The extent of my formal woodworking training consisted of a year of high school wood shop. I tried my hand at a couple of projects but nothing spectacular came of them. While assigned as an ROTC instructor at West Texas State University (now WTAMU) I took the opportunity to purchase a Shopsmith Mark V. Soon I was building various items for around the house. Since the precision was in the tool, it was easy to get a project to turn out well. A few years ago, I purchased a new Shopsmith Mark 7 with the band saw, and gave my old Mark V to my son-in-law.
The new Mark 7 has been busy over the past few months. I built a lathe tool cabinet for my son-in-law, as well as a stand for my grinder and a mobile work table that folds down. If, and when, I get another RV all the power tools will have to be stored along the walls. For this reason, I use a lot of casters in my shop projects.
The new garage is finished and is about 40 feet long and 20 feet wide, and the new Shopsmith has been moved into it. One of the storage lockers was emptied and the router table and joiner are now inside, along with all the wood, panels and trim that were also stored in it. One way to reduce the amount of wood is to continue to finish the projects necessary for the garden room, apartment, tool room, as gifts, and as experiments to better learn the craft of woodworking.
Some of my projects are listed under this page sub-menu.
