Good Morning

[Gregor1]

My name is Greg. I wanted to introduce myself as a new member, but I didn't see a particular topic for the subject, so I thought this was as good a spot as anywhere.

The basics. My wife, of 45 years, and I live in Illinois. 2 kids, 7 grand kids. We are both retired, and I would classify myself as a tinkerer. Anything else you want to know, simply ask.

When I retired 5 years ago I plopped my butt on the couch, watched TV, and promptly ate my way up to 220#. I guess 220 isn't bad if you are 6' 7", but I am 5' 7". I'm not sure if I was overweight, or under height. Then one day my wifes lawn mower quit working. I went shopping for a new one, but she insisted she wanted hers fixed. She didn't want a new one. It is a Lawn Boy we bought new in '93. Have nothing else to do, and nothing to lose I decided to tear into it. In the end it was a pretty simple fix. I kind of enjoyed working on the mower, so I went to my local small engine shop, where the were several old Lawn Boys sitting out back, and I brought one home. Long story short this started a 2 year obsession with fixing up old Lawn Boys. At one point I think I had 25 og them. I now am down to 15 or so, I'm not sure. Some of them are quite rare and very collectible. One day while cruising FB looking for Lawn Boys I ran across a Massey Ferguson 14 garden tractor for sale. I inherited one of these tractors from my father in law many years ago and rebuilt it. I decided to try my hand at rebuilding this one. That started a 2 year affair with garden tractors. Still on going. I have 3 Massey Fergusons now, 3 John Deeres, and 6 Wheel Horse tractors. All refurbished except for the John Deeres. These are the ones I actually use. The others are just for show.

I wanted a better way to store my hand tools and make them more readily accessible, so I built a portable roll around tool cabinet. I also did a couple of wood working honey-do jobs for my wife. I used to do a fair amount of wood working 20 years ago, and I also worked construction for a time. Over time I accumulated a large varied assortment of wood screws. After working on these wood projects it became apparent I needed a better way to store them. I pent more time looking for the right screw than anything else. I built some wooden trays, ordered myself some plastic boxes, and now all my screws are in perfect accessible order.

After doing these projects I realized just how much I missed wood working, so I decided to get back into it. I don't have a lot of equipment, nor is it what I would call top of the line, but it works, and I make do the best I can. All I have for a work space is my 24 X 26 garage. A couple of weeks ago my wife came home with a birch butcher block, and said she wanted a table made from it. I am just finishing that up now.

I have a tractor project to work on after this table, but when it's done I am going to devote more time to wood working. Working with tractors, grease and oil just does not seem to mix well with wood.

That's my story in short, and I hope to learn a few things from the knowledgeable members on this forum.
Thank You for having me.

Greg

[Dumb_Polack]

My name is Greg. I wanted to introduce myself as a new member, but I didn't see a particular topic for the subject, so I thought this was as good a spot as anywhere.

The basics. My wife, of 45 years, and I live in Illinois. 2 kids, 7 grand kids. We are both retired, and I would classify myself as a tinkerer. Anything else you want to know, simply ask.

When I retired 5 years ago I plopped my butt on the couch, watched TV, and promptly ate my way up to 220#. I guess 220 isn't bad if you are 6' 7", but I am 5' 7". I'm not sure if I was overweight, or under height. Then one day my wifes lawn mower quit working. I went shopping for a new one, but she insisted she wanted hers fixed. She didn't want a new one. It is a Lawn Boy we bought new in '93. Have nothing else to do, and nothing to lose I decided to tear into it. In the end it was a pretty simple fix. I kind of enjoyed working on the mower, so I went to my local small engine shop, where the were several old Lawn Boys sitting out back, and I brought one home. Long story short this started a 2 year obsession with fixing up old Lawn Boys. At one point I think I had 25 og them. I now am down to 15 or so, I'm not sure. Some of them are quite rare and very collectible. One day while cruising FB looking for Lawn Boys I ran across a Massey Ferguson 14 garden tractor for sale. I inherited one of these tractors from my father in law many years ago and rebuilt it. I decided to try my hand at rebuilding this one. That started a 2 year affair with garden tractors. Still on going. I have 3 Massey Fergusons now, 3 John Deeres, and 6 Wheel Horse tractors. All refurbished except for the John Deeres. These are the ones I actually use. The others are just for show.

I wanted a better way to store my hand tools and make them more readily accessible, so I built a portable roll around tool cabinet. I also did a couple of wood working honey-do jobs for my wife. I used to do a fair amount of wood working 20 years ago, and I also worked construction for a time. Over time I accumulated a large varied assortment of wood screws. After working on these wood projects it became apparent I needed a better way to store them. I pent more time looking for the right screw than anything else. I built some wooden trays, ordered myself some plastic boxes, and now all my screws are in perfect accessible order.

