Shopsmith Forums

anymore. It seems like the answer is no.

I have a few friends that are into woodworking. I have one friend that is a very talented bowyer (he makes traditional archery equipment). His workshop is fascinating and his bows are beautiful. Definetely fewer young folks are into woodworking though. Alec

I was told by an employee of Shopsmith that their greatest hurdle was their customer base is getting older and older. Not many young people are into woodworking. = No new customers to sell equipment to.

Go to a wood working show and I will be the youngest one there. I'm 40.

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One of the worst things to happen recently is the schools dropping all manual arts classes so they can spend more time teaching students how to do well on tests... largely for the benefit of the schools themselves...
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The interest in woodworking is still there but there are almost no hands on learning opportunities around. As I go to garage sales each weekend I see their efforts to teach themselves in garages all over town and many of them are in their twenties...
Most of them just need to have someone teach them the very beginning basics.
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I do not consider myself to be a fine woodworker at all. In my shop I consider a hatchet to be a precision woodworking tool... But I have always been very thankful that I was taught the very beginning basics. Heck, I even remember some of them.
In my early background I worked with my father who was also not a fine woodworker and I don't think he ever made a piece of furniture but before I was born he designed and built a house for his parents doing all work by himself including digging the basement by hand. Most of what I learned from him was farm woodworking. Working on buildings, remodeling the house, building livestock and grain facilities etc. The basics of furniture woodworking I got from school. None of my teachers were really great woodworkers but they were good teachers. Sadly they were better teachers than I was a student. I was more into metal working and mechanics. Still, I enjoy myself.

Now days if it doesn't have batteries, buttons, an LCD screen and show someone being blown apart, the kids won't even take a second look at it.

They eliminated woodshop in the school my kids go to because someone lost a finger and sued the school and the teacher. Its sad that we are such a sue happy society today.

baddlad wrote:They eliminated woodshop in the school my kids go to because someone lost a finger and sued the school and the teacher. Its sad that we are such a sue happy society today.

AND the school administrators are afraid of their own shadow. The insurance companies appear to me to be too quick to settle. When they are paying out more, they can justify larger premiums. Where's the checks/balances/common sense????

I'll be 36 next month. I have a large interest in woodworking, but I know I still need to learn the very basics. I did have shop class when I was in high school, but we didn't have a very good teacher. Shop class was more just play time than anything else. Mostly we sat in the classroom area and listened to music or went behind the building and smoked. And if we cared to build something, the tools were there. But not the guidance. I built a cassette storage box for my truck and a desk organizer for my dad (which he still has). Another guy made a sword in the metal shop area. I can't remember learning anything, but access to the tools did indeed trigger something in me.

Hi,

When I first read this post I had the feeling the question was more like:

Does any one here do any woodworking any more?

I've noticed a lack of woodworking projects being shown over the last while and thought this might be in reference to that. If that were the case I like to assure everyone that yes this is still a site to discuss and show woodworking projects.

I have several in the works and I'll post a few of them sometime in the future. And I would encourage others to do some woodworking project posts as well.

If this post was "off subject" sorry.

Ed