Gentlemen:

I'd like to introduce myself. My name is Doug Van Horn, I live in St.
Louis, MO, in the United States (located roughly dead-center of the
country). I'm a software code-monkey who's been fiddling around
woodworking for about a year now.

I spent the first six months of my woodworking life agonizing over what
to buy. I went from power tools (that's all I knew), to western hand
tools, to Japanese hand tools, and came back through again. I decided to
try and stick with western hand tools & Japanese saws, but mainly I'm
after quiet and convenient, in that order.

After I bought a few saws and a couple of chisels, I built the 'Good,
Fast, Cheap' workbench that I'm sure many of you are familiar with (it's
a 2x4, 2x8 lumber bench). The top is 'flat-ish', the base is pathetic,
and the metal vise is too small for the top thickness. Regardless, I
loved building it and it works well enough to allow me to plane and saw.

I just 'lit' my workshop (basement) which makes all the difference in
the world. I went from 2 100-watt bulbs to 10 4' 2-light T-8
flourescents with 4100K bulbs, which ends up being very nice. Now I'm
ready to build a few things. A good thing, too, as my financial backer
(SWMBO) is getting anxious about not seeing any productivity from her
investment. This isn't the dot-com days, she says...

My early list of things to build includes a sharpening bench, a
television cabinet for the bedroom, and toy chest/cabinet for my tools.
Or is it a tool chest for my toys?

The group here is a treasure-trove of invaluable information for
neophyte galoots such as myself (would the proper term be a palooka?).
Thanks to all for maintaining and participating.

Doug Van Horn (who knows that a Japanese saw coming out of its kerf will
cut a thumbnail)

Welcome aboard!

Tony Zaffuto introduced himself and said:
> Other interests are American history (centered
> on the Civil War and reconstruction) ...

You can tell you were educated in the North (as was
I), when I moved down south I was informed by my
history teacher that it is properly refered to as
either the "War between the States" or "The War of
Northern Agression" ;-)

Walt in Dallas

Welcome to the porch tony!

> hodge-podge of whatever catches my eye--12 miter boxes, 2 post drills,
> 

Obviously, these are the signs of a propoerous individual. Such wealth 
boggles the mind. Mind that slope over by there.

Mike Duchaj
Elgin, IL

Doug Van Horn wrote:

>The top is 'flat-ish', the base is pathetic, and the metal vise is too
>small for the top thickness. Regardless, I loved building it and it
>works well enough to allow me to plane and saw.
>
>
>
Ah hah! I see 3 urgent and important shop projects here.

1) re-plane the bench top to a "Knat's Kirby" (proper unit when
   measuring bench flatness,Jeff and Paddy)
2) Retrofit (with proper joints) extra bracing on the bench base. Or
   plywood trusses :-)
3) Excavate a mounting recess in the underside of the bench to allow
   proper fitting of the
    vice. Or buy a BIGGER vice.

These 3 activities should prevent any unnatural deviation from proper
galoot behaviour, like making projects for SWMBO :-)

       BugBear

Glad to have you here Doug!  A lot of us have found that even
western saws can do that fingernail trick.  The white scar
on my left forefinger is the first thing I show my GITs when
I talk about hand saws, DAMHIKT. That's the lesson I go
into right after the *dull* means *dangerous*  lecture.

Gary K
Close to Buffalo NY

----- Original Message ----- 

> Gentlemen:
>
> I'd like to introduce myself.  My name is Doug Van Horn

--snip, snip--
>
> Doug Van Horn
> (who knows that a Japanese saw coming out of its kerf will cut a
thumbnail)

Well, sharp means dangerous, too, if combine "sharp" with "moment of
stupidity"

My saw injury was with a bee-yoo-tee-ful Tom Law sharpened
Disston #7 x-cut.

What? Some people missed the gore? Well the pic is still up ifn anyone
wants to see what a sharp saw does when you make an error in handtool
judgement:

http://www.bustedtruss.com/franken-thumb.jpg

--
-Chris Schwartz, Ex-Brewer Stealth #97 Silver Spring, MD
> Glad to have you here Doug! A lot of us have found that even western
> saws can do that fingernail trick. The white scar on my left
> forefinger is the first thing I show my GITs when I talk about hand
> saws, DAMHIKT. That's the lesson I go into right after the *dull*
> means *dangerous* lecture.
>
>

Galoots,

Chris S. shared his injury with us in living technicolor. Hey, at least I
didn't ILLUSTRATE my gory stories a while back! Ha! OK. it's confession
time: How many of you couldn't resist going to the site to look at the
blood and gore? It's OK, we understand (wink).

Phil E., ER RN