sunnybob":2kleuh61 said:
Thing is, this is a life change retirement hobby, and I've spent a chunk of my money with absolutely no satisfying gain yet. I'm teetering on the verge of despair, and have reached the stage where no more cash goes out until i see something I can be proud of.
I am still struggling with getting edges straight and parallel. Tools that I believed would do this for me, arent.
Chisels that should be sharp have less cutting edge than my electrical screwdriver.
i dont have much patience, which is why my ambitions are as lowly as square boxes, but even they are defeating me.
Good for you for telling it like it is. I suspect there are many, many more in the same position, just they don't have the resilience to still be on this forum, nor the honesty to admit it's not working out as they'd hoped.
Woodworking is a wonderful way of occupying yourself. But it's not how it's usually pictured, with lovely projects emerging from the craftsman's bench almost by themselves. In reality it's a slow process, where lots of individual steps have to be accurately completed in the correct order, if you try to rush or skip those steps failure is virtually guaranteed. And the critical first step is to get yourself in the right frame of mind, patient and methodical, focussing just on the individual step that's in front of you, never ever rushing one step in order to get onto the next.
When you've reconciled yourself to the discipline that's required you're ready to get a few basic tools working properly. I'm 100% confident that your tools are capable of doing the job, you just need to figure out what's going wrong and how to put it right, the solutions all do exist even though it sometimes feels the problems are impossibly intractable. No matter how frustrating there's zero point starting to make anything until you've got your tools working right, if you do you'll just face bigger frustrations in the future.
Next step is to have a detailed plan for a simple project with cutting lists, dimensions, and all the jointing and finishing details written down and thoroughly thought through.
Then you need to get the wood and any other consumables. Spend time selecting the right materials, something reasonably stable and easy to work like American Cherry or Honduras Mahogany is a sensible place to begin. They're not cheap woods but for small projects like boxes the cost isn't too bad. Because you've got the cutting list clear in your head you can take the time to select thicknesses that aren't too far from what you finally need, thicknessing with hand tools is arduous so minimise the burden. And don't be tempted by extravagant figure; straight grain that runs the full length of the board and freedom from knots are your friends in the early days.
Next, get the wood flat and true, don't rush this or imagine a board will magically straighten itself later on, unless everything is flat and true the jointing becomes far too difficult for a beginner.
Only then move on to jointing, and take it very very slowly. Practising any new joint on scrap until you're confident.
After that you absolutely must have a dry glue up, when the glue is going off is no time to discover you're missing a cramp or a joint isn't seating properly.
Then take all the preparation time required to sand every surface smooth, working methodically through the grits.
Only when that's completed should you even think about applying a finish. And still at this late stage there are traps waiting for the impatient, if the tin says leave to dry overnight then that's exactly what you must do. If four coats are recommended then apply four coats.
The satisfaction of a good piece well made is worth the effort and the wait.
Good luck!
