It was pointed out that I don't have a bio on file. I did one when I first
joined the list a couple of years ago, but it must not have been saved
and would be out of date anyway, so here goes ...

I'm a 47 year old software hacker for a PDM (Product Data Management)
company.
Live on the urban fringe in the Twin Cities area with SWMBO and 6 year
old GIT (who's had his own bench since he was 4 - need to redo it 'cause
it's much too short now). Was the only child of a single mom and so didn't
really pick up much around the house in the way of mechanical background,
but hung around with friends and uncles enough to pick up some stuff.
Always
have been good at figuring out how things work and fixing them.  Previous
jobs have been in reparing band instruments (specialized in brass
instruments
but also did woodwinds) and was in office and school supply warehousing for

a while.

Back in the
late 70's I picked up a number of portable p*w*r tools and started hacking
some wood. Some of the stuff wasn't too bad, but none was great. Really
liked
the Crapsman R*ut*r Crafter for doing round fluted stuff. Still have it
around
somewhere I guess. I'd pretty much have to since I'm much too much a
packrat
to get rid of anything.  After that spate of building I went back to
college for the
CompSci degree, got a job, got married, and most of the stuff I did was in
the
carpentry area as we fixed up/remodeled various parts of our houses. Did a
lot of this, some with hand tools but mostly with the portable p*w*r stuff
I
had.

My first galoot tool was probably the type 11 #3 that was one of the few
tools
left in my grandparents house when we moved into it after my grandmother
died.
Though I remembered how to sharpen it from juniour high wood shop, I
didin't
do a very good job of it and really didn't use it much. Then picked up a
later
type #6c at a garage sale for $5. Watched some Norm and Roy, found
wreck.woodworking, Got a couple of Delta stock prep tools (you can guess
what they were B^)) and did a few more involved projects, but they still
leaned more toward carpentry than woodworking (the sauna turned out nice
B^)).

Along in this time I started using planes and chisels more. Went through
different
sharpening systems and finally thought I was getting a good edge on things.
Had
probably picked up a plane or two at garage sales, but still didn't have a
lot of
handtools. One of the events I point to as getting me started on the slope
was
when Mark Van Roojen sold me a nice #45 he posted on rec.ww. I used this on

a couple of projects instead of the router and thought it worked out well.
Picked
up a couple of FWW collections and read about techniques and tools. Started

picking up more tools at garage sales and off of the net. Somewhere in here
was
when I joined the porch. Got a 93 rabbet plane on approval that I didn't
end up
buying, but the sharpening job shamed what I'd been doing. Went to SS and
never looked back. Kept picking up the occasional tool here and there to
expand the coll^H^H^H^H working set, along with buying from list sellers
and local MWTCA meets. Bought new for some things. Nowadays I have
a pretty solid base of tools for most tasks. Don't have time to search
through
the 'Bay but do hit a weekly auction house that's yielded a few things.

We put a three season porch addition on our house last year (contracted
that
out) that included a new basement room that connected to the existing
basement
and has its own direct "storm door" entrance to the back yard. Makes it
much
easier to get to and from tools when working on projects. Have been working

on making that space into a shop, but it's still much too disorganized and
cluttered
to call it that. I've got a 24"x84" solid core door bench with Record face
vise,
Veritas twin screw end vise, and a Woodcraft patternmakers vise still
sitting in
the box waiting to be installed. I have most of my common working tools on
a
":tool stooge" that was hacked together by adding supports as needed to an
old
rolling printer stand. This holds the #3 through #8 and #40 planes,
mortise, firmer,
and paring chisels (well, most of them B^)), cabinet screwdrivers, gimlets,
hand
scrapers, brace and bits, the most used crosscut and rip saws, marking
gauges,
squares, mallets, a couple of low grade dovetail saws for utility cuts (the
IT
doesn't have a good home yet), small eggbeater drill with bits, and a few
other misc tools. It doesn't take up much space and is handy, but is
starting to
get crowded. I have a mental plan to make a freestanding tool cabinet
similar
to some of the ones in the Toolbox book. Got the casters. B^) For now,
other
tools are scattered in several other places that make them inconvienient to

use but I get by with the core stuff for most things anyway. The shop will
eventually
have cabinets installed and my lathe moved in, but that's still a ways down
the
line.

But with work, family, and other persuits (I'm also interested in
music{play
euphonium in a community band, and drums in a swing band},
leatherworking, and, well, darn near everything) I don't end up with a lot
of time
to work on actually making stuff. Seem to spend more time keeping the
house/
cars/camper running than woodworking. And have been meaning to try making
a knife for about two years now. And no, for those who remember, I _still_
haven't had time to try welding any of the broken plane bodies that I've
had
for about the same length of time. B^(  But I have fun. I enjoy working
with and
on the tools, and being able to expand on the things that I can do. Just
wish I
had more time to do some of them.

I enjoy the Porch. It's nice having a "home" where the names are familiar
and
people are friendly and helpful. Don't always have time to read every post,
but
I try to. Always something new to learn.