chuckster1

Knoxville, TN, US
member

I am 65 and have just retired from Project Control Engineer and have been doing woodworking off and on for the past fifteen years. I have been planning for retirement all that time. I have been retired now for (2) months and am adjusting well. My plan after retirement has always to fill my time working in my shop and doing projects that I could work on consistenantl. When I worked 60 hrs a week I found myself rushing to copmplete projects and not really enjoying the craft as one should. I istill find myself rushing at times but I stop and say to my self to slow down and analyze and enjoy. I have a new grandson who is 21 mos old and A lot of my projects are for him. Toys, furniture, boxes etc. I have built my tool collection up over the last fifteen years to where I have a very complete workshop. I am starting to respond to my wifes wants for the hose, porch bench framing a leaded glass with a cherry frame and construct anew Cherry top for our dining room table which we have had for twenty years. The existing top is 1" glass and we are ready to move on. I plan on taking a number of woodworking courses to improve my skills. I have never taken any classes but am a avid reader of woodworking magazines. My last major purchase was a Jet Mini lathe from Woodcraft. I have been waffling about purchasing a lathe for years and decided that I needed to do it before retirement, so the last week that I worked I purchased it. I have found that there are probably more classes for turning than most and other aspects of woodworking. My plan for retirement has also been to build small projects that I enjoy and to sell them at three or four Craft Fairs through out the year. I am on the verge of following through with that Idea with the projects that I have and am building for my grandson. One of my problems is to deteremine what people will pay for them and also if I want to set up a Web site and go that route. So if anyone could give me advise on that that would be great. Thanks Chuck


Recent comments


Re: Cherry and ash stool

Bob the stool are great. I have just finihed building my own three-legged stool that I found on the Web. it was a replicate of a stool made for mil;king cows. I found it exiting to make because it was my first project that I had completed in the first week of retirement. I ended up making four, one was for ourhouse, one for my daughtere and her husband whose child is our grandson, one for the other grandmother and on for a friend who works with my wife and who had a child the same time my grandson was born. I really like your stools and will build a number of them for my family but also to sell at crqaft fairs. Have any of your students or yourself sold them and if they have, what kind of a price did they get. The price to charge for crafts project is a problem for me. I fhave found that I at 65 and in a few months will be 66,I have to focus much more on layout and building. I have lost my sharpness of the mine. So to keep from making mistakes I have toi be very deliberate. So the time it takes is longer than most so I cannot price based on time spent on the project. After making a few the time improves a great deal but I still must focus more that I use to. I have also lost a lot of my temporary memory. ....Sorry fo rambling on here! IO just want to say that I was impress by your design and if by change as others have requested , if you have any drawings for your plans and jigs I to would be interested in receiving them. Your written directions are very helpful. I also am interested in making puzzles and just received a book I order last week that was written by James W. Follette. So I also was wondering if you have had any experience in making puzzles. I thought that maybe I could sell thos eat the craft fairs. Thanks Chuck Turner Knoxville, Tn. cturner44@yahoo.com

posted: 10:57 am on January 29th