G’day from Sydney

[HeadScratcher]

G’day Paul from Sydney here... Throughout my teenage years I grew up with a number of guys from all sorts of trades, mostly in the metal trades... boilermakers, auto electricians, coach body builders, and I found my way into the automotive side of things, doing both spare part sales and later working on the tools. The only one that didn’t go into the metal trades was my younger brother, who became a cabinet maker and now teaches cabinet making at college in Brisbane, after many years on the tools.

In the mid 90’s the high performance workshop I had been working at for a number of years was slowly downsizing due to the much loved V8 & 9” diff market losing its appeal as petrol prices went up, until finally the work dried up so much that I was made redundant.

Figuring it was a good time for a career change I studied IT for a few years, and did a couple of additional basic programming courses as a tack-on at the very end. Although I have kept on with programming, I haven’t improved as much as I would have liked. I am still in IT and have been fortunate enough to work and have worked for some of the industry’s biggest names.

The hankering to work with my hands again is ever present and a number of times over the years the thought of a router kept appealing to me. I always thought they were a bit dangerous and for professional use only, and it certainly didn’t help with my brother telling me about a guy at work who spindled off his thumb.

Despite that I have a keen interest in all things audio / visual, and I am anxiously looking forward to building my second set of speakers. This time around instead of a fairly basic box configuration I plan to get creative with a router. I have already had a bit of a look around the forums and read some great write ups, and have a funny feeling more projects will follow the speakers.

Completely unrelated but I am also working on an electric trike to satisfy the mechanical itch.

[crowie]

G'Day Paul,
Have a look in the Router section of the forum under "Harrysin"; he's a router guru.
he's posted parts 1 & 2 of a 4 part introduction to router use which should be of some hep to you.
Enjoy your woodwork.
Cheers, crowie

[HeadScratcher]

Thanks crowie, I have already taken a gander at the first two parts, and looking forward to the remaining parts...

[Christos]

Welcome to the forum. For me the jointer is the most concerning power tool in my shed. As with everything powered you need to remain aware of what might happen.


Even with hand tools.

[munruben]

Welcome to the forum.Paul

[HeadScratcher]

Thanks Christos I have a fairly healthy respect for any electrical device that is capable of separating me from a limb. I inadvertently left a T handle in a metal lathe in in my teenage years, and I am not inclined to make those kinds of mistakes twice

Thank for the welcome munruben

[JJF]

Welcome to the forum