What got you started ?

[Fitzroy]

That's interesting. I did mechanical eng at uni but never really fell into a mech eng groove. I ended up doing engineering but it was automotive. And it wasn't really engineering. Although it was called that. I spent many years working in ivory towers, on the theoretical side, pushing information around and not really engaging with the products or the customers. I knew I was doing useful work but it was very disconnected from the actual product. I had an opportunity last year to try something totally new because I was made redundant as they shut down our UK stuff (UK is too expensive). So that's what I've been working on for over a year. Plan B.

What is my point? I ask myself!

I think what I'm saying is it's funny how you can drift around in life, and think you are on the right path, but then realise you are not. Or maybe you realise you were on the right path but the grass looked greener. And you switch. And then maybe when you switch you realise the grass was actually ok on your side.

Yeah I guess I'm still figuring out what I think life is confusing isn't it.

Martin

I’m late 40s and 25yrs with the same firm next week. I previously found myself thinking one day I’ll know what I want to do. The new graduates who join were born after I joined. I’ve always found it fascinating how sure some of the are of what they want from their career, and at times I’ve been envious of that clarity. I now realise I enjoy two things, solving technical issues and developing young engineers, often combining the two. I’ve abandoned the career ladder and now just aim to move between interesting roles, getting involved in new things where I can, and assisting those around me to do great things.

 

[ian33a]

I didn't enjoy woodwork at school and, to be honest, I was pretty rubbish at it.

My dad was an HM Dockyard qualified joiner and it seemed to me that he could make anything, and properly too.

I wanted to be an architect but, at the time I would have started training, there was a large recession. Instead, my dad suggested I become an engineer.

An engineering degree under my belt, I then spent the next 35 years in the semiconductor industry dabbling with woodworking as and when I had time or an inclination, always with dad's support.

Only in the past few years, with more spare time and more money to buy decent tools have I tried to do woodworking properly. Now it's a joy to use engineering skills to hone natural products into something functional and, sometimes, beautiful.

Sadly, at 91, my dad died recently and today is his funeral. This is tough to write - I owe him so much and will miss him.

 

[Bingy man]

I didn't enjoy woodwork at school and, to be honest, I was pretty rubbish at it.

My dad was an HM Dockyard qualified joiner and it seemed to me that he could make anything, and properly too.

I wanted to be an architect but, at the time I would have started training, there was a large recession. Instead, my dad suggested I become an engineer.

An engineering degree under my belt, I then spent the next 35 years in the semiconductor industry dabbling with woodworking as and when I had time or an inclination, always with dad's support.

Only in the past few years, with more spare time and more money to buy decent tools have I tried to do woodworking properly. Now it's a joy to use engineering skills to hone natural products into something functional and, sometimes, beautiful.

Sadly, at 91, my dad died recently and today is his funeral. This is tough to write - I owe him so much and will miss him.

Condolences for your dad ., lost mine 2 years ago.

 

[J-G]

Oh well you can't win em all! The C&G courses for the old trades had been developed from a long way back (19 Century) and perhaps it was too soon to do similar with computer science!

At the end of the second week there was a 'Test' - the results handed out on the Monday of the 3rd week.

The lecturer anounced them from lowest to highest starting at ~15% and got to ~35% before he gave my mark @ 100% - I would have been ashamed had I not achieved that.

 

[D_W]

Not a pro, though I have made and sold the odd thing here or there and could make chisels and some tools professionally -the choice with that has more to do with not having it crowd my hobby and the compliance issues here with having an actual profitable business.

At any rate, I work at a desk job, and did early in working life, except I was bonkers and worked all of the hours that I could for the most part. Not really ladder climbing, but trying to make up for any shortcomings by just working more. At one point, i got burned out about 5 years into that and a coworker said "my husband likes to work wood and you guys are almost identical, like peas in a pod, the way you talk and think ,and the inappropriate things you say. Do you think you'd like to give that a try?"

I did. Fellow is a former Englishman from the old days "I'm English, not British. British could be anything!!!" and he got me into power tool woodworking - he's an engineering manager, and it seemed arduous - constant tool setup, overwrought plans (all the way down to autocad, or similar to what people do with sketchup and cut lists now), test pieces, one upon another to check machine settings. I switched over to doing mostly everything freehand and by eye and to hand tools where possible. I have a gaggle of small power tools and some grinding tools (to make metal things like knives and chisels), but on the wood side, generally only use stuff that plugs in when it's necessary or when forced to make something quick and junky that I don't want to make in the first place.

