Getting Handier by the Day

I have blogged previously about how moving to NC has made me handier, both out of necessity and increased interest. I have started taking on more projects as my skills and collection of tools grow.

For my birthday recently, my wife got me a few woodworking books. I guess she figured they'd a be a good gift after I made 2 raised bed vegetable gardens in April. I had always been interested in woodworking, but never had the tools / space / skills to really tackle it. I saw the books as a good opportunity to pursue this interest.

I choose 2 projects for immediate work - a sandbox for the kids and a workbench. These are really closer to carpentry than fine woodwork, but seem to be a good place to start and quite practical.

So I ordered the lumber and even found a decent table saw on Craigslist. The saw seemed good enough, but actually ended up needing a few things. I had to actually fabricate a small part for the table from junk I had lying around. This was major accomplishment #1 for me, and I was quite proud of solving a real problem with tools and skills.

In cutting some 4x4s for the sandbox yesterday, I had another problem with the saw. I will spare you the details, but suffice to say that by the time I had fixed the broken crank mechanism this evening I felt like an invincible handyman. I'm sure this feeling will pass once I break something beyond repair in what is sure to be the near future.

So project #1 is the sandbox. I first created some cool plans using Google Sketchup, which I also had to learn to use. I did a good bit of the work today (despite starting my morning in a childrens' museum and not having my table saw). After doing all the measuring, cutting, dry fitting, drilling, sanding, and putting the kids to bed, I fixed the table saw.

Man, it feels good to get stuff like that done! Bragging about it here is almost as good. Just wait and see how I brag about it once the thing is actually built!