Greetings Galoots,

The current thread on Galoots in IT has prompted me to finally
post a bio.

I am Gavin Palmer of Sydney, Australia. I am a 35 Y.O. father of 2 who
makes a living designing and building Oracle databases and applications
and find it very therapeutic to have something that I can point to or
sit on, and say 'I made that'. It may not be straight, flat or square,
but I made it.

I am still weaning myself off the tailed devices, and some I probably
will never really get away from. I have most of the planes I need and
nowhere near as many as I want - the same with saws and everything I
guess. I really like planes and chisels, and have several wooden planes
that I have sort of started and which get worked on occasionally.

So far, I have made a bench with a lot of help from Bob Key and son
(many thanks indeed). Although I am not fully satisfied with it, it is
indeed a good first bench - the lack of satisfaction relates to my skill
level when building the thing, no reflection on Bob's fine
instructions!. None of my friends see the faults that glare at me when I
use it, so they can't be too bad. I am already planning Bench #2.

And a bowsaw, and a panel gauge and panel fielding plane...

Shop storage, a tool cabinet, saw till, sharpening station (both SS and
water stones) are all on the to do list, but keep getting bumped by
things for the house - a coffee table, toy boxes and shelves. Bedside
tables are the next challenge - laminated curved fronts? Hmmm...

Not to wax overly philosophical, but Galoot methods appeal to me on a
very basic level - I like to make things with my hands. Going up to
the garage after spending the day in meetings and dealing with
problems blown all out of proportion to their importance allows me to
concentrate on what I am doing and not to dwell on the day I have just
had. Anecdotal evidence would suggest that I am a much nicer person
for it :-)

Thanks to you all for your knowledge and I hope that I am able to add
something useful in my turn.

Regards

Gavin Palmer Sydney Australia

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