Being a veteran maintenance man, it would alway amaze me at how smooth and precise sheetrock would be finished in a new home that was under construction. I’m talking about before the texture and paint went on.
I’ve patched sheetrock before and I’m pretty decent at it, but when I’d look at these massive homes with what must have been miles of joints so perfectly feathered, I’d wonder how they did it. It was not until recently I found out that there are very advanced and expensive tools for taping sheetrock joints. I just assumed they did it with a trowel. Man was I wrong. If you like to see just how far drywall taping tools have come visit http://www.drywalltapingtools.org/
I was never really into laptops that much until I took one in on trade for a desktop I was selling. I liked the mobility of the laptop, but what I just couldn’t get used to was the keyboard and little scroll pad that controlled the cursor. After awhile the laptop just sat collecting dust.
While looking for a docking station for my wife’s ipod, I ran across a docking station for a laptop. You could use it to connect your laptop to a keyboard, speakers, monitor and mouse using a single usb cord. Pure genius. My laptop was back in business. I hooked everything up and it was like I had another desktop to work from. If you like this idea, have a look at http://dockingstationsforlaptops.org/
In this article we are going to go over some important woodworking tips you’ll want to know if you are going to take up woodworking as a hobby. Be sure to check out the resource box at the end of this article where you will find a link to a page where I show you step by step how to make a simple decorative wooden box with a hinged lid.
1. One of the first things you should know about woodworking is that you don’t have to have a lot of money to get started. Woodworking tools can be expensive, but you don’t have to have the best of everything in the beginning. Most of my woodworking tools are fairly plain and simple and I am still able to build beautiful projects. I’ve seen small table saws for $120 at home improvement stores that would be suitable for small shelf or box projects.
2. You will want to know a little about the wood you are using. Oak is a very hard wood and is very expensive. Pine is much cheaper, softer and thus easier to work with for beginners. A mistake with an oak board is much more costly than the same mistake with pine. It’s also nice to begin with a good straight board too. I’ll often spend 30 minutes or longer going through a stack of wood until I find what I want. You can pay extra for the boards that are already hand picked, but I like to look for gems in the “less than perfect” area.
3. Square your tools! It is of utmost importance to square the blades, saw guides, and fences on your power tools, particularly saws. If you’ve ever tried to assemble a woodworking project and found that it was just out of whack, then chances are your power tools weren’t square. There are plenty of inexpensive metal squares on the market that are made for woodworkers and it only takes a few minutes to make sure that a setup you are using to cut wood is square or not. I make sure my guides and fences are square every time I start a new project.
So don’t be afraid to start with tools you can afford, wood you can afford and spend a little time making sure your guides and fences are square. Woodworking is one of the most rewarding hobbies I can think of. Go make something and have fun!
Lloyd is a professional repairman with over 20 years of experience. You can visit a couple of his websites on docking stations for laptops and drywall taping tools.
