OldTools Archive

Recent Bios FAQ

20114 Troy K. Moore <tcmoore@i...> 1997‑06‑12 Bio - Troy Moore

Hello, my name is Troy Moore and I would like to submit my long overdue bio to g
ain porch access.

I'm 39 years old and married to Carol, a wonderful woman who tolerates all my ba
d habits (woodworking and downhill skiing).   I grew up on a farm in treeless SW
 Kansas.   Too much hay stacking in the middle of the summer convinced me that I
 needed to consider careers other than farming.   So I went to college and becam
e an electrical engineer.

I currently fund my bad habits via my daytime job as a software engineer at Los 
Alamos National Laboratory.   That be in Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA.   At the p
resent my efforts are directed at the attitude control system of a small satelli
te named Forte.   See http://nis-www.lanl.gov/nis-projects/forte for more on US 
tax dollars at work.

I've been interested in woodworking since I was a pup.   My first formal introdu
ction was General Shop class when I was a freshman in high school.   The wood pr
oject was the standard clipboard or cutting board using only hand tools. The thi
ng I remember most was being anxious to become a sophomore so I could take the n
ext class and have access to the real stuff (the p*w*r t**ls).

After marriage and purchase of a house with a garage, I decided to seriously pur
sue woodworking as a hobby.   At that time I was sure the only way to properly w
ork with wood was to amass an armada of tailed apprentices.   So I have the requ
ired collection of heavy metal that I use for basic stock preparation.

Several years ago I came to several realizations:
  - there were some things I felt very uncomfortable doing
    using p*w*r t**ls (ripping small pieces and cutting
    stopped dados come to mind)
  - I hate to sand (maybe if I could use a plane/scraper, a
    lot of sanding would be a thing of the past)
  - I wanted to develop some skills that not everyone with
    power in their garage possessed (hand cut joints,
    especially dovetails)

Thus my migration from rec.norm to OLDTOOLS.   I have slowly built up a small ar
senal of hand tools courtesy of the MofA and Tom Bruce.   Now I just have to fig
ure out how to use them.   I made up a rule that I could not buy another tool un
til I had the most recent sharpened/tuned and ready for use.   Soon decide that 
was having a negative impact on tool acquisition so that rule was rejected as un
workable.

Unfortunately I still find that I'm more of a virtual woodworker than a practici
ng one.   I spend much more time reading this list and books than I spend actual
ly working with wood.   On the average I complete one significant piece per year
.   Since most of my projects are furniture for our home, SWMBO would like to se
e a significant increase in this rate.   I have some of my projects on my web pa
ge if you are interested.

Respectfully submitted for your approval, 
Troy Moore

tcmoore@r... 
http://www.roadrunner.com/~tcmoore



Recent Bios FAQ