The first thing I ever built as a young woodworker


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Here's a backstory. My dad is capable of doing any and everything (except fine woodworking like myself) he was a mechanic from the time he was 12 working at his friend's garage. He did electrical, plumbing, general contracting, kitchens, bathrooms, was a machinist, he did high end automotive body work and finishing. Needless to say his son had to follow in his footsteps. I get my mechanical ability and understanding of all these things from him.

 

My first words were in this order "Mommy, Daddy, Ammer (hammer), Rooriver (screwdriver)" 

I was I guess around a year old in a baby walker with those wheels on the bottom rolling around the house with my plastic claw hammer. I used to see my dad doing renovation in the house. I took that hammer to my mom's 6 string acoustic guitar because it was wood and well why not?

 

When I was 3 1/2 years old my dad was remodeling the bathroom in our house, and there were some cut off pieces of scrap wood on the floor and I used to sit outside the bathroom and watch him do tile, install lights and everything else. I had my own real hammer to sit there with and be the foreman.

 

I took a scrap pieces of 2x3, a 1/4" wooden splint plank, and a cut off piece of moulding and a few nails out of the box, and while my dad was working I started building. After I finished my parents were so impressed and tickled by my creation that the decided I should paint it. This has been around for about 29 years now, and when I bought my house they felt it belonged in my wood shop. I do have a little gluing to do to fix that little break in the wing.

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I started out much like you T - watching my dad and grandfather doing work. They gave me a box of nails, a piece of wood and a small hammer. I knocked nails in to my hearts content. I guess I would be around 3 years old.

 

My mother reminds me of a time when I took her washing machine apart. It had a front panel held on with screws and I used a penny to to unscrew them. This would have been all fine and dandy but it was running at the time and one you had to get out (not built in) - us oldsters will remember them. She didn't see me and thought I was playing on the floor in the kitchen only yards away. At the last minute she saw what I had done as I had got to the last screw. It was a close call and she thought I was about 2.

She said I was always destined to do something with my hands and I went into engineering at 16 many moons ago.

 

Happy days!

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I've been doing woodwork a long time as well. Dad and Grandad had basement shops and I was fascinated !

I think I was 7 or 8 when this picture was taken.

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Mattell power shop was all I wanted for Christmas that year. It came out around 1964.

I think I got mine a year or 2 later.

I have some pieces I made during high school but some of my early stuff may still be in Dads basement

I tracked one down on eBay and bought it just for fun.

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Wow I remember having one of those as well very cool.  Wish I still had something from those years...but memories will suffice.  My dad was no woodworker but his dad was.  We still have the library table he built with his dad.  In fact it's what inspired me to get back into woodworking.  Unfortunately my sister has it but I may still try to get it so I can do some repairs...that might take some time to accomplish :)

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I had my own real deal 1960s Black and Decker jigsaw, an electric drill, files, rasps, hand saw, miter box. All when I was 5 years old. When I was in 4th grade I remember my friends got into woodworking with me and we'd go to each other's houses and build stuff. This was back when being a kid was cool and everything you built wasn't digitally done in some fake world. 

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