Hi! I'm Dale, a retired auto worker, grandfather of three and father of two boys. I divide my retired life between my wife, children, grandchildren and working in my shop.
This is my attempt to share some of my experiences and projects. It will be an on-going project that I should have started a long time ago. I don't think that I have any great wisdom about working with wood that will help anyone, but I feel that I need to try. The one important thing that I learned from my late father is that you don't know if you can do something if you don't try. I have tried and succeeded, and I have tried and failed. I find that, in life, as well working with your hands, that failure is part of your successes.
Wow, that was getting too deep.
I have been building things out of wood for over forty years. I will pass along any tips and knowledge that I remember. If you have any how-to or safety tips to share, I would love to here them. Just use the e-mail link on this site or post them on the forum and I will add them as well. I have found that now that I am trying to document what I have done, I regret not taking more pictures and drawing plans of the things that I have built and gave away.
At one time, I thought of trying to make money from the stuff that I make, but unless you have an assembly line and very cheap labor(or a lot of elves?), it is not profitable. It is easier to do the work for the enjoyment of doing the work and then the feeling of accomplishment when someone likes what you have given them. I think that might be worth it.