What was your FIRST WW'ing project?

[DSWalker]

My first, that I can recall, was probably when I was about 10-12 range. Mom had started collecting bells. I found a piece of firewood and carved a crude bell. Put a metal handle and glued in a thin rope and marble for the 'dinger'. She probably had about 50 or more bells, but I remember her telling me years after I made it that it was her favorite. Wish that I had it, but it is long gone now. I think that I sealed it with some type of clear glue. probably the same glue that I used for the 'dinger'.

I took WW shop class in high school. Remember making a couple of bread boxes and a coat rack from a 4x4. I recently found this in my storage shed that I also turned from a piece of firewood in that same WW shop class. I 'think' it was maple. This is the oldest thing that I have any 'proof' of making. I think it was from 1981-1982.

How about you?

 

[Mike Davis]

Very first thing I remember is a plywood "birdhouse". Very rough, cut with a coping saw, nothing lined up, nails stuck out the sides. I was about 7.

Second thing I remember was a small bench, made of 1x10 pine, scorched with propane torch.

Did lots of other stuff after that, never took a course nor lessons. Learned a lot on the job while making signs. Thrown into the deep end and had to figure out how to swim.

 

[Lowlander]

The first two things I made were in WW class, which I took Freshman through Junior year, in HS. The first was a three tier book case with a glass top. The second was a bandsaw box.

Wait , does a wooden spear count for fishing? Then I was like 9-10 yrs of age

 

[redknife]

I made a guitar out of a shelf from my Dad’s store in 7th grade for a music class project. Obviously very rudimental but it worked with a pickup! Unfortunately no pics.

 

[DSWalker]

Second thing I remember was a small bench, made of 1x10 pine, scorched with propane torch.

One of the bread boxes that I made had the propane torch finish... unfortunately it got stolen from the class room and I never got to take it home!

 

[Mike Davis]

I built mine on the front porch of the housing unit in the hood.

This is where I grew up...

 

[Henry W]

Can't recall if I made any birdhouses, but I do recall making a 'Sorry" type game played with marbles. My Dad was a WWing shop teacher, and so I had (supervised) access to the local HS woodshop. I remember drilling all those "counter sink" divots for the game on a big drill press. Used a 16-18" square piece of furniture grade plywood. My dad likely did the plywood edging, as well as the stain and varnish portion, as I don't recall doing that. I was like in the 9-11 years old range. Played that game to death over the years too.

 

[Jim M.]

My very first woodworking project was a sign I made for my mom when I was 5 for Mothers Day. I was just learning to write so I drew it on a piece of scrap wood in my Grandfather's woodshop. I traced the writing out with a wood burning pen like my Grandfather taught me, drilled to holes and attached a leather cord to hang it. It said "I love my Mommy, Happy Mother's Day". She still has it and hangs it up every Mother's Day, for the last 50 years.

 

[walnutjerry]

A relief carving of a teddy bear for the woodcarving merit badge in boy scouts. I was over 11 years old but do not remember the exact age.

Jerry

 

[Phil S]

My early years (up to 9 ) were in Chicago, Oakpark to be exact. I have many memories of taking my wagon a few blocks away where there was a cabinet shop. The folks there would let me fill my wagon with scraps, nails and glue and I would take them home and make something - I guess this was my version of legos. Not quite sure what I made, probably did not matter. I always remember it was important that I was making something, just what that was did not and still does not matter

 

[ErnieM]

As a kid growing up in the Bronx, we lived around the corner from a lumber yard. I passed it everyday on my way to and from school, and I always stopped to smell the wood. To this day, I love the smell of a lumber yard. While I don't remember my first project, I surely remember my youngest daughter's first (and last). She was 12 and took wood shop in school. She worked for several months making it. It's nothing more than block letters that she cut on a scroll saw and glued to a piece of wood. The letters spelled my name. On the underneath she wrote "Love you Daddy". That was 32 years ago, and her masterpiece still sits proudly in my shop.

