Woodworking As a Hobby or a Profession

Woodworking is an exciting hobby that can also turn into a lucrative career. It is not hard to get started in woodworking. All it takes is a few pieces of wood, a couple nails, and a hammer. Your skills can progress from there. You can move from making birdhouses to making Adirondack chairs to fireplace mantels if you are devoted to the craft. Because so many people do woodworking, it is a great hobby for those who like to be social. You can invest in tools and a workshop with your brother, father, or a friend. Woodworking is also a great hobby for people who like to be solitary. Spending hours alone in the garage, building furniture, can be a sort of meditation for an introverted person. Wood is abundant and it will always have an allure for the craftsman. For many people, even the smell of sawdust can get them excited. But perhaps you are still a beginner and you are not to the point yet where you ache to walk around on wood chips and detritus all day long. What tools and equipment do you need to get started on your hobby or even your career as a woodworker?

There are many essential items to purchase when you want to work with wood, but the important thing is to start slow and to build your collection wisely. Do not splurge on lots of items you do not need, just because they are the shiniest at the hardware store. Also take care not to buy cheap items in low quality. You will always end up replacing these with higher quality tools or machines down the road, and you will have ended up spending twice as much as you intended. Be patient with your collection and invest in the best things over a long period of time.

The tools of the woodworking trade that you require are many. A woodworker needs a tool box full of the essentials like hammers, chisels, screwdrivers, and more. A woodworker also needs a great electric drill, either cordless or corded. If the drill is cordless, make sure it is a model with an extra battery pack so one can be charging while the other exerts itself. The larger pieces of machinery and equipment a woodworker needs are a table saw, a jig, and a sander. All of these pieces will save you time in the long run. Depending on how big and ornate your projects are, you can purchase large or small varieties of these machines. Make sure that the table for your saw is adjustable to different heights for a wide range of projects.

If you are going into a specialized kind of woodworking such as cabinetmaking, then the tools of your trade are going to be different. Consult an expert on the machinery and tools you will need for your specialized craft. There are also woodworking shows that you can attend around the nation. Never neglect the internet as a source of woodworking information either.

Ray Walberg very often produces detailed papers on areas related to machinery. You might discover his articles on woodworking over at http://www.insidewoodworking.com and various other sources for woodworking information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ray_L._Walberg

Labels:

Posted by manung36, Thursday, January 3, 2008 6:39 AM

0 Comments:

<< Home | << Add a comment