Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

reddit.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 246 posts

Re: My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

#81

Post by throwaway373438 »

adsjhdashkj wrote: post #78
codingdave wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a bad woodworker. My furniture has bad joints, gaps between pieces of wood. I don't use good wood. I do a poor job painting or staining it... and everyone still just sits down on my chairs and says, "This is so cool that you make your own furniture." Start small, start bad, improve on each project... and give it time.

Stupid question - would it be sane to get involved in this stuff without having a means of transporting large objects? Every time i look into wood related work, be it home repair or artsy stuff, everything is huge. I have a Prius. I'm not too thrilled at the idea of buying a 2nd car (truck), and i don't want to drive only a truck.. so how am i to get the supplies? Sounds like a silly question, but yea - things are ju…

Home depot will rent you a pickup for an hour for $20. And you can drive it to pick up at stores that aren't Home Depot.

There's also the idea of making friends with someone who has a larger vehicle. Minivans work almost just as well and are more commonly available.

Re: My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

#82

Post by vorpalhex »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #38
Jaruzel wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> presumably by taking classes at a technical college? Trial and Error is all you need. I've never formally trained myself in woodworking and I'm pretty good at it. I could definately replicate what this guy did if I had the time and money. My wife and I have a book collection that currently lives on eight 2.5 metre high by 1 metre wide Oak bookcases that fully line two walls of our living room (which we call the Lib…

If I could give up IT and do woodworking everyday, I would. I feel like this every time I do some project around the house. After replacing my toilet a few years ago I realized that manual labor is bad for the knees but good for the soul. But knowing me I would probably end up writing a script to help whatever job I was doing, and then end up making that my focus.

"Why are we tracking parts using a pen and paper? There's a much better way to be doing this..."

Cut to five years later when your former-plumbing shop is now selling an inventory control PAAS to other plumbers and you're now trying to learn swift so you can port to the latest ipads.

Re: My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

#83

Post by malwrar »

blhack wrote: post #57
gummydog wrote: post #47

My woodworking journey started when I was quoted $2500 to fix my porch railings. $1000 in materials, $1000 in tools mix in youtube tutorials and patience and now I'm hooked. The sliding compound mitre saw was the life changing tool for me. It was what was holding me back all these years from doing my own projects. I was always outsourcing this type of work for simply the cutting of lumber and thought I could do bette…

YES! This is why it's SO important to keep this sort of stuff in schools. Sliding compound miter saw is a magic tool. Now just wait until you get a MIG welder and a bandsaw, you'll be UNSTOPPABLE and the world will suddenly look a whole lot different! Sidenote: I'm the program director at a nonprofit where I teach/create curriculum. One of the workshops that I love teaching is a week long where we teach the following…

This is a really honorable and amazing occupation you've found for yourself and I'm glad folks like you are out there changing people's perspectives and lives. Do you have any resources you'd recommend for learning welding? That's been a skillset that I've wanted to pick up for awhile.

Re: My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

#84

Post by sgt »

bipson wrote: post #18
pen2l wrote: post #5

It seems so fulfilling, being able to make such beautiful things. But also a bit expensive eh... to get the woodworking skills (presumably by taking classes at a technical college?), the equipment, and the time involved. If any folks here are capable of doing this stuff, would you please share details of your journey, I feel inspired to learn some of this myself. Did you feel it was all worth it, what would you do di…

Woodworking is one of those "skills" that might seem so unapproachable, and yet the learning curve is quite steep (in the technical sense). I'm nowhere near a master and make a lot of stupid mistakes. But my relatives think I'm worrying to much about those, nobody notices, nobody cares besides me. But next time I do the same thing again, I know. If it really counts or is entirely botched I just redo the piece. Wood i…

There's also something to be said about woodworking and making things meant for garage, behind the house, tool shed etc, a lot of the times it doesn't even need to look good, as long as it is sturdy. Exposed screws or metal brackets can be fine. Not sanding a surface may be perfectly in order.

Re: My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

#85

Post by random_visitor »

orliesaurus wrote: post #52

What a nice thing to do! However I couldn't not notice the typical anonymous mob commenting. Some of the comments on that reddit are so mean. How evil can some folks be when someone just went through his wife's passing.

This kind of comments are really difficult to get rid of, especially so in a site that doesn't strictly tie with your real self.

Also, that kind of behaviour is extremely hard to curb. If moderators lay guidelines on what kind of talk is and isn't allowed, people attack the mods and the subreddit for taking away their freedom. If mods are lenient, this and much worse happens. I used to moderate a popular sub (top 100 subs on reddit), and I hate to say that these are mild by reddit standards and about what you should expect on a popular post (the key being "reddit standard"). I'm pretty sure mods are cracking down on these comments, but a mob of people can generate them much faster than a dozen or so volunteers can delete away

Re: My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

#88

Post by blhack »

malwrar wrote: post #83
blhack wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YES! This is why it's SO important to keep this sort of stuff in schools. Sliding compound miter saw is a magic tool. Now just wait until you get a MIG welder and a bandsaw, you'll be UNSTOPPABLE and the world will suddenly look a whole lot different! Sidenote: I'm the program director at a nonprofit where I teach/create curriculum. One of the workshops that I love teaching is a week long where we teach the following…

This is a really honorable and amazing occupation you've found for yourself and I'm glad folks like you are out there changing people's perspectives and lives. Do you have any resources you'd recommend for learning welding? That's been a skillset that I've wanted to pick up for awhile.

Just buy a welder. Seriously. The machine I learned to weld on was a lincoln 140, and the machines we have at our space are miller 210s (which are LUXURY imo).

There are probably thousands of videos on youtube that will show you how to use it, but here's the thing: if you use it wrong, who cares? You really can trial and error your way to it.

Re: My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

#89

Post by blhack »

IgorPartola wrote: post #74
blhack wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

YES! This is why it's SO important to keep this sort of stuff in schools. Sliding compound miter saw is a magic tool. Now just wait until you get a MIG welder and a bandsaw, you'll be UNSTOPPABLE and the world will suddenly look a whole lot different! Sidenote: I'm the program director at a nonprofit where I teach/create curriculum. One of the workshops that I love teaching is a week long where we teach the following…

Why specifically MIG and not something like flux core? Also, what resources do you recommend for learning to weld? I wish I could take a class on this but all I see is like two year old programs for becoming a certified welder and I am just looking to do it for random odd jobs.

Flux core is really useful if you either don't have the ability to use gas, or are working outdoors in the wind.

Our shop is indoors, and we have nice machines.

Re: My wife recently passed away. I used my time off to build her a giant bookshelf

#90

Post by jtap »

pen2l wrote: post #5

It seems so fulfilling, being able to make such beautiful things. But also a bit expensive eh... to get the woodworking skills (presumably by taking classes at a technical college?), the equipment, and the time involved. If any folks here are capable of doing this stuff, would you please share details of your journey, I feel inspired to learn some of this myself. Did you feel it was all worth it, what would you do di…

My father had a couple duplexes, and I learned to hack stuff together pretty well there. But I did take a class at Woodcraft that was pretty nicely done about 10 years ago. It was a simple course over a few nights. I learned a couple woodworking tricks that upped my game, but there were a couple beginners. Hopefully Woodcraft will start having classes again once things start opening up again. If so signup and they will teach you how to use the basic tools and more importantly you will walk away with a bit of confidence and knowledge on how to fix mistakes.
Post reply on HN