.

;-)

D'ohBoy

[Bill]

I read somewhere, and I have observed it to generally be true, that people get what they want from their activities. Most often, what people say they want is different from what they really want. However, in your case, I think you've been careful at sifting out what it is you are after from woodworking, at least for today. Next month, or next year, what you need, may change. You say you are no artist, but I'll bet you'll step right up to the plate should the need arise...

Just like yours--as individual as my needs.

Peace, Bill

[rich]

Good plan - stick with it. There are better woodworkers than me, but very few who enjoy making sawdust as much as I do.

[Nonny]

So very much of what you said also describes what I did in my shop. I never used plans, but if I saw something I liked, such as the gumball dispensers, I felt free to make my own version. Most of the shop math was done on envelopes, scrap paper and the occasional piece of white oak. The wood I used ranged from cypress (for Jake's Chairs and footstools) to walnut and cherry for things to give away or have in the house. I did one cabinet in rock maple and a great room set of tables etc. in white oak. Generally, though, I'd go with the cherry and walnut, since so much was labor intensive and if I was gonna' put in that much time, the cost of materials was minor.

One wood I had that was great as long as it lasted was aromatic red cedar from my own property. Whenever I would clean out an area of trees, I'd save the bigger logs in my basement, cutting them up as needed. It was fun, the smell was great and that stuff is hard as a rock in a few years.

There was a hardwood wholesaler in our area where I'd get my rough lumber: particularly the walnut and cherry. One morning I went by the place to pick up a bit and met the two owners by the front door. The place had been cleaned out overnight by them of the machinery, front store inventory and virtually all of the most valuable hardwood inventory in the back. They couldn't hack it financially with the two locations, and had decided to stage a retreat from the store in our town. The guy told me that he was leaving the back roll-up door unlocked and that I could have anything I found in the place.

I had my 1-ton dually pickup and by the time I drove away, locking the door behind me, the front wheels were barely touching the pavement. Most of what I got was short stuff, cracked or warped, since they took the good stuff to their other store. However, for a guy who had a 20" planer, raised bandsaw and a lot of patience, I didn't need to buy much after that one trip "to the store."

Incidentally, something I learned about myself over the years was that I really didn't enjoy building a project again. For instance, I had loads of patience building things like the gumball dispensers, coasters, coaster holders etc., but to do it again a year later had no interest to me.

[DGDevin]

My approach is to try to learn something new with every project--not too difficult considering the depth of woodworking ignorance I started with. I usually sketch out a plan and don't make any sawdust until I have at least the basic structure set, but I'm not the sort to spend weeks with a CAD program plotting everything down to a 64th of an inch. While I realize that better preparation produces better final results, I also know that correcting mistakes is highly educational. I usually buy materials for every new project since aside from cut-offs and reclaimed wood I don't keep much wood on hand--don't have the room. I started off buying cheap tools but quickly decided I'd rather pay for superior tools than struggle with poor ones, so now I research every tool I buy and pay what it takes to get a good one. I make a point of quickly and conspicuously using any new tool so SWMBO doesn't raise an eyebrow the next time I want to buy a tool. The nicest compliment I can think of in regard to woodworking is when someone asks me if I could make one just like that for their home--which reminds me, I have a Christmas present to finish.

[StephenM]

I see alot of those themes in my own approach.

I have zero interest in (other people's) plans. Half the fun is designing something to meet my own personally weighted fiscal, functional and aesthetic criteria.

I try not to buy wood per project. But I will is a ver specific need arises.

When the opportunity presents itself I buy wood in volmume in the cheap. For me, I want to be able to go out to the barn, pull some stock off the pile and start making sawdust without fiscal remorse.

That's a whole lot easier when I know that I paid $1/bdft on craigs list.

I know have an inventory approaching 2K bd ft. which includes Oak, Maple, Cherry, Ash, and Poplar. I always try to use smallest lowest grade stick that will do the job.