"Making" is the first hobby that has really stuck -every other man's hobby - shooting, playing guitar, computer stuff, all has been transient, but making and the thrill of figuring out how to make something well hasn't faded.

My dad would make shelving and plain cases, etc, when I was a kid, but they were all (pine) butt joint nailed, screwed, stain and polyurethane - very plain utility stuff with the absolute cheapest most intolerable tools he could find. Fancy would've been joining everything with brass screws - never sparked the interest and I didn't really pick any of this up until about age 27 or so.

In most places in the states, if you take wood shop, you're probably not going to college and that was the case for me. It more or less was always scheduled at the same time as calculus or physics or whatever else under the assumption that there was no overlap, and the projects the kids did in shop were not that interesting. The suburban district where I live now is different with better equipment and a design element and kids will work up to doing things like making boat or automobile design prototypes like they used to do in the auto industry.

 

[Jacob]

At the end of the second week there was a 'Test' - the results handed out on the Monday of the 3rd week.

The lecturer anounced them from lowest to highest starting at ~15% and got to ~35% before he gave my mark @ 100% - I would have been ashamed had I not achieved that.

We had a match test for C&G. I got 100% too - hardest question was something like volume of a cylinder! Some got zero.
The practical test was to hammer a 4" nail into a piece of wood.Some failed that!
But I'm all for open entry - some will never discover their potential if they don't get the opportunity.

 

[thetyreman]

what got me started was paul sellers on youtube, I had a crappy wobbly workbench and wanted to have a go at making a better one.

 

[Stigmorgan]

I've loved making stuff since 2ndary school, design and technology class was my favourite and was run by my head of year Mr Stone, I hated group stuff like PE and what was then known as expressive arts, I used to walk out of school for those lessons so Mr stone would allow me to continue working on my D&T projects. Woodturning is very new to me, a few years ago whilst roaming the halls of YouTube I came across Nick Zammetti turning something on his lathe, this peaked my interest a little untill I then came across Al Firtado the rebel Turner, his style of keeping natural features and bark on the piece really appealed to me, I've watched every video he made, then I found my lathe on Gumtree last year, once I had cleaned it up and got myself some gouges I started turning 1st November 2021 and so far I believe I've produced around 90 to 100 pieces and absolutely love the whole process, I'd go so far as to say I'm addicted to it, finding a piece of wood that feels right, mounting it and removing material until it looks right then finishing it, followed by the joy of the piece finding it's new owner, be that via being gifted or purchased

 

[baldkev]

I didn't enjoy woodwork at school and, to be honest, I was pretty rubbish at it.

My dad was an HM Dockyard qualified joiner and it seemed to me that he could make anything, and properly too.

I wanted to be an architect but, at the time I would have started training, there was a large recession. Instead, my dad suggested I become an engineer.

An engineering degree under my belt, I then spent the next 35 years in the semiconductor industry dabbling with woodworking as and when I had time or an inclination, always with dad's support.

Only in the past few years, with more spare time and more money to buy decent tools have I tried to do woodworking properly. Now it's a joy to use engineering skills to hone natural products into something functional and, sometimes, beautiful.

Sadly, at 91, my dad died recently and today is his funeral. This is tough to write - I owe him so much and will miss him.

I hope the send-off went well

 

[Keith 66]

When i was about 2 Dad built an 18ft National sailing dinghy, I played in the woodshavings under the boat as it grew. A year or two later my earliest memories are of that boat, Dad & Mum would sail her & i would snuggle under the foredeck in a nest of cotton sails, I can still smell the salt & cotton & the noise the clinker hull made as it raced across the waves. Dad would hold me over the side by my harness so my feet would skip the wave tops. Later there was always a boat next to the house being built or rebuilt.
Hardly surprising that i went to Falmouth boatbuilding college & became a boatbuilder, still mucking about with wooden boats at the age of 60, My parents both passed away now, I still have many of my Dads tools & use them regularly, Its like he is there looking over my shoulder.
I wouldnt have missed it for the world!

