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

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

#191

Post by etothet »

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…

I had the exact same experience.

I'm in my early 40s now and had never done any woodworking a single day in my life and never even had really used any type power tool other than maybe a drill.

Early in the lockdown, my wife and I decided to completely redo our backyard, We were initially going to hire someone to do it, but after receiving bids for $20k+, we chose to tackle it on our own.

My first project for the new backyard were two simple cedar planter boxes. Fast forward five months and I've made more planter boxes, a deck, some steps, acoustic panels to hang in my studio, and a custom desk for my daughter.

I've found that while the end results are far from perfect, they're still pretty great. Even after figuring in purchasing a few power tools (including a sliding compound mitre saw like you mentioned) we still have spent way less money than had we hired someone to do the same work.

I'm really looking forward to my future projects. My only regret is not taking this up sooner!

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

#192

Post by [deleted] »

ip26 wrote: post #176
Tempest1981 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I doubt the schools wanted it this way. I think we, as a society, are allowing this to happen. Wish I knew how to reverse it.

It seems pretty obvious it died down as a result of the shift to knowledge economy. It would reverse if manufacturing & the trades resurged in importance.

[deleted]

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

#193

Post by anonAndOn »

mszcz wrote: post #70

Heh, I'd love to start, but now I unfortunately have a good excuse. As soon as I get to it, I'm sure I'll first-time-manual-cpp-memory-management my fingers right off my fucking hand and I'll end up in a hospital in a middle of a pandemic...

If you have the money, there are saws that will save your fingers.[0]

[0]https://www.sawstop.com/

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

#194

Post by anonAndOn »

saalweachter wrote: post #119
Loughla wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Woodworking is one of those skills where you can see literally every flaw about your finished product, because you know what greatness looks like and you cannot achieve it. And nobody will notice but you, and maybe another woodworker. But generally they're nice enough not to say anything mean. I like it because it keeps me humble. Just when I believe I have the largest amount of domain knowledge related to my job, an…

It's also one of those frustrating life lessons about putting in the work. Like, sanding. When you first start out you're very tempted to just give it a very cursory sand to get any splinters off the edges or whatever, but once you sand something butter-smooth once, you have the frustrating realization that you're going to have to keep investing that much time and effort on every project you make going forward.

OCD sanding warning: down this path you may discover it's possible to sand some types of bare wood to a mirror finish.

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

#195

Post by Obi_Juan_Kenobi »

nullc wrote: post #23

The lighting looks nice, but I think it'll be a little unfortunate when the strip starts failing. Other than the strip that shelving could last decades, but the lights won't. I've had mixed luck with LED strip, -- with some becoming glitchy after only a few months of operation.

They're easy to replace, and decent ones last a really long time.

If you undervolt them slightly, the chips will basically never fail.

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

#196

Post by randycupertino »

etothet wrote: post #191
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…

I had the exact same experience. I'm in my early 40s now and had never done any woodworking a single day in my life and never even had really used any type power tool other than maybe a drill. Early in the lockdown, my wife and I decided to completely redo our backyard, We were initially going to hire someone to do it, but after receiving bids for $20k+, we chose to tackle it on our own. My first project for the new…

So, this is a stupid question, but do you mind explaining what are the benefits of using planter boxes vs just planting directly in the ground? We're getting into gardening a bit during the pandemic as well and I'm trying to understand why planter boxes have become so popular. Thank you!

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

#198

Post by ska »

Aeolun wrote: post #126
refurb wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the item. IKEA is known for it’s cheap and flimsy particle board furniture, but it also sells solid hardwood furniture that is quite solid and well built.

That’s very noticeable in the price though.

It's still cheap compared to comparable alternatives though.

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

#199

Post by jki275 »

contingencies wrote: post #17
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…

I use an old copy of Sketchup (the offline version) and it does me. Blender and FreeCAD are both good open source options. You can also alternatively draw an SVG in Inkscape, import in to one or the other, then 3D extrude it.

Sketchup is so much easier to use than blender though. Amazingly easy.

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

#200

Post by eindiran »

randycupertino wrote: post #196
etothet wrote: post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had the exact same experience. I'm in my early 40s now and had never done any woodworking a single day in my life and never even had really used any type power tool other than maybe a drill. Early in the lockdown, my wife and I decided to completely redo our backyard, We were initially going to hire someone to do it, but after receiving bids for $20k+, we chose to tackle it on our own. My first project for the new…

So, this is a stupid question, but do you mind explaining what are the benefits of using planter boxes vs just planting directly in the ground? We're getting into gardening a bit during the pandemic as well and I'm trying to understand why planter boxes have become so popular. Thank you!

There are probably other reasons people use them, but a few reasons why planter boxes can be the right choice:

(1) If you live in an area with very poor soil conditions, it may take years and lots of hard work to get your soil usable for the things you want to plant. Or you can grab planting soil that meets your requirements upfront and dump it into some planter boxes.

(2) They look nice, and some people are going for that look in their garden.

(3) Not needing to kneel so much, which can be a game changer for people with eg knee problems.

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