Age Range of Shopsmith Users

[terrydowning]

Welcome to the spinning vortex that is the woodworking hobby.

[dusty]

I just started doing a little Woodworking last summer. A friend gave me a router and I just started spending money on the the thing and the hobby. Safety gear, router bits, replace saber saw that died, etc. I then took on a couple of tasks and found that circular saw was not going to be good enough for my needs. I am very limited in the space that i have avaiabe. So I have gotten a SS 500 with standard accessories recently (march).

I retired 4 years ago and moved north for my retirement, as the wife said that is what she heard everyone did. People look at me kind of funny when I explain this. I think maybe she fibbed to me.

Ihave been enjoying reading about the #10 box project, starting with selecting and laying out the wood. I am really appreciative of the information I get here on these forums. I am cleaning the machine up now and will build skills starting with the lessons i found at the back of my manual. I do hope the other membership of the forum will be patient with me. I am looking forward to some good experiences in woodworking.

Welcome to the forum. This is a great group of folks but I won't lie. Every now and then you will be challenged to over look some short comings. We are all with human frailties here.

Good luck with you Mark V. It can be a great companion in retirement. If you get hooked, it can consume all your spare time and some that was not spare.

[altern8nrg]

Just a though... It seems that shop and home economics has become less and less a part of public education. It would be my guess that the 36-45y/o group was the last to attend these programs as standard course in public schools. I also believe traditional craftmanship and self reliance, for the most part has been lost in younger generations of modern America.

[damagi]

Just a though... It seems that shop and home economics has become less and less a part of public education. It would be my guess that the 36-45y/o group was the last to attend these programs as standard course in public schools. I also believe traditional craftmanship and self reliance, for the most part has been lost in younger generations of modern America.

My older brother did shop class in middle school, but it was gone by the time I got there 4 years later. my high school had an autobody shop, but not a woodshop as I recall. I am 31, so your guestimate sounds about right.

[dusty]

Since the age groups are almost a decade wide, I am in the same age group as when I entered this poll. I am thankful for that. But what I am really thankful for is that I don't feel any older than I was in 2007.

I am also thankful that this forum continues. Not only does it continue but it is growing. A few of us old farts have become disenchanted and do not post anymore but I have not and thankfully many others are hanging in there too.

I just hope that there is more woodworking going on behind the scenes than we see evidence of here on the forum. Yes, I know. I have not posted any of my projects. Most of them have not been worthy. Recently, however, I have completed a side table, a tv stand, a book case and a box for sand paper.

[greitz]

Dusty- if the quality and design of your furniture is anywhere near the quality and ingenuity of your jigs, I can't agree with your "not worthy" statement. And as long as your spouse is happy, that's what counts!

Quality of workmanship aside, those of us with little experience in making furniture can learn a lot from seeing other's designs, particularly when the pictures are accompanied by a discussion of why those particular joints were used in that project.

Back to the thread topic- I'm 52, had 1 month of wood shop in 6th grade, then essentially no woodworking at all until I saw a Shopsmith demo at a home show in summer 2004. (We still have the mini baseball bat the guy doing the demo turned on the lathe.) And the addiction started...

Gary

[easterngray]

I am 50 and have had my SS for 5 years. I wanted one for many years, and in 2007 I found a 1960 Goldie with the jigsaw for 200 dollars. Just this year I bought a second 1960 Goldie with jigsaw for 250 dollars that i gave to my daughter. Over the past 5 years I have acquired most of the SPT's used and last year I got the refurb. PowerPro upgrade, though i still use the 500 table, happily. When I was in my twenties I worked as a carpenter so I had owned a Makita contractors saw, a makita chop saw, a Makita circular saw and a Milwaukee Sawz-All for many years; they were fine for home repair work and building kennels and such but I really wanted to do some small "finer" projects. The Shopsmith has exceeded my expectations. I think it is one of the finest woodworking tools ever made - a really exceptional invention! At my work place we regularly use a delta Unisaw, 15" bandsaw, planer, routers, belt sanders and random orbital sanders; still there are times when I wish I had my Shopsmith at work!! I have built many raised panel doors and drawer fronts with my Shopsmith, turned fishing plugs and made a bunch of landing nets. I have also made some tool totes and shop accessories and jigs. I am busy with work, thanks be to God, so I don't have enough time in my small shop as I would like, but when I retire I will have everything I need to get going on many of the projects that I dream about! Someone on this forum once very wisely said: " buy your tools for retirement while your still working"; I took that advice to heart and am grateful for it and glad I did.
I would like to come the the defense of young folks these days and let you know that I know quite a few young men in their twenties that are very handy and talented with carpentry, woodworking, boatbuilding, furniture making and the like. I live in a rather rural community, a small town, that has alot of very capable young folks. "The old ways" are not dead and gone! It is encouraging to see ambitious young people exhibit the desire to learn how to do things with their hands and take pride in their work. I think alot of the discouragement about the lack of younger folks exhibiting an interest in woodworking and the like might be originating in more urban or suburban communities where the malls and nightclubs win out for young peoples attention and more importantly, there are no older folks taking them under their wing to teach them. Lastly, I would like to say how impressed I am with Shopsmith Inc., for all the reasons listed above and in other threads. What a great company, and WHAT A GREAT TOOL!! Alec

[wingrider]

I don't post very often but enjoy reading the other post. I'm 56 and bought my first SS about 25 years ago. Its a 1955 Greenie that I got at an auction sale. I paid about $200 for it and got a jig saw to boot. I turned it into a shorty two years ago we I found a 1986 Mark V on Craigslist with a joiner, belt sander, bandsaw, shaper, and planer that I got for $700. Now I just need more time to put them to good use.

[ugly_guitar_guy]

I'm 29 and my grandfather gave me his father's 1955 Mark V Greenie last year, and now I'm using it to build guitars. It's still working great, and gonna be cutting a heck of a lot more wood for me!

http://www.tdpri.com/forum/2012-tdpri-t ... leted.html

[robinson46176]

I'm going to steer this another direction for a minute regarding the young guys and shop class...
I took about all of the shop I could when I was in school though it was more metal shop than woodworking. I got along great and liked all of my shop teachers well but in all honesty, most of them were only semi competent... Even the good ones were often too busy with the 10% of troublemakers to spend a lot of time really teaching the subject.
I took a little drafting, several wood classes and anything I could in metal shop. I even took metal shop classes that they didn't offer. Those had to mesh with the required stuff like dinosaur herding, rock stacking and mammoth butchering.
I also took some drafting, woodshop and metal shop at BSU. I loved all of it but to be just slap a tiger honest about it, I really believe that I learned more from Roy, Norm, Scott and several others just watching their TV shows over and over than I ever did from my shop classes...
During the years I was growing up there just were not any of that kind of shows at least in our area or on out 3 channels. The first I recall were the shows about DeWalt RAS's in the 1960's.
Today there are all manner of "how to" shows, all kinds of well illustrated books and almost unlimited sources on the web including a half zillion videos. In spite of the loss of shop classes I think that the young guys today have as much info as they could want if they want it. Look at the information available on just this forum and it is only one of hundreds.
The biggest problem is getting the younger guys to find out that they want to do woodworking.


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