-Steve

[diggerop]

You suck so much I bet you don't need a shop Vac :) A great score

Interesting. That's me to a "T" For me it stems from way back. I have a tendency to totally immerse myself in things, then having done that, totally lose interest. That's with everything in life, right from when I was an anklebiter. Started before I went to school, my Mother began to teach me a few basics in reading and writing. I soaked it up like a sponge. By the time I got to starting school, and my classmates were starting to learn their ABC's, I was reading the daily paper. Caused me, my teachers and classmates no end of problems. They coped by letting me do my own thing, allowing me to decide which classes I wanted to be in. I jumped several grades but it didn't help much. Which was a demonstartion of their inability to cope. I never studied. No point when I already knew the answers. By that stage I was a very bored, very frustrated troublemaker and a had a bad attitude. That set a pattern for me. Couldn't stay with anything unless there was a large continuous challenge that didn't involve mundane paperwork. (I wouldn't wish growing up like that on my worst enemy.) Woodwork is one of few the things that I haven't consumed and then walked away disinterested from. The endless possibilities, the chance for innovation and the freedom of expression has been very good for me and continues to be so.

diggerop

[Bill]

diggerop wrote: ...

What you said, and "using/having/knowing how to use" tools extends our individual "reach". Striving to understand this leads to a better understanding of "humanity", I think.

In short, tools are just plain cool! : )

Bill

[Morris Dovey]

My woodworking is a means to an end. I do it almost exclusively to make what can't be bought or if I perceive that what /can/ be bought isn't worth buying. Generally I'm a lot more concerned about how well what I build /works/ than in how it /looks/.

[Swingman]

In a nutshell ... from this:

this: this: the smile says it all! :)

[FrozenNorth]

So do the pictures of you on the wall above her bed. :-)

[diggerop]

It does. On that basis the work is priceless.

diggerop

[Morris Dovey]

Looks like you might be the best paid woodworker in town!

:)

[diggerop]

Especially handplanes. Using a nice sharp one and raising a little sweat flattening a board is good for the soul, I reckon. : )

diggerop

[diggerop]

That's the payoff isn't it. The feeling that gives makes it all worthwhile.

diggerop

[diggerop]

A kindred soul. Nice to know I'm not alone in the world. : )

diggerop

[Swingman]

Hey, Bubba, that's my little girl ... and as long as those stay _pictures_!! :)

[Leon]

I have been interested in woodworking ever since I watched a crew frame a house next door to my grandmothers house. That was about 1962, I was 7. I did not get serious about it until I could afford the more serious tools in about 1978. My girlfriend and now my wife of almost 30 years and I build most of our furniture to fill our appartment. I was not about to buy furniture when I could build it! During my early and later years of employment in the automotive industry wood working helped me keep my sanity, I think. ;~) I retired from that industry in 1995 and have been doing my own thing, more serious woodworking.

Thirty years ago I had visions of what to build and having had a formal drafting back ground sketched most all of my projects out but only for ideas. In 1986 I went back to drafting, CAD, to help me keep track of my projects a little better. I learned that if you have a CAD drawing you have a plan that can easily be changed if necessary. Through the years I upgraded drawing programs and eventually switched over to AutoCAD about 12 years ago. Up until last year I could not imagine using another piece of software to design my projects. Then I discovered Sketchup, a cheap but revolutionary drawing program. Now I wonder again how I got by for all these years with out Sketchup.

I find that I don't have to worry about how something is going to fit when out in the shop, all of the thinking, planning, and fitting goes on with the computer. If the drawing works, the project works. With Sketchup and a plug in called Cutlist 4.0 and an optimization program called Cutlist 2009 I no longer have a need for every thing to be dimensioned. I do use a few dimensions to insure that the drawing is falling with in guide lines but data going to the optimization program gives it enough information about every part that the output drawings showing how to cut my lumber for best yield are all I really need to cut up all the pieces to exact sizes.

Because of my lack of storage room for many years I bought wood as needed. About 5 years ago I added a storage room in the back yard and now stock up on lumber when ever I see a good deal.

[Chris Friesen]

Do you actually use the cutlist optimization? I can see it for sheet goods but I wouldn't have thought that would work so well for solid wood when you need to select for grain pattern, work around knots, avoid waney edges, etc.

Chris