How I got into this

I fell into woodworking kind of by accident. I started with a tiny model railroad under my bed one day, and found myself building more and more to support the train and its infrastructure. After moving from New York to Connecticut, I had time on my hands and a large bay window I could fill with a layout, so I built more complicated benchwork. 2x4s, homasote, and a few Black & Decker tools - drill, circular saw, and jigsaw - made it work.

That fell by the wayside for a few years when I moved again. I still have the trains, but the tools - and their replacements - got more use. Buying a house that needed a lot of improvement meant that I put those tools to work, and learned their limitations quickly. That meant some tool upgrades, which had me spending more time at Sears and then at the now-defunct Woodworkers Warehouse.

Somewhere along the line I'd found an issue of Fine Homebuilding in an airport newsstand, and while it was facinating, Fine Woodworking was even more interesting. That led to Popular Woodworking as I went looking for projects more plausible for beginners, and a lot of other reading. I spent a lot of time on the long-gone Badger Pond as well.

Eventually, I started buying tools and wood and building projects. Household projects determined a lot of the tools, though maybe I'll find a way to use the Sawzall for furniture-making, but over time I definitely shifted toward buying tools for the shop, not just for specific projects. My basement - damp and awful though it was - became a place where I made things. I had a couple of years in 2000 and 2001 when I had (or thought I had) both time and money, so a lot more things seemed possible than probably really were.