What people make?

[jimi43]

Blinkin' CLASS that there Malcolm!!!

I love the contrasting binding....

And Rob's shelf with contrasting ends and pegs has given me some ideas too!

Wonderful talent on this forum without doubt!

Jim

 

[yetloh]

Rob and Dibs,

I think it is clear that just as today's State education is so variable so it it has always been. It is certainly good to hear that school woodworking was successful for some.

I have been invited into two schools. One was a fairly middle class comprehensive and the other was in the middle of a large council estate in a town which is quite poor by Sussex standards, Interestingly, neither was terribly successful academically. The one in the more affluent area subsequently went into special measures and is to become an academy; whether it will still have any woodworking facillities after millions have been spent on it will be interesting to see as will its level of academic achievement. I think what all of this shows is that it is all about the teaching; pockets of excellence can exist in even the most difficult situations.

Jim

 

[woodbloke]

Rob and Dibs,

I think it is clear that just as today's State education is so variable so it it has always been. It is certainly good to hear that school woodworking was successful for some.

I have been invited into two schools. One was a fairly middle class comprehensive and the other was in the middle of a large council estate in a town which is quite poor by Sussex standards, Interestingly, neither was terribly successful academically. The one in the more affluent area subsequently went into special measures and is to become an academy; whether it will still have any woodworking facillities after millions have been spent on it will be interesting to see as will its level of academic achievement. I think what all of this shows is that it is all about the teaching; pockets of excellence can exist in even the most difficult situations.

Jim

Good to hear that Jim and goes someway to relieve my slightly jaded view of the state education system - Rob

 

[devonwoody]

I am a hobbyist and in my seventies, so I now do not interest myself in heavy furniture projects because the need to move them around during construction etc. Therefore my interest is on smaller items of any nature. I did attempt turning but found the situation slightly dangerous hanging around a fast moving lathe, if there is a snatch or similar fast moving event my reactions are obviously not the same as when younger.
However if a friend or acquaintance asks me to produce something within my capabilities I am happy to oblige on a none commercial basis.
I have been asked to make a small showcase for a trophy cup which I hope to start in the spring, and I intend to create more wood patterns on those tissue boxes I construct.

Usually work around four hours a day in the spring and summer.

 

[Doug B]

I make what ever customers want, just made a gate which needs finishing before hanging & today start on an Oak bench that when installed will act as a disguise for a large filtration system for a couple of fish ponds.

For myself, i`m currently making a coopered door in Oak, but as usual this keeps getting put to the back of the list as paying work comes in :?


Doug.

 

[Benchwayze]

Hi Nick,

The last item I 'made' was a small stand to lift up my PC Monitor about 5". It has three parts only and I was in dire need of it, to ease a stiff neck. So I cheated and used a pocket-hole jig to make it. Really can't class it as woodwork... So no pic.

I am still in the process of preparing the timber for my new workbench, which is settling nicely in the shop. when the weather turns, I am getting stuck into that Southern yellow Pine!

regards
John

 

[Benchwayze]

>Was it through need, austerity or just desire to be productive?

Need and definitely austerity.
I needed a set of driveway gates to contain the latest addition to the family but I wasn’t confident about building something so large and so prone to movement. However the prices I was quoted last autumn were too expensive, from £600 to £950 excluding VAT for two 5’ 6” high, 6’ wide gates in softwood. These prices were just for the gates, the hinges, bolts etc were extra.
I either built something myself or did without.

Timber cost me under £150 from B&Q, fittings at £60 matched the cheapest quote.
My through M + T joints were a bit sloppy as cut but I tightened them up with some wedges.
Hardest bit was rounding off the tops of the uprights (a design idea from the wife so it had to be implemented). I have a small bandsaw but manoeuvring the uprights round this was impossible in my workspace, I tried with a jigsaw but the blade kept flexing and I couldn’t get a square cut in this thickness. I ended up cutting roughly to shape with a handsaw and then using a belt sander hand held vertically to shape the top back to my mark.

Gates from roadside

Gates rear

The customer

Now that's the way to make an entrance!

=D>

John

 

[Titus A Duxass]

Here are some of my projects.
Why do I do it - relaxation that's why.
A Canoe

A Sideboard (Birthday present for SWMBO)

A Dinghy

A window shelving unit.

Yes I know it's in front of the window so the window cannot be opened.

 

[Shultzy]

I just enjoy making anything out of wood. Last item was a small table as a Xmas present. I'll tackle anything from wardrobes to lace bobbins. A quote from Richard Blizzard "the pleasure is in the making" just about sums it up for me.

 

[joiner_sim]

I'm jumping in on this topic a little late, but better late than never?!

I have enjoyed making things since I was 14 or 15 yrs old! I got an apprentiship in Carpentry & Joinery when I left school and it's the only work I've ever done since. I take great pride in everything I make and produce for my employers with the hope of progressing myself within the company. Things hit a low when I was made redundant from the furniture company I'd been so happy to join onlu 9 months before. However, I got myself another job and just about clinging onto it now.... things are slowing up again and I could be down the jobcentre soon enough. But I will make sure I get back into a job working with wood and furthering my experience.

