Greetings from Dartmoor, England

[cjp]

Hi, first post here - so I just want say hello to everyone.

I live on beautiful Dartmoor in England, where the weather is rarely fine but the view is always pleasant. Actually that's not fair, it's been a really nice summer!

My woodworking experience is limited and currently mostly aspirational. I used to enjoy woodworking at school, and was recently bitten by the "itch" to build something. The original plan was to build bass guitars, but as I looked more into woodworking in general I find other woodworking topics currently more interesting. Though I hope to work on both in the long-term.

I'm currently working in a far-too small 8x6 shed, but have been gradually building a basic tool collection. Funds are limited so it's going slow, but I'm getting there. I've spent a lot of time reading up, and watching woodworking video podcasts (including all the old episodes of The Wood Whisperer of course). I've also joined the Guild, as although I can't yet work on any bigger projects as yet it's nice to learn techniques and have something to aspire to!

So far my actually "builds" are nothing more than tables and storage for the shed and garden. None of these could remotely be classed as "fine woodworking" but we must start somewhere. Frankly, my first attempts at cutting things like joints for my benchtop planer/thickensser table (by hand) were quite awful, but by the fourth leg it wasn't so bad ;-) As this is utility furniture I won't worry too much, and it's good practice. But to be honest -I can't wait till I have the space/money for a table saw etc!

Outside of woodworking my day-job is IT (sys-admin and web-based work for a sports & custom clothing company) so if I can offer any advice to anyone there in return for the knowledge I gleen from here, please get in touch.

Anyway, thanks for reading my ramblings. Hope to speak to you all in the future.

Cheers,

Charlie

[Larenzo]

Hi Charlie,

Are you still interested in building guitars? I was into that a while back but have had problems with my left hand that makes me unable to play any more so I tend to avoid it..even though I've got two electric guitars still in progress. I built a 5 string electric bass and an acoustic guitar while I was active on the Musical Instrument Makers Forum (http://www.mimf.com). If you are still interested in building instruments and haven't been there I highly recommend you check it out. They have online courses, though I don't know what's available right now since I'm not that active. They don't have regularly scheduled courses. I took the bass building course when I built my bass. It came out pretty nice, though a bit heavy and the neck is a bit thick. It has some major sustain, though.

Well enough about that. I'll close with a picture of the bass I built.

Take care and have go make some shavings.

Larenzoid