What got you started ?

[sawtooth-9]

When I was 11 years old, my older brothers had a boat which was moored in a boatshed in Balmain -Sydney
The " old guy " who owned the boatshed was Stan Chapman.
There was an old engine in his shed and I REALLY wanted it.
Stan said, "if you can get it running, you can have it "
I managed to find some model aircraft fuel - poured it in and " BINGO "
Stan was surprised, I was "shocked"
I carried it home ( quite a few miles of walking )
On the walk home I met someone who would change my life totally.
Sometimes, fate works in such strange ways.
That was the first machine I stripped down and re-built
And here I am, 60 years later still doing the same thing - with an equal pleasure
Was there anything that was the defining " thing " for you ?

 

[Bingy man]

At a similar age -absent father, mom struggling with 5 kids including myself I’d say it was a mix of boredom, necessity and the strange ability to watch tradesmen work and recognise that I could do similar if only I had tools - and so began my quest for any unwanted tools from jumble sales and church sales etc . And I’d also work with local builders labouring and making the tea and clearing out sheds , doing gardening jobs and any other ways of earning a few pounds. As far as working with wood my first and long lasting memory was cutting into an old door frame or roof beam and smelling the freshly cut timber .I still enjoy this aspect and hopefully for years to come.

 

[Distinterior]

In all honesty, it was 2 people who had a real influence on me and really helped push me in a certain direction.......That was my Woodwork teacher and metalwork/engineering teacher at school......Mr Quarmby & Mr Little.....I'll never forget them and what they taught me as well as an attention for detail.

Many years after leaving school in 1978, I went back the 300 miles in 1998 to a school reunion and to my absolute surprise, they were both there!
I bought them both a beer and ended up getting a bit emotional after thanking them for everything they had taught me.

 

[Jacob]

I was an architectural student back in the swinging sixties, when my wife started making rag dolls and other stuff to sell. Out of the blue we suddenly got an order from "Kids in Gear" Carnaby Street, offering more money than we were used to!
Went on from there to make various wooden toys and jackinaboxes etc and the woodwork slowly took off. Quite successful, Design Centre awards and such like, exports and posh shops all over the place
All stopped dead in 1979 with the Thatcher first recession. Didn't go bust, just stopped trading.
After a lot of odd jobbing I eventually found my way on to a TOPS course in carpentry and joinery, which was basically intensive C&G syllabus full time, very traditional with all hand tool work. Tops courses were designed to get people back into work fast.
Been working at it ever since! Never had a proper job. Er mind you, never got a proper pension either!

 

[niall Y]

As an ex, art college 'Wally', I didn't set out for a career in woodwork. There is a quote, the origin of which I can't remember, that says that you always end up working at something you are second best at. What I take from this is that if you are not ego-involved, or over- invested in something , then It is a lot easier to navigate a path through ,

Woodworking was always of interest, and a skill that I had ( A level woodwork and all that) This led me to set up a business in the early '80's under Mrs Thatcher's Enterprise Allowance Scheme. (Probably her only legacy that wasn't a complete disaster for the country). This in turn led to an interesting and enjoyable career - though it was touch-and-go, during a couple of recessions

 

[Jacob]

As an ex, art college 'Wally', I didn't set out for a career in woodwork. There is a quote, the origin of which I can't remember, that says that you always end up working at something you are second best at. What I take from this is that if you are not ego-involved, or over- invested in something , then It is a lot easier to navigate a path through ,

Woodworking was always of interest, and a skill that I had ( A level woodwork and all that) This led me to set up a business in the early '80's under Mrs Thatcher's Enterprise Allowance Scheme. (Probably her only legacy that wasn't a complete disaster for the country). This in turn led to an interesting and enjoyable career - though it was touch-and-go, during a couple of recessions

I think I got the allowance too, while I was on the TOPS course and £20 a week for a year after that. Can't quite remember, but very sensible and it got loads of people back into work.
Thatcher shut down TOPS courses and "Skill Centres" eventually

 

[J-G]

The TOPS Course I went on (after a divorce curtailed my business ) - (Computer Systems Analyst) was utterly useless. After two days I realized that I already knew far more than the lecturer and was constantly correcting his incorrect information. I distinctly remember him insisting that a 9 pin Dot Matrix Printer had a bank of 9 x 9 pins !!!

