On Monday, May 15, 2017 at 7:37:35 PM UTC-5, wrote:

Any guesses as to why San Antonio does not seem to be as populated by woodworkers as other parts of the US? I might admit to being in the collector category. Of course none of my collection is valuable for collecting purposes. I just happened to collect them over the years. Pretty sure I do not have $25,000 worth of tools. But if I added up the retail prices I paid for all my tools (including the mechanic tools) I might have a heart attack or two or three.

For hobbyists, I have no idea. As a military city, there are literally 10s of thousands of retirees here that have the money to dabble in home shops, half the garage, or a Tuff Shed. Some retire quite early in life with plenty of money and plenty of time to develop a hobby like woodworking. I have noticed that a lot of the retirees that do woodworking for a hobby look for a small task that is easily completed, and then wait to see what catches their fancy. They spend little time in study of techniques, applications, material and its use, or practicing to learn hand skills needed to be a decent woodworker.

For the really serious hobbyist, a real DIY sort of guy, I think they are put off by our weather. I was born and raised here and I am used to nasty hot summers, high humidity, strange weather (a couple of years ago it was in the mid 90s in February)and being miserable working outside. Sure, I do it for a living, but it is different from what I learned here many years ago..

We have no basements, hence, no basement workshops. You either build a separate building, or take a space or two from your garage (attn: LB!). Most garages are full of crap already, so not much room to have a great shop. If you build a separate building, we have no state income tax here, but are nