Thread: What was your first woodworking project

A billy cart long gone I was about 6, living on the crest a hill was a hoot Nearly got run over by darn mad motorists that was back in early 60's.

I started doing wood work in earnest some time in my early teenage years.

Cheers
Michael

My first project was a bath mat in Jarrah. A friend saw it and wanted one, then another, then another. I must have sold dozens of them at the markets. Then the free material supply ran out. That was about 15 years ago and I have come a fair way since those days.

Cheers

My first project was the 3 walls to enclose the back veranda inc window & door openings to make a games area for the kids to get there junk off the floors in the house
By the way now i know better I have to redo all the window openings again now to stop them leaking
Never worked with wood before that & I got addicted been doing it ever since
Regards Michael

My first real project was an entertainment unit made some 40 years ago, all from chipboard ( what was I thinking ) but at the time I thought it was great and it stood proud in the lounge room, the wife thought it was good. I think it must have scared me off woodworking because soon after I stopped playing with timber, only to take it up again 30 years later. 10 years on and still enjoying it every day. Especially buying all the new toys.

Im at Mums this weekend (She keeps all my stuff ) and this is the first thing i made waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy back in Form 2.

Its a Cat Still have it as the pic shows, and i actually like it.

When woods in yu its in yu

Apart from stuphph made at school and billy carts etc when we were younger my first solo effort was a table lamp.

The base was Red Cedar and the main upright part was Australian White Beech.

The parts were all elliptical and I managed to get an elliptical shade for it.

Again, apart from school projects, my first was a book case for my son 35 years later. I made it out of solid wood - vic ash. I jointed and thicknessed all the rough sawn timber as a first step. I used biscuits to fix the shelves and used tongue and grooved boards as a backing. I also dressed it up with skirting at the base and side mouldings.

I actually liked the look of the side mouldings and on my first project it hid an imperfection or two. At the top I used spacers to fit an elevated top board with moulding in between.

This project took me a long time as I was determined to finish it free of any visible faults. There were a number of mistakes and wasted timber on the way ( learning curve) but it turned out quite well in the end.

My first effort that worked was a sledge at about age 11. Wood was driftwood from the local beach. My dad was always going to make us one but I could not wait. Saw,hammer and nails was all it took. Every winter all the local kids had a flurry of sledge building so I had plenty of design advise. The project after that was a billy cart. A wooden fish box is the perfect body so it was half made to start. Next came school woodwork and learned to plane, square timber and basic joints. Even a bit of lathe work. This basic grounding has stuck with me and I have dabbled ever since.
Regards
John

Originally Posted by Lignum

Im at Mums this weekend (She keeps all my stuff ) and this is the first thing i made waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyy back in Form 2.

Its a Cat Still have it as the pic shows, and i actually like it.

When woods in yu its in yu

I'd forgotten all about that school project . I recall one fellow drilling a hole fitting base and turning it into a lamp shade. I also recall the carved leaf dish, mallet and foot stool. All were form 1 through to 8

Fifty years ago I was at a secondary school in England and we had woodwork one afternoon a week. Most of the other kids were making standing lamps and similar small objects but I wanted to make a pair of gates for our driveway at home.

The woodwork teacher encouraged me which was remarkable considering I was a very average student and the large gates must have been a pain in the crowded shop. I can't remember his name and he is probably long gone, but he must have been a great teacher. My mother said she passed the house twenty years later and the gates were still there.

I've done the odd school project which most people did, but I am about to start on what I say is my first real project. It's going to be a red gum bar, in the next week or so, I will post a WIP for those interested

Way back in primary school I made a ladder from scrap hardwood, and used it to climb up on the house roof to hang out, sometimes leaping off stuntman style onto the soft grass!
About that time I remember making a two part knife handle (pine?) to fit an old carving blade I found, connecting it with recessed gutter bolts. I shaped it to fit my hand.
Dad was pretty encouraging in the shed!

Cheers

Ah yep age 6 ish, blunt handsaw, blunt brace and bit, claw hammer and billy carts were the go. Oh yes and the gravel rash and blood loss that went with it. I remember at about 7 my Grandmother and I making a coffee table with a parquet top. At 10 I had my own shed and all my pocket money went to tools (I still have and use some of them) then woodwork at school. Lots of good projects some of which have not long gone out. I still have the small step ladder and use it all the time (even at my 116ish kgs). When I started professionally it was the kitchen Island bench on my web site that ended up in Home Beautiful.