Furthering my woodworking edu-ma-cation.

[Trac]

I've taken an interest in woodworking, and done several small projects which turned out fairly good, but were also "learning experiences".

I'm very interested in learning more, but finding people to teach you is ridiculously hard. YouTube has been my main educator thus far. When I do find people, they're always really far away, and charge a LOT. I understand this is a skill and learning comes at a price, but I'm really at a stage where I need basic instruction, and to learn how to properly/safely use (and care for!) the few various machines and tools I have acquired. I don't think I need to learn about fine furniture just yet. I need more of a ...shop teacher. Lol.

In the future, I have interest in wood turning, and various other functional and/or artsy wood projects. I've picked up an old Shopsmith off CL as it seemed like a better low cost choice for a lathe than most other things in that price range. We shall see...

Anyone have any suggestions about where to find these woodworking people? I've tried Community Ed classes, but there aren't many offered.

Also, Im in the process of setting up my shop in my 30x30 garage. (Two levels, upstairs is more of a relaxing or entertaining space). At this point, most of my tools basically travel to wherever I'm building things in a small trailer I pull behind the mower or atv. It's kind of horrible, to be honest. I'm tired of kneeling in dirt to complete a simple gate. I'm working on a pretty little trimmed out window box right now...on the garage floor. :/

The second question would be, how is your ideal wood shop set up? How many feet of benches? I'd like to eventually set up a dust collection system, is this something I need to consider when planning the layout? I see a lot of rolling tables (like rolling kitchen islands, for the shop), is this best for a router table or table saw? Also, what are the most essential machines/tools to have, that are used most frequently? I had such a frequent need for a decent miter saw that I started with that, but there are other things I'm still without and would love to make some informed choices rather than just blow money on whatever.

I'll continue looking throughout this site, as I'm sure plenty has been addressed already, but wanted to say hi and let you all know who I am.

Nice to meet you all!

-T

 

[HOTFR8]

Welcome to the GJ. Now that is a great introduction.

 

[Trac]

Lol, Thanks. .

I actually forgot to mention one of my main "garage hobbies" because I'm focused on woodworking tonight, but in the past few years I've been refurbishing old horse trailers. I currently have 3 trailers I work on casually, a 32' steel four horse with weekender that I'm doing a lot on in hopes of having a cool, custom trailer in the end, a 16 foot stock that just needs a facial and a 2 horse I have no intended use for, but just want to make cute again....in vintage style.

Now... I just need to find my peeps.

 

[1/2 Cup]

Trac hello and welcome.


As HOTFR8 said "great intro"

 

[bugnut]

Welcome. I too am doing a bit of learning on woodworking. I find youtube invaluable and watch 5 or 6 videos about what I'm doing before starting. Woodworking stores that cater to home woodworkers often have classes that build a project. If you can find a local club that does woodworking usually a mentor is fairly easy to come by, and they will help you by sharing their tools to get your projects underway and completed. Some vocational and tech schools also offer adult classes good places to meet someone of similar interest. There are also bunch of Maker sites and shops, that can help. I also tape pbs series on watch them to get more hands on intimate knowledge. Have fun good luck.

 

[bczygan]

Look for a local woodworkers club.

Also online forums.

Bill

 

[gungatim]

I learned woodworking by watching PBS, woodwright, norm abrams, TOH, scott phillips, etc. as well as any other woodworking shows on, router guys, forget all of them. In addition, I subscribed to nearly every woodworking magazine and read all the projects and tips.

that was a long time ago. many magazines turned to crafts or folded altogether, very few if any REAL woodworking shows on tv anymore...

woodnet was a good resource if it's still around, and WOOD magazine is still good American Woodworker still fairly good, and WOOD used to have a fairly active website.

other than that, your local library will still have copies of many woodworking books, norms books are good, and books of projects. you read the projects and see how things go together, and basically educate yourself. start simple joinery projects and move up as your skills improve.

mastering had tools is a good first step before jumping into morticing machines and fancy router techniques. when you can hand cut a mortise, hand plane a board, and hand cut dove tails, you will be ready to tackle most anything.

good luck.

 

[gtabasso]

It would help if you post where you are from. The Midwest is a big area. For instance, I know there are a bunch of people in Ohio who have met where I work to look around and hang out. One of them could help you if you are local.

 

[turbowoodworker]

Welcome to GJ. There are a lot of threads on WW here and the WW 101 thread is found here:
https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=344153

Read all 268+ pages as a primer. Then you can ask all your questions and we will try to answer.