With the recent rash of bios, including some from long standing members, I
figure it's time I add mine to the pile.  I've been on the list since a
few months after it came into being.  I sent a bio back in '96 or '97, but
Russ must have been asleep at the wheel because it never made it to his
page with the others.  *WAKE UP RUSS*   Since @Home went belly up my 
web page has moved, giving me another reason to post a bio (the new address
is in my signature).

Like many here, my daytime occupation is technical.  I'm a mechanical
engineer doing research and development for one of the big automotive
electronics suppliers.   I got into woodworking in the early 1990's
when I bought a burned out motorhome from an insurance company.  The
interior was gutted, which meant replacing the walls, ceiling, floor,
and building all new cabinets.  I found the list by posting a question
to rec.woodworking about a rusty old plane I'd inherited from my
Grandfather and having Paddy O'Deen (Patrick Olguin, Jeff) invite me
to join.  At that point I'd never used a plane and my chisels were of
the yellow-handled-paint-can-opener variety.

Since then I've learned to sharpen and tune hand tools and find an
increasing reliance on them.  I mentioned to Ralph Brendler last week
that I'd just finished an entertainment center with inset doors and I
can't imagine how you'd get a consistent gap on this style door without
a hand plane.

I enjoy making tools as much as using them, and have to force myself
to make at least one piece of furniture between tools.  Being left
handed gives me a lot of incentive to learn to make my own planes because
pushing with my right hand has never felt right to me.  Why suffer through
using a #78 when a hunk of beech and some tool steel can be turned into
a left handed moving fillister?  I'm not sure I'd have ever gotten very
good at using planes if it hadn't been for making my own.  In both the
design and execution phases of planemaking you are forced to think about
the subtle things that make them work, and this naturally carries over
to tuning and using them.  I'm lucky to live about an hour from Tod
Herrli, so I've been able to learn a great deal from him.  Other list
members such as Larry Williams and Don McConnell have helped a great
deal with my planemaking questions.

I've been fortunate over the years to meet quite a few list members.
I've seen Esther demonstrating her pole lathe, Don McConnell cutting half
blind dovetails and four-squaring a board, Ralph Brendler sticking a
molding with hollows and rounds, Larry Williams and Bill Clark making
planes at an MWTCA meet, and the list goes on.  This list is the best
woodworking related place on the internet.  Folks come and go, but the
tone has always been cordial and the content informative. 

-- 
Scott Post      sepost@insightbb.com     http://home.insightbb.com/~sepost/