 

[ste6168]

My first "woodworking" project was in middle school, I made a lamp with a bunch of offset blocks glued into a tower. I am sure there is a picture at my parents somewhere, though I'd imaging the clock is long gone. I have built plenty of treehouses & skateboard ramps, built a rudimentary desk while in high school for my bedroom. I don't ever remember not building and repairing things, but I didn't get into what I consider "woodworking" until college (04-08) and started building out my own woodshop when I bought my first house with a garage about 4 years ago.

 

[Chris C]

I never did any ww'ing in my younger days. This tool chest is the first thing I ever made.....hand cut dovetails and all.

 

[Richo B]

That's easy. A wooden tank consisting of a three inch 2x4 on a five inch 1 x 4 with a one inch wooden dowel end as the turret. Then an even smaller dowel as the gun. To propel it there were six round wheels which were either dowel ends or actually cut out of wood and filed down. My Dad may have done those and then I nailed them onto the base of the tank and it did roll pretty well. I would guess I was around 8 or 9 for this project. Actually my second WWing project wasn't long after when I made a "garage" for the tank and other vehicles. Very basic design: Two sides each made with two 1x4s glued side to side with three 1x4s across the top. It looked like a stool. I painted it brown. It lasted for a long time acting as a nook to hold my Dictionary and Thesaurus later in my High School and College years.

 

[golfdad]

My first project I remember was a lamp. Think I was in 7 or8th grade

 

[jerrye]

A small box out of 1/4 ply in junior high shop class. Finished it with blue paint. Still have it, but no pic.

Second thing that I remember was an entertainment center out of 1x12 pine, painted flat black. On advice from my dad, I through doweled it instead of using screws in butt joints. It never loosened or came apart, despite not clamping the joints while the glue dried. I had to cut it apart when I got rid of it.

 

[Ed D]

My first actual "project" was a string holder for my Mom. This was back when string was used quite a bit around the house. My Dad bought me a pattern book with actual size patterns for small projects. I cut them out, traced then onto wood, cut them out from the wood, nailed the parts, and finished (very crudely), all with Dad close by…hovering when I used the scroll saw. I was 8-9 years old. My dad had a WW shop and had a 1940’s vintage scroll saw. We would drive behind the A&P grocery in Cedar Grove, LA. and scrounge the fruit boxes that had been thrown out. The sides were @ 3/8” thick, and about 8”x10” wide, and made great small project lumber, mostly pine. I am amazed looking back at the quality of these crates. They usually had those beautiful pictures of fruit on the ends.
Sorry for the long post, the topic brought all this back to me that I had not thought about in years. I still have the string holder, taken from my parents house after they passed.

​

​

 

[gritz]

Probably an octagonal trash can for my Mama with a wood bottom and hardboard sides. Nailed the sides in and laced them up with plastic lanyard material. Next was probably a shoe shine box for my Dad. I remember later scrounging discarded wooden fruit boxes to make slingshot handles and lots of other small projects.

 

[Raymond]

I made plenty of crown and floor moldings, window and door trim/treatments for various houses we bought during our years together but never really thought of it as WW'ing; until I joined this website. Before joining I had been a woodturner for about 8-10 years prior to to that but never really thought of myself as a woodworker and I still don't - I am a woodturner but not a woodworker because in my mind a woodworker makes furniture and house hold furnishings that have a purpose and constant use.

 

[jrfuda]

Did several odd projects with Dad growing up, even got a youth woodworking tool set when I was around 7 in 1979/1980 that would probably cost several hundred dollars today. I still have and use a few tools from that kit, and a few more are probably tucked away here and there at Dad's. My first solo project was in during my HS Freshman Ag class (1986). We started with locally harvested, rough sawn lumber and completed all of the surfacing ourselves. We made a toolbox, which I think my Dad still has. We also made a simple routed sign of our name - just a board with our name routed into it - freehand - then torched and sanded so the letters were more visible. Our final project was a 3-legged stool. The legs were turned and the top was started on the band saw and finished on the lathe. We also put a stain and poly finish on it and I first learned how to get a mirror finish on wood. That stool is still in Dad's living room today - 32 years later.