Thread: G'day from Sunny, Warm Canberra!

Nah just jokes, it's a cold, windy day and drizzling with rain here in Canberra today.

So hi there! I'm a long time stalker, first time poster. Thank you to so many people on this forum from whom I've already heeded good advice, found useful links to information I needed and benefited as much as anything from descriptions of what NOT to do/buy/try.

I thought I should get around to posting a hello message. I've made a few small projects as my skills, equipment and knowledge grow. Now that I've bought my own house and have a young family, there are a lot of tasks involving woodworking that I'd like to get on top of. And then of course there's the far more important aspect of woodworking - that I actually enjoy doing it.

The first project I worked on, partly to justify the time and expense of woodworking to SWMBO, was a shoe rack. And here's a (bad) picture:
P6020318.jpg
However, as an added challenge to myself, I didn't just want to make all the pieces as 'templates' where, say, all the vertical boards would have halving joints open on the front sides and all the horizontal boards would have halving joints open on the rear-facing sides to slot together. Instead, I chose to measure and cut each board so that the centre vertical piece would be positioned with the centre horizontal piece across it, and then vertical and horizontal boards would be alternately placed such that each of the boards have different arrangements of front/back slots and it can basically only be assembled in one order. This should maximise any errors and enforce working to tight tolerances - as I said, as an extra challenge to myself. It seemed to work. Everything came together, although it's fair to say that the last board to be slotted in was 'somewhat snug'. The 'framing' boards are just added at the end but again I had pre-cut them to their expected length so if I didn't get it right the joints would be out. What I lack in talent I perhaps make up for in being A-retentive, so I guess that worked out because the joints were square, without gaps and had flat surfaces:
P6020321.jpg

Btw, I don't care about the appearance of the end-grain etc and I've just used screws/glue on the framing joints because my mini-humans have decided that the whole thing will be painted different colours! Each of the shoe rack's 'boxes' will be a different colour. Mmmm... I expect it to look... unique.

Even a fairly simple project like this can teach you a lot. Like when you think "ahhh bugger it, I'll just use cheap pine boards from [insert "lowest prices" big box hardware store here]"
Well, if this forum has taught me nothing else, it's "You get what you pay for". So trying to build something with right angles from boards that have as much cupping in some of them as this:
P6020323.jpg
... was a bit challenging at times.

Oh well, once it's coated in 16 different kinds of kids paint nobody will be able to make their eyes look at it for long enough to notice manufacturing defects!

So in other news, I've just finished doing a 6-week basic woodworking course. I'd been trying to enrol for so long that when I'd missed it, I did different courses instead, such as "Pergolas and Decking". This actually helped develop some other basic skills such as halving joints and gave me experience with various tools and techniques. By the time I started the introduction to woodworking course, I'd pretty much outgrown it's level, I think. Or at least to start with....By then, I had some experience with my own jigsaw, circular saw (and eventually building a reliable straight-edge jig in the absence of anything else), cordless drill/driver, sander and planer. I'd also come across a cheapo ($99!) sliding compound mitre saw and starting enjoying the cleaner cuts it could give. The first week or two of any intro to woodworking course is (and IMHO probably should be) about handwork with chisels and handsaws etc. But since I'd already built the shoe rack, I had PLENTY of experience in chiselling out halving joints carefully. By the end of the course we did some basic mitre-jointed box work and I really enjoyed that. To be honest though, instead of actually making my own box in the course, I mostly used the machines available during the course which I didn't normally have access to, such as the thicknesser and table saw! I'll post some WIP photos of my box soon though.

This has all inspired me to start getting a bit more serious about the woodworking thing, especially with a bed to make for my 2yo and cots/boxes/trinkets to be made for THREE nephews/nieces to be born between November and January. So I've added a new member of my family - a beautiful baby...
P6030331.jpg

Carbatec 13" (Pseudo) Spiral head thicknesser! I'll think I'll call her CT-330X.

Oh and I also recently acquired a bunch of Triton gear: WorkCentre 2000, Table Saw, router table and TRA001 router (still unopened in it's box). That should get me going for a while.

However, it is with much shame that I admit that I have had these toys for 3 weeks and have barely even looked at them and certainly not had time to assemble and power them up!

So clearly I should stop typing, get to bed and get ready to spend some quality time this long weekend with my... [new toys and]... my family

Thanks again and I look forward to learning with you all.