There were 15 of us on the course and none would ever procure a position as an Analyst. - Though I did get a chance to learn COBOL as an extra-curricular, not that it has ever been any use!

 

[pe2dave]

Watching my father with hide glue and model boats.
The 'scrap' wood offcuts were my toys for years!
He (mech eng) loved wood more than metal and I guess I followed that.

 

[redefined_cycles]

Most definitely always (being forced to be) helping my dad on DIY projects when I was younger. I now tell my kids that it's him that inspired me, to have the confidence to try my hand at various projects and it's reason enough for them to help me too. Works on the 8 year old

When I was young and used to see my dad use the B&D jigsaw. I always knew it was a substandard tool but didn't quite know why/how. Once I got into full time employment I got myself a Makita jigsaw and the difference was night and day. My dad loves/used to love that thing and it's coming onto almost 15 years of ownership. Fairly regular use (mainly flooring but lots of other projects by him and me in between) and no obvious mechanical slack to speak of.

Suffice to say that had me hooked on quality tools and since have managed to get myself a very small arsenel of used/quality kit. Recently I tried a standard Wickes fine-cut saw, just to ensure I wasn't missing the point. I haven't been doing... It's £3 worth of utter garbage and my next purchase (for mitering around poorly corners) might well be a japanese pull saw.

Shafiq

 

[niall Y]

I think I got the allowance too, while I was on the TOPS course and £20 a week for a year after that. Can't quite remember, but very sensible and it got loads of people back into work.
Thatcher shut down TOPS courses and "Skill Centres" eventually

If I remember rightly, you received the dole payment for a year, whilst trying to get your business up and running. You had also to have some investment yourself in the form of equipment and funds, which I believe could include a bank overdraft.

There was an old accountant who was helping to run the scheme, who was most helpful with the money side of things. He had, started his working life in a joiners shop, for which he admitted he was completely unsuited, as he showed me the scar at the base of his thumb, left by a hollow mortising bit.

 

[redefined_cycles]

Oh... in case the thread isn't necessarily about workshop/woodwork then: at about the age of 14 when I first learnt about the XX and XY chomosomes. Had me fascinated and eventually (some 20 years later) found my field in human bio/healthcare. Absolutely love it and its been 14 years since I first started my degree and never looked back.

 

[Jacob]

If I remember rightly, you received the dole payment for a year, whilst trying to get your business up and running. You had also to have some investment yourself in the form of equipment and funds, which I believe could include a bank overdraft.

There was an old accountant who was helping to run the scheme, who was most helpful with the money side of things. He had, started his working life in a joiners shop, for which he admitted he was completely unsuited, as he showed me the scar at the base of his thumb, left by a hollow mortising bit.

Oh yes that was it. After the TOPS course I was working from home (the coal shed!) and 3 or 4 years later I got Enterprise Allowance. Had to have £2000 and a business plan to show, and got £20 a week for a year. I rented a workshop and bought a Combi machine (Maxi 26). Already had all the hand tools, a band saw and a lathe.

 

[Jameshow]

Still wondering what I should do with life and fast approaching 50!

My friend and cabinet maker men's shed volunteer laughed when I told him I studied engineering at High Wycombe college!

Mistakes - my life is full of them!

 

[Droogs]

What got me into wood working was flying out the machine gunners position of a Buffel APC and landing about 20ft away after going over a soviet anti tank mine during a UN patrol (UNTAG) in Ovamboland, Namibia. The MO said woodworking would be a good way for me to decompress a bit. So when I got back to Germany, I started an evening course through the education centre being run by a ebenieste on his journeyman year "wanderjahr" travels around Germany, hence my avatar a renaissance German wanderjahrmann.

