As usual, I'm a little late in getting around to this introduction.
To get the more personal stuff out of the way :wink_smil i suffer from a chronic illness (fibromyalga, myofascial pain syndrome and related conditions) that causes significant physical impairment. What most of you can do in a day will probably take me 10 to 20 days, but then that is beside the point insofaras woodworking is concerned. It is my hope that the woodworking I do will not only bring me the joy I know that it will, but that the physical exertion that comes with it will keep me out of a wheelchair -- which by all rights I should already have been in by now (judging by many others I know with my severity of this disease), I'm just too **** stubborn to give in!
I grew up in rural north Florida during my latter childhood years on a roughly 100acre farm surrounded by horse and cow pastures. Just about every building on our property was built by myself, my grandfather, and family during those same years, and a number of summer vacations before. I dare say that is where my interests in woodworking and electrical originated from. My interests in computers and electronics came from elsewhere, but that is where my interest in woodworking began. With circular saws, table saws, radial arm saws, hand saws, etc ... and lots of sawdust. It was exciting to be able to stand back, when all was done, and say "I helped build that!"
In the early 90's, after I left for college, we had to sell our farm. Ever since I have been looking for a place to setup shop. A couple years ago my family (I and my parents) moved to Anderson, SC and finally I have a place with a two-car garage! (I tried woodworking in vain in south Florida in a two-car carport but -- with limited physical energy -- I usually wound up investing 70% of my energy in just carrying everything outside, then breaking it all back down to bring back inside! Not exactly the fasttrack to progress!
Now that I have a place with a garage, I can finally begin setting up shop, and that is exactly what I have spent the past 2 years slowly working on. I pretty well acquired the usual complement of hand tools throughout my earlier life, but I have been very busy buying and setting up all the requisite power tools that come with a workshop these days: routers (PC, Bosch), biscuit joiners (PC), sanders (PC, DeWalt), 10" hybrid table saw (Steel City), 18" bandsaw (Rikon), 8" jointer (Jet), 13" thickness planer (DeWalt DW735), osc. spindle sander (Ridgid), scroll saw (Sears), jig saw (Bosch), dust collection -- 2HP JDS Cyclone and JDS 750ER air cleaner -- and everthing else in between. My newest addition is the Fein MultiMaster 250Q -- a lovely tool that does the things my Demels never could (and I do love my Dremels)!
Needless to say, I am definitely a 'Preferred' customer at the Greenville, SC Woodcraft store -- the Owners, Paul and Brenda even know me by name :rolf:. Most of my major equipment purchases were made at WoodCraft -- and it is nice to keep the business local. They are also wonderful people to boot, and an adorable dog, Bonzi, who always wants to share his toys when I visit.
I haven't gotten too many 'woodworking' projects completed as of yet, most of my energy has been invested in 'practical woodworking' -- like household repairs and improvements. Including the recent addition of lighting and shelving in our crawlspace. Not exciting by any measure, but definitely practical since it frees up more space in my shop. I also recently completed a vertical wood storage center for all my boards and sheet goods (a weekend project for most, 2 weeks for me!) Has about 400-500 board feet of wood stored now (poplar, white oak, purplehart, paduak, and maple), but should be able to handle up to 1200bf+ if I pack it in.
My most challenging project as of late (I keep returning to it between other projects) is trying to build a lightbox for some acrylic figures for my sister. She loves all things purple, so naturally that means building it out of Purpleheart, a very beautiful Purpleheart at that. But this has also become the bane of my existence lately! I've never worked with anything that was so hard and blunting that if you go just a little too fast or too deep with the router can instantaneously explode, sending shrapnel to all corners of the shop (or so it seems!). I have found spiral bits to be a bit more forgiving that straight bits, but it is still a challenge.
Now that I've written a short book, I think the introductions are pretty well taken care of!
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying what they're doing!
To get the more personal stuff out of the way :wink_smil i suffer from a chronic illness (fibromyalga, myofascial pain syndrome and related conditions) that causes significant physical impairment. What most of you can do in a day will probably take me 10 to 20 days, but then that is beside the point insofaras woodworking is concerned. It is my hope that the woodworking I do will not only bring me the joy I know that it will, but that the physical exertion that comes with it will keep me out of a wheelchair -- which by all rights I should already have been in by now (judging by many others I know with my severity of this disease), I'm just too **** stubborn to give in!
I grew up in rural north Florida during my latter childhood years on a roughly 100acre farm surrounded by horse and cow pastures. Just about every building on our property was built by myself, my grandfather, and family during those same years, and a number of summer vacations before. I dare say that is where my interests in woodworking and electrical originated from. My interests in computers and electronics came from elsewhere, but that is where my interest in woodworking began. With circular saws, table saws, radial arm saws, hand saws, etc ... and lots of sawdust. It was exciting to be able to stand back, when all was done, and say "I helped build that!"
In the early 90's, after I left for college, we had to sell our farm. Ever since I have been looking for a place to setup shop. A couple years ago my family (I and my parents) moved to Anderson, SC and finally I have a place with a two-car garage! (I tried woodworking in vain in south Florida in a two-car carport but -- with limited physical energy -- I usually wound up investing 70% of my energy in just carrying everything outside, then breaking it all back down to bring back inside! Not exactly the fasttrack to progress!
Now that I have a place with a garage, I can finally begin setting up shop, and that is exactly what I have spent the past 2 years slowly working on. I pretty well acquired the usual complement of hand tools throughout my earlier life, but I have been very busy buying and setting up all the requisite power tools that come with a workshop these days: routers (PC, Bosch), biscuit joiners (PC), sanders (PC, DeWalt), 10" hybrid table saw (Steel City), 18" bandsaw (Rikon), 8" jointer (Jet), 13" thickness planer (DeWalt DW735), osc. spindle sander (Ridgid), scroll saw (Sears), jig saw (Bosch), dust collection -- 2HP JDS Cyclone and JDS 750ER air cleaner -- and everthing else in between. My newest addition is the Fein MultiMaster 250Q -- a lovely tool that does the things my Demels never could (and I do love my Dremels)!
Needless to say, I am definitely a 'Preferred' customer at the Greenville, SC Woodcraft store -- the Owners, Paul and Brenda even know me by name :rolf:. Most of my major equipment purchases were made at WoodCraft -- and it is nice to keep the business local. They are also wonderful people to boot, and an adorable dog, Bonzi, who always wants to share his toys when I visit.
I haven't gotten too many 'woodworking' projects completed as of yet, most of my energy has been invested in 'practical woodworking' -- like household repairs and improvements. Including the recent addition of lighting and shelving in our crawlspace. Not exciting by any measure, but definitely practical since it frees up more space in my shop. I also recently completed a vertical wood storage center for all my boards and sheet goods (a weekend project for most, 2 weeks for me!) Has about 400-500 board feet of wood stored now (poplar, white oak, purplehart, paduak, and maple), but should be able to handle up to 1200bf+ if I pack it in.
My most challenging project as of late (I keep returning to it between other projects) is trying to build a lightbox for some acrylic figures for my sister. She loves all things purple, so naturally that means building it out of Purpleheart, a very beautiful Purpleheart at that. But this has also become the bane of my existence lately! I've never worked with anything that was so hard and blunting that if you go just a little too fast or too deep with the router can instantaneously explode, sending shrapnel to all corners of the shop (or so it seems!). I have found spiral bits to be a bit more forgiving that straight bits, but it is still a challenge.
Now that I've written a short book, I think the introductions are pretty well taken care of!
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying what they're doing!