After doing these projects I realized just how much I missed wood working, so I decided to get back into it. I don't have a lot of equipment, nor is it what I would call top of the line, but it works, and I make do the best I can. All I have for a work space is my 24 X 26 garage. A couple of weeks ago my wife came home with a birch butcher block, and said she wanted a table made from it. I am just finishing that up now.

I have a tractor project to work on after this table, but when it's done I am going to devote more time to wood working. Working with tractors, grease and oil just does not seem to mix well with wood.

That's my story in short, and I hope to learn a few things from the knowledgeable members on this forum.
Thank You for having me.

Greg

<Elmer Fudd voice on>

"Be wery, wery cawful.  Wooodworking can be an addictive hobby."

<EF voice off>

[barnowl]

Welcome Greg.

I'm going to move this thread to Home Improvement as it will be seen by more folks.

Were it not for the tractor and lawn mower rebuilding, it could have gone to woodworking, so please feel free to post there as well.

Enjoy the forum.

[iclark]

Hi Greg,

Welcome to Woodnet!

That is a great intro that you did. Thank you.

If you have specific questions or topics for discussion, the various forum areas are well described by their names.

Ivan

[toolmiser]

Welcome, we always need new blood here. Your woodworking equipment doesn't determine your skills (It's taken me many years to learn that). You can upgrade equipment when needed or found used.

How about those Lawn Boys! I grew up mowing many yards with one of the yellow 28" models. My Dad had my Mom pick it out and she chose it because it was lightweight. They were quite because the exhaust exited under the deck. I also remember the brown ones with gold trim that had the spring loaded front wheel.

I had a MF 7 for a few years before I got tired of repairing it every time I needed to mow. Should have kept it, it was built like a tank-full frame.

[alexh1]

Greg, One of the smartest things I did was organize my screws (actually only bolts/nuts/washers since screws stay in the boxes). I used to have a bucket, dump it out on the bench and hunt through for the right bolt/nut and what a waste of time that was. And usually did not find what I wanted so had to head to the home center for $2 worth of bolts. Now I have everything from #4 to 3/8" in bins and I almost go to that once a week. Mostly they are for building jigs, bench legs etc.

Also when you get your nail guns (assuming you don't already have) organize the nails by gauge because even for an occasional user you can't image how many you will accumulate because you always seem to need every length for every gauge!

[Halfathumb]

The major thing I learned is to be careful and keep my fingers away from the blades. 

Jim

[Gregor1]

Good morning. I just finished up a couple of projects I thought I would share, The first is a clock I built from plans in Wood Magazine. I built this clock about 0 years ago, and gave it to my son. It is walnut with oak inlay. It originally has a solid brass key wind, chiming movement in it. My son somehow managed to knock it off the wall, and the octagon frame broke. He attempted to repair it himself. Bad plan. He did get it back together, hung it on the wall, and it fell apart, and went to the floor again. That was 20 years ago. The parts and pieces have been in a box ever since. I decided to put it back together the best I could. As you can see in the pics, the octagon frame is a bit caddy-wompus, and it's not perfect, but it's good enough for my garage anyway. It now has a battery operated movement in  it. The German made brass movement did not survive the falls.

Well, I guess you won't see anything, as I cannot figure out how to post pics.

The second project is a miniature barristers bookcase. Also about 30 years ago, I bought an Aolean Duo-Art Baby Grand Reproducing piano. It was a beautiful piano. It came with a cabinet to hold the paper music rolls. The cabinet was in very sorry shape, but it did have 2 very nice leaded glass doors on it. I saved the doors, and they have been stored away. I decided a barristers bookcase might be a good place for them. I have never built a barristers bookcase before, so I decided to make a miniature, just for practice. It is oak and walnut, about 20" long, 8" high, and 8" deep. If  and when I figure out how to post pics of it I will.

Greg

[fredhargis]

Welcome aboard! I hope to see you in the other forums. The pic thing can be a little confsing. The ones you load into the thread have to be fairly small, under 100K or something. So if you resize them then you can stick them in using the button below that says "add attachment". You can alos link to an outside hosting service, that's explained a few times in the "Questions about using Woodnet features" forum down below. I hope the frustrations don't dissuade you from participating!

[Gregor1]

Thank You for the welcome. Computers and I are barely on speaking terms. As far as resizing a pic, when I got it down to 16k, it was merely a spec on my screen. I don't have outside host, and would not know how to set it up anway. I'll have to have my son check it out.

Greg