However, I enjoy woodworking the most when its an item some-one has personally requested me to prodcue for them. That's when I take the greatest pride in my work knowing that it can be something quite special if I take my time and put the effort into it. My two most favourite pieces have been a coffee table and bed headboard, pictures of which are below. The reason for these being my two favourite pieces to make is because they were made almost entirely using hand tools and provided a good few days in the home workshop with the radio on playing music and the sun shining thru the windows.

 

[Froggy]

Great stuff. Send us photos to British Woodworking so we can run a Gallery of reader projects. I want to make sure new readers, just taking up woodwork perhaps, know that there are other people out there making things just for the sake of it.

Cheers

Nick

Hi Nick, As a relative new comer to woodworking I think that showing pictures of work the quality of which Dodge has posted can have a negative effect. I sometimes look at the quality work posted on the forum (or anywhere for that matter) and think that I'll never be able to achieve that standard of work. Of course I understand that Rome wasn't built in a day and these guys/gals have been doing it a long time, but I still get these negative feelings (jealousy I think!) when I see such good work. If you want to attract newbies to woodworking/your magazine I think putting in plans to make something that's fairly simple to make but when complete looks like it was a complicated piece. I hope some of that makes sense because I feel like I'm rambling now :roll:

 

[Benchwayze]

There are a few reasons I make things from wood.

a) I was taught how, so I can.
b) I enjoy the process. (Enjoy is putting it mildly TBH!)
c) In most cases I can't buy better from the 'shops'.
d) Because I enjoy splashing money on fine materials and then seeing something nice emerge.
e) Because I don't care what people think about my work, unless they are qualified to pass an opinion!

John

 

[Benchwayze]

I think there is a growing trend in the UK for people to become more self sufficient; the waiting lists for allotments, the proliferation of chicken runs in suburban gardens, the re-emergence to prominence of programmes such as Gardeners World and Countryfile. I think the old philosophy of 'Make do and mend' is definitely making a comeback. On the back of that I think traditional skills such as woodwork, home maintenance etc which in more recent times have been quick to be contracted in are also likely to see an upswing in interest, particularly in these times of austerity. I think the woodwork industry as a whole would do well to jump on the self sufficiency bandwagon and promote themselves hand in hand with the lifestyle that more and more people are moving towards.

I agree Flounder.
But sadly, in a lot of cases it's from necessity. Still, it's better than moaning about one's lot, and expecting handouts, rather than 'hand-ups'.

 

[knappers]

There is a bit of a legacy of woodworkers in my family. Although I greatly enjoyed "CDT" at school, I followed a career in IT. I have always loved wood, and would love to be able to make some things for the family, rather than buying the usual chipboard rubbish from Ikea.
I still have the chair I made at school at the age of 16-17 sat in my 2 yr old son's room. Made from up from 6 laminated ash components bent using the same form. There can't be many school projects still in use 25 yrs later.

Now I have a garage of reasonable size, and I am (for now) over my tinkering with cars and engines stage, I am slowly setting up a bit of a home workshop. The time I am getting to spend in the workshop is severely limited, and have really managed to produce very little yet - seem to spend all my time clearing out and fettling thus far. Can't wait to get some projects on the go come the warmer weather, though.

Si.

 

[Digit]

Need, austerity, and pleasure, plus the fact that our rooms are quite small, all based on 8ft by 12ft modules.
I've made a built in break front display cabinet to fit along side the chimney breast, a triangular break front cabinet to match and stand behind the door, a matching break front book case, all in Oak.
A fire hearth, a mantle piece. Several stable doors in either Oak or Iroko. Gates and veranda in Oak.
A bed and two built in wardrobes, various boxes and clocks and currently part way through making a computer cabinet in 'Iroko?'
To that you can add various extensions and outbuildings, garden furniture, kitchen and bathroom.
(I didn't realise I'd done all that!)

Roy.

 

[uk woodman]

Inspiring folk to take up woodwork - I wonder whether it's a confidence thing, or folk have other priorities, which are a bit weird or skewed. Let me give you an example - pay a gardener to mow the lawn and do odds and sods & then go to the gym. Why not have done the gardening yourself, saved some money & not have gone to the gym. Rather over simplified example I accept.

Years ago folk used to work on their own cars, fix stuff round the house and some make stuff - nowadays if you can do all any one of those things, most think you are weird and if you can do all 3 - they'll probably say you are weird.

I wonder whether the glut of cheap debt over the years has got folk to get a man in when they needn't have, or replaced something when it could have easily been fixed. Now that cheap debt isn't so readily available - whether the inclination to produce something yourself (or at least repair rather than replace) may start to take off again.

Schools - I know for a fact that if it wasn't for my interests in woodworking, etc., my son would be grow up like the masses and not have a clue. Whereas when I was at school - woodworking and metalworking was taught, as opposed to the Design & Technology rubbish they probably teach now.

Dibs

p.s. Sorry if it seems a bit of a rant.

You are so right in what you have said, I dont think its a rant! I think you've spoken the truth and a fact of how we live today (in general terms) my misses would string me up if I was anything like you've described as modern living is today