New Hobby

One night, I decided that I was going to become a woodworker. There is an entire discussion to be had regarding why on earth someone would venture into this hobby with the prices of lumber being what they are, but here we are.

I have been trying to find the “just right” thing to do with the guest bedroom in my new house (which is currently serving as the “I can’t deal with that” room where I put things that I can’t deal with finding a home for at the moment). Eventually, I may have overnight guests and though my gigantic couch is awesome and totally sleep-able, I really should be an adult here and have some beds.

I’ve been perusing websites looking for something that is just right and have come to the conclusion that I’m just going to have to build it the way I want it.

But, I have never built anything out of wood. My high school senior architecture 3D model project doesn’t count, that was balsa wood and an Xacto knife.

So I called up my dad. I said, “I’ve decided to become a woodworker.”

My dad used to do a lot of woodworking projects, and had a glorious shop filled with all sorts of tools, machines, jigs, you name it. He built some truly amazing stuff and is really good at these projects, so who better to ask for advice on getting started? I’d been watching some videos on YouTube to see how this stuff works and felt like this is something I’d be capable of, I’d just need to get over my fear of saws.

I told him I thought I needed a miter saw, and had been looking online for something decent to start with. He suggested instead that I take his compound sliding miter saw with stand.

No problem.

See, that’s the thing about being daddy’s girl. I was 100% going to buy one for myself (although probably cheaper and with fewer bells and whistles), but that’s my dad. He’s awesome.

So, I picked up the miter saw and brought it home. It sat for about a week (mostly because I also brought their puppy home with me while they went out of town and she’s scared of thunder, so there was no way playing with a loud miter saw was going to work if I wanted her to still like me).

I finally got up the nerve to give it a try. I read the manual (because that’s how I roll), played around with how to move the various things around, did some pretend cuts (without it plugged in) and then decided to take the plunge.

Here is my very first cut on the miter saw. I was so proud of myself. I cut a little piece off the end of a 2x4 with no injuries to report.

With that first cut out of the way, I did some more test cuts on a scrap piece. I made a 45 degree miter, marked a line and cut to one side of it and measured my piece to make sure I got the length I wanted.

Then I made this workbench. On casters.

I didn’t really have anything to use to work on, so I needed to build something so I can build more shit! I referred to this video by DIY Pete but changed the dimensions and made a couple modifications (no lower shelf, no beer can opener) to suit what I wanted.

That was yesterday. I spent the night reorganizing the garage to make room for my new shop activities (and this is the garage my truck lives in, so space is tight).

Today I’ve graduated to lap joints. It’s on. I’m on vacation this week, so perhaps I’ll make it to dovetail joints by next weekend!

If you’re looking to get started and want to watch some very helpful videos, I found Woodworking for Mere Mortals on YouTube and I really like his content. He’s just the right amount of entertaining to keep things interesting and he explains things very well. Check out his channel!