 

[baldkev]

What got me into wood working was flying out the machine gunners position of a Buffel APC and landing about 20ft away after going over a soviet anti tank mine during a UN patrol (UNTAG) in Ovamboland, Namibia. The MO said woodworking would be a good way for me to decompress a bit. So when I got back to Germany, I started an evening course through the education centre being run by a ebenieste on his journeyman year "wanderjahr" travels around Germany, hence my avatar a renaissance German wanderjahrmann.

Ouch.....


Well i enjoyed cdt at school but didnt turn up much for my final year and some of my exams. The inevitable result being i didnt get much in the way of gcse's. My favourite exam was french though.
Mr coe had annoyed me earlier in the year and we fell out, so i stopped going to french lessons. I turned up for my exam ( it was a spoken french thing ) i confirmed my name 'jemapelle kev' then sat there in silence for the rest of the exam while he asked the questions best waste of half an hour ever!

Anyway, then moved to devon with my mum and after a summer of bumming around my stepdad introduced me to my new boss. I didnt even want a job and suddenly I'm an apprentice getting a pound an hour! Rubbish money every 15 minutes I'd earnt a can of coke

 

[sawtooth-9]

My father died when I was 11 years old.
I do remember him being able to "fix"anything.

In those days, there was no internet, and the local library was lucky to have a Mickey Mouse comic.

I was always wanting to know "how things worked".
With no one to help, I just "took things apart "
By the time I had done this - I forgot how to put it together.
So I had to understand what the machine was doing, and how someone had worked out how to do it.

That's one of the true pleasures of restoring older machines - getting into the mind of someone else - understanding their thought processes. Faults and all !

But I must admit, I still cannot understand the people who assemble Italian machines !

 

[Sandyn]

buying an old house, having to do a LOT of work on it over the years Living through 15+% mortgage in the early 80's and 9+% inflation of the early 90's. I decided that if I could buy a tool and it would be cheaper to do the job myself, then that's the way I would go. We did woodwork, metalwork, mechanics and Technical drawing at school, got the basics belted into me, but that gave me a basic foundation for most of the stuff I still do today.

 

[Molynoox]

Just a hobby for me at this stage but I suppose I got into it through necessity. A number of (increasingly complex) home projects. The 'need' to build things... mostly structural things like pergolas and small buildings.

I realised that I enjoyed the creative process, the act of starting with nothing and ending with something. Thinking through what I need, coming up with designs that satisfy it and then building it.

I want to start scaling down my projects now: less size, more precision. Try and find projects that are less 'necessary' so that I can enjoy the process (because the end result carries less importance). I want to be able to make mistakes without taking it too seriously, and then learn from those mistakes and carry on.

I'm going off on a tangent here so I'll stop.

Martin

 

[Fitzroy]

Always loved taking stuff apart, we had a cellar in my childhood home that was my domain (an where my mum kept her wine), dad had died young so pretty much left to my own devices down there. Started with pushbikes, stripping them down. repainting and rebuilding for friends. Then bough a motorbike in about 3 boxes from a pal who had bought it to rebuild, taken it apart and then lost interest. The ultimate jigsaw puzzle, rebuilt and got running but a new exhaust was too expensive for me, and the old one was very holey so rather loud. It sat in the cellar after completion when I went off to Uni, my mum sold it to a bloke for £50 who tried to use it for a get away vehicle after robbing a bunch of local businesses, unsurprisingly he was caught. I found a washing up bowl full of petrol was an awesome degreaser for parts. Looking back having an open bowl of petrol in the cellar of a 15th centaury timber house was perhaps a little unwise.

Became an engineer as it was better paid than a theoretical physicist, chose chemical engineering as it was the best paid. Should have done mechanical as that is way more aligned with my love of taking stuff apart and building stuff. Started woodworking to fill my need to make physical stuff that I can put my hands on rather than designing the process and owning the fluids flowing through it.

 

[Fitzroy]

@MikeK is there any way we can lock this thread to members only being able to view? I think it's great understanding the backstory of each other but I'm a little concerned we are putting personal stories into the public domain, which from a cyber security / phishing viewpoint is not super sensible.