I am in that "transition" stage and at (I'll just say, late 50's) want to go after something I've always wanted, to learn to do woodworking and make a living.  I'm tired of corporate life and want to make a change.  I live in Atlanta and am trying to find a school, or shop to hire me as an apprentice or what ever suggestions someone can offer to me to help get me out of this transition stage and into what I really want to do for the rest of my life.  I've always tinkered with woodworking and want to make that jump.

Thanks

Paul

Well, here I am, another new guy on the site. I've been 'addicted' to sawdust for about 3 years now. I don't have a shop, all of my tools are in my little tin shed and I work under the carport, but hey, I don't have to worry about dust control anyway! My tools are pretty basic...little Ryobi table saw, a couple of Ridgid drills, Bosch jigsaw, biscuit joiner, couple of nailers, circ saw, Kreg jig and so forth. My favorite is my Triton router/Benchdog router table combo. I don't get to spend nearly as much time woodworking as I would like to and would really like to learn more about using hand tools, especially hand planes. Llately I've been working on my version of a monster workbench. A big solid core door and a base as sturdy as I know how to make it. Gonna put it on wheels so I can move it around under the carport and still be able to park the vehicles. Anyway, I'm looking to make some friends on this site and pick up as many pointers as I can. I'm still new at this but I've got sawdust in my veins now. Maybe there's someone in the Pasco County area of Florida that is looking for a WW partner. If so, let me know. Thanks for taking the time to read and I'll be back w/ pix next time.

  Well, I purchased a new Ridgid R4512 yesterday. I have an old Craftsman table saw that was my dad's and it would cut wood pretty good but.....thats about all I can say about it. I needed to upgrade if I am to get serious about woodworking and wanted something that would give me good straight cuts and was built well with out breaking the bank (with two kids in college, my bank is pretty breakable!).  Anyway, did some research and decided on the Ridgid.... it seemed to have the better reviews and options I was looking for.   I have it half way put together as of this morning and there are a couple of points that I would recommend to people who do buy this....number 1, definitly plan on having help loading and unloading this thing!! It is heavy. The people at the store loaded it and  my boys and myself were able to get it unloaded and put in my shop. Other times you will need help is pulling the saw body out of the box and, standing it upright once you have the legs and wheels installed. Number 2.... the instructions have been pretty good so far (bigger pictures would be nice since my eye sight is....well.....not as sharp as it use to be). Also, when you are putting the legs together, there will be one leg panel that has four holes in it to mount the rip fence storage brackets... be sure they end up on the side opposite the blade/miter fence storage (which would be on the right as you are facing the front of the saw as it would be standing upright). If you dont, you will find that the miter giude will interfere with the rip fence.  Maybe I missed it in the instructions but I went back and looked and didnt see anything about this.   I am hoping to get to finish the installation today and will post more of my adventures later.

  Well, finished her up the other day. Things went well with the exception of a few of my....well...lets just say, not so smart mistakes (I highly recommend reading through the assembly instructions prior to starting the acutal assembly...duh..). Ok, it went togther well and I had very little adjustments to do. The blade was ever so slightly out of parellel with the miter gauge channels but that we easy enough to fix. I also had a problem with the rip fence catching down in the channel where the two pieces of the front fence come together because of a very slight mismatch in the height. I couldn't get it adjusted out so, as bad as an idea as it may have been, I took a wire brush and ever so slightly knocked the edge down. It fixed the problem but there is still a slight bump when sliding the fence.
  I made my first cuts with it and all I can say is wow! It runs smooth (passed the penny test but flunked the dime test...lol...), cuts straight and when I set the rip fence at 6 inches it acutally cuts a board excatly 6 inches wide! I know....most people probably expect that but, compaired to what I was using before, this is a great saw! I admit I haven't really used it and time will tell but, as of this moment, I would recommend this table saw for people like me who dont do wood working for a living but do want a solid acurate table saw and dont want to break the bank (I paid $499 at Home Depot). 

 To sum it up...
- read the instructions through before beginning. - it will take you a few hours to put together so, plan on taking your time and doing it right. - save your back and get help when it comes to the heavy lifting. - it is a very solid saw, metal gears, smooth movement when raising/lowering the blade and
   changing the bevel angle. - with the wheels, mobility is easy and smooth which was also important to me.
- my wife is mad at me because I went out and bought it myself and she was planning 
   on getting it  for me for Christmas but, it was worth it!!

  
 If you have any questions, please feel free to shoot me a msg and I will answer the best I can but, be aware that I am not a pro so dont be suprised if you get an answer like "oh, you need to make sure the thing'a-ma-jig is lined up with the what'ca-ma-call-it."....lol....

The ones among you with little kids probably know the problem: wherever you go, the toddler is rarely less than three inches behind you, if not right underneath your feet. That counts for the fridge, bathroom, wall closets and also workshops filled with dangerous equipment like table and band saws, routers, sanders, lots of electricity and pretty much anything in the world you wouldn’t want your child to play with.

When I go to my shop, which is connected to the house, Liam is right there with me: “Daddy what you doing?” “Daddy has to work” I say and close the door between us. Five seconds later I open it again to comfort a loudly crying toddler who was cruelly separated from his beloved parent for “stupid grown-up reasons” like “it’s dangerous”, which of course is totally unreasonable.

So at first I gave him little tours through the shop, making sure that all machines are not only powered off but also unplugged so that there was no way off accidentally starting them. All dangerous and sharp tools were put away out of Liam’s reach and saw blades were retracted or covered where possible. I picked him up to show him the drill press and let him play with some spare toy parts, never taking my eyes off him for a second. He loved it and it was hard to get him back out of the shop but eventually his curiosity was satisfied and I got to work. But soon his appetite for tools got bigger and he wanted to help. So what to do?

Just passin' on the passion of woodworking to a younger generation

Does anyone know with some confidence why this was taken off the market a few years ago?

Thanks!

I just started working with wood, at age 53. Is it too late??? I am pretty good with my hands. Built few things already.

Hello,

My name is Toby Bowman and I have a opportunity to lease a building/equipment to build furniture. The businessman that I am dealing with has a furniture business and he has built some of his own furniture such as tables, entertainment centers etc for years. The guy that has been building for him is retiring at the end of the year. He has offered me a chance to lease his building and lease to purchase the equipment to get started and build for him. The main question is how do I go about pricing out each piece of furniture?

This Marquetry or Decorative Parquetry panel is an insert for a conference table. This is the companies logo, It’s an abstract design of an Black Hawk. The panel size is 24” wide x 54” long. I used the “The Window Method” because of the long straight lines and the geometrical shapes. It’s much more accurate this way. If I was to used a scroll saw it would be very hard to keep the lines straight.

1st step: is to draw or tape down a template onto the wood that will be your background wood.