More greetings from Pittsburgh

[DeanJackson]

So, my name's Dean. I'm awfully tall, and a lifelong Pittsburgher who took an eight year field trip to a few other cities. I work on software for a living, and have spent 20+ hours a week over the last two years doing woodworking. I'm not great, but I enjoy the hell out of getting better. I've worked on relatively simple furniture (proud of an Arts and Crafts walnut boot bench, and a bookcase that matches the built ins already in the house recently), and have cranked out 20+ pieces for Burningman this year, a big art/party/camping event I'm going to in a few weeks.

I take classes from a local shop, Dilegno Wood Supply, that also sells tools and supplies and is a friendly, locally-run business. The classes have been worth it, in spades; the introductory course helped a lot for learning hand tools I skipped by the first time, and I took the finishing course to figure out what the hell I was doing wrong in a few cases.

I work in a tiny basement shop, 10x14, which has a ceiling an inch shorter than me. I'm pretty darn happy with how everything's managed to fit in the room, with a few tradeoffs made for space. (My tablesaw was chosen for compactness above all else, for example.)

My next plan, starting Octoberish, is to work on box building for awhile, both to produce work more often, and to work on fine tuning a few fine skills, from better hinges to alignment of small work.

I keep an ongoing photo journal of work I've done on Flickr, if anyone's bored.