 

[sawtooth-9]

I didn't enjoy woodwork at school and, to be honest, I was pretty rubbish at it.

My dad was an HM Dockyard qualified joiner and it seemed to me that he could make anything, and properly too.

I wanted to be an architect but, at the time I would have started training, there was a large recession. Instead, my dad suggested I become an engineer.

An engineering degree under my belt, I then spent the next 35 years in the semiconductor industry dabbling with woodworking as and when I had time or an inclination, always with dad's support.

Only in the past few years, with more spare time and more money to buy decent tools have I tried to do woodworking properly. Now it's a joy to use engineering skills to hone natural products into something functional and, sometimes, beautiful.

Sadly, at 91, my dad died recently and today is his funeral. This is tough to write - I owe him so much and will miss him.

Sounds like he would be proud of you.
And that should mean a lot to you.
You will miss him, but he will always be there for you.

 

[Yojevol]

For me it all started long before I was born. My paternal grandfather was the general handyman at the Crystal Palace before it burnt down in 1936. I inherited his blowtorch! My father was a draughtsman with the London Electricity Board and a devotee of Barry Bucknell. My brother preceded me by 5 years and quickly got into Meccano and model aeroplanes, so there wasn't much hope for me.

I can distinctly remember my first woodwork lesson at my secondary modern school, when I was complimented on my chiselling skills, having already been taught by my Dad, so I had a head start on the other kids.

At 13 I transferred to the Redhill Junior Technical School, one of the last of its kind in the country.

There we did more serious woodwork on Friday afternoons under the fatherly Mr Pocock. In the 2nd year at RJTS we moved on to metalworking which took us up to O-Level GCE. So that, together with 2 hours of engineering drawing per week, followed by A-Levels in maths, physics, etc. set me up for a student apprenticeship in the aircraft industry (Dowty).

3 years on, post apprenticeship, the CEGB came along and established a new Construction Division in nearby Gloucester. They were offering nice fat salaries, at least fatter than Dowty, so I took their shilling and found myself in the nuclear power station business.

Fast forward 25 years and I'm all burnt out having project managed in the construction of one new PS, dabbled in the embryonic wind power sector and carried out numerous modifications to older Magnox and AGR power stations.

Fortunately for me Maggie Thatcher thought privatisation of the power supply industry would be a good idea - didn't they do well? That led to downsizing (that's where employees are made redundant and then engaged as consultants to do the job which they found wasn't redundant after all). I put my hand up and offered to help out with their downsizing by accepting another shilling; by now 5p. But, I wanted out completely, to do something completely different, something that would satisfy the soul.

Part of the severance package was an offer of finance to retrain as a furniture maker. This I took up and subsequently spent a wonderful couple of years at the tech in Cheltenham. Met some lovely people and made some long term friendships.

And so it was that I was able to offer my services as a furniture maker, resulting in great job satisfaction (something which eluded me in the former life) and making yet more friends.

Brian

 

[baldkev]

My paternal grandfather was the general handyman at the Crystal Palace before it burnt down in 1936. I inherited his blowtorch!

i hope that blowtorch wasnt responsible

 

[throbscottle]

I can't put my finger on any particular thing. I think it's just in my blood and my bones.

My Grandpa was an engineer, and I spend many happy hours in his home workshop, my natural and adoptive fathers were both motor mechanics at the beginning, but I don't think I learnt much from either of them, though my adoptive dad used to occasionally bring home a box of old car parts, which I would spend many happy hours dismantling. When I came to him with questions he'd get me to try to work out the answer for myself. I was given a screwdriver and pair of pliers of my own at an early age - I think I screwed two bits of wood together in a cross shape (must have already had holes) and tied some wool to it - that must have been the first thing I ever made. I have no idea what it was supposed to be - I think it was just the joy of fastening stuff together!

Then I just wanted to do everything - metal, wood, electricity, chemistry, sewing, leatherwork (my mums hobby, which she had a fair go at making a business of) but what often actually happened was I took things apart and played with the bits! Not sure what my thought process was there - I can't remember if it was plain inquisitiveness, or if I actually thought I was going to use the parts for some unknown thing. Maybe it was both. Maybe I just enjoyed it. So definitely more of an experimenter than a maker.

I do get a feeling of stifled creativity. Don't know what's going on there.