Why haven't I been doing woodworking?
My primary woodworking season is late fall through early spring. In my part of the country that's about five months out of the year. Spring, summer and fall I'm kept busy with yard work and other outdoor activities. Unfortunately a succession of new jobs has kept me busy during my prime woodworking season for about the last five years Don't get me wrong, I'm happy I've been employed and I've parted amicably with all of my employers.Why start blogging now?
About ten years ago I helped a friend build a nice gaming table top. I helped with the design ideas and tools but pretty much all the work was his. My friend (let's call him Mike to preserve his anonymity) finished the top but didn't have a clear concept of what kind of legs he wanted. Since the top was pretty solid we figured we could make do with temporary legs.
We quickly realized the temporary legs were just that. The legs wobbled and generally did a disservice to the beautiful top he'd made. I talked Mike into using beefy trestle table legs so people could sit at the corners of the table without banging their knees and to hopefully get rid of a lot of the wobble. Mike indicated he'd had enough woodworking and would be just as happy if I just made the legs for him. I promised I'd get right on that.
Well, here we are ten years later, I'm settled in my current job and have the mental energy to spend on woodworking. I wanted something relatively simple I could do in the shop and realizing Mike's table legs would really only be about eight pieces I figured I could bang them out over a couple of weekends.
It actually took me about two months to make the new legs but they came out spectacular. I finished them just in time for his New Years part extravaganza and I know many games were played on that table over the weekend. Everyone remarked at how much nicer it was to play games at a table that felt solid and didn't wobble.
Making those table legs has inspired me to get back into my woodworking hobby and spend some serious time in the workshop over the next few months. I also got my friend Mathieu Lesperance to make me a logo for my website a year ago so I figured I should restart my blog too if only to get his beautiful work in print (so to speak).
We quickly realized the temporary legs were just that. The legs wobbled and generally did a disservice to the beautiful top he'd made. I talked Mike into using beefy trestle table legs so people could sit at the corners of the table without banging their knees and to hopefully get rid of a lot of the wobble. Mike indicated he'd had enough woodworking and would be just as happy if I just made the legs for him. I promised I'd get right on that.
Well, here we are ten years later, I'm settled in my current job and have the mental energy to spend on woodworking. I wanted something relatively simple I could do in the shop and realizing Mike's table legs would really only be about eight pieces I figured I could bang them out over a couple of weekends.
It actually took me about two months to make the new legs but they came out spectacular. I finished them just in time for his New Years part extravaganza and I know many games were played on that table over the weekend. Everyone remarked at how much nicer it was to play games at a table that felt solid and didn't wobble.
Making those table legs has inspired me to get back into my woodworking hobby and spend some serious time in the workshop over the next few months. I also got my friend Mathieu Lesperance to make me a logo for my website a year ago so I figured I should restart my blog too if only to get his beautiful work in print (so to speak).
