I’ve updated my blog site with some pages about my woodworking projects. I’ve been interested in woodworking for a long time—my dad had a workshop in one corner of the basement in our house in Big Flats (western-ish New York state, where I lived before moving to the idyllic hamlet of San Mateo, California). I’ve always enjoyed watching shows like This Old House, New Yankee Workshop, and the Woodwright’s Shop. I demonstrated myself to be handy carpentry-wise in the fraternity house. And I finally got a sort-of shop of my own when we bought our house in North Andover, Massachusetts.
It was in North Andover that I built (along with a bunch of help from my wife and my dad) a set of built-in bookshelves for our living/family room. It was the first time I used my router, and I really didn’t have much of an idea of what I was doing. My plans were fine, I was just inexperienced in the use of the router.
That changed in March 2007 when I took a router basics class at Woodcraft in Dublin, CA (Santina got me the class as a birthday present). In that class I saw the power and potential of the router unleashed. My workshop sprang into existence in one half of our garage (in our current house in Castro Valley, CA). I added a workbench, a stand for my router table, a plunge router with a 1/2″ collet (vs. the 1/4″ one in my old router), and a table saw. And I began to do some woodworking.
I’ve only built a few pieces so far. Obviously, I have a day job, a family, and a few other hobbies that keep me busy. But I do enjoy woodworking. I enjoy the act of creating something new from raw materials. I enjoy the feel of the wood. Power tools are cool too.
Probably the aspect of woodworking I enjoy most is seeing a project come togather. I enjoy drawing up plans, but there is something special about seeing the plans turn into a real object. Of course I make changes as I go along, but that is part of the fun. And after all the work, being able to look at a well-made piece of woodwork is just plain satisfying.
