Hello,

I am a 36 year old electrical engineer living in Portland, Oregon, and 
earn my living writing embedded software for Tektronix. I have been 
working with metal and wood off and on since I was a kid "helping" my
father out in the shop. I started taking a serious interest in woodworking
about 6 years ago, shortly after I moved into a house and had a garage to
work in. The built-in existing workbench had serious problems (the top
was made of 1/2" T-111 siding, flexed badly, and was at chest height) and I
was just getting around to replacing it when I stumbled across Landis'
_Workbench Book_. The project quickly grew from a simple 2x4 and plywood
structure into a full blown cabinet makers bench, vaguely similar to the
Shaker bench on the book cover. The bench is 8 feet long and built of
Douglas fir from the lumber yard. Construction was mostly Neanderthal,
mostly because the components were too large for my few power tools. The
top is built up from a pair of 4x12s, with additional 4x4 and 2x4s at the
front where the dog holes are. The base was constructed of 4x4s, with some
2x4 rails for shelf supports, using timber framing techniques (housed 
mortises, etc). Despite the fact that the joints were very loose (I was 
learning as I went), the assembled structure was amazingly rigid, even before 
adding glue and pegs. By the time I got around to the top, one of the 4x12s
had bowed in both directions, so I got to plane the 1/2" bow off each edge, 
and then plane the 1/2" bow off the top face, all with a modern, untuned 
Stanley jack plane. Not trusting the glue joints, I reinforced to top with 3/4"
bolts running from front to back. (Next time I will use 1/2" all-thread;
cutting threads on 3/4" rod is a real pain, since it takes a pipe wrench 
a with cheater bar to turn the rod in the die.) Despite the use of
softwood and less than skilled joinery, the bench is heavy, rigid, and does
not move even under heavy pounding. 

I have completed a few projects since then, mostly minor. These include
a small (1 cord size) timber-framed wood shed, a pine chest (hand-planed
glue joints, power-routed rabbets (need to sharpen/tune my 78)), replacement
side rails for a ca. 1910 fumed oak bed (matched the finish using period 
techniques; that rich red/brown color apparently comes from fuming followed
by orange shellac), and dovetailed drawers for the workbench. 

Although I use a mix of both power and hand tools, I am moving more towards 
the hand tool end of the spectrum. My next project will be a fumed oak end 
table, constructed using only hand tools. But first I need to tune up a 
couple more planes (including a #4 smoother that I don't own yet), 
sharpen the required saws (after learning to sharpen, and cleaning the rust
and crud off the tenon saw), and... Spare time? What spare time.

I have been lurking on this list for some time, learning much and generally
keeping quiet in deference to those who know more than I do. I am on the
waiting list for an IT saw, and look forward to using a really well-tuned
saw.

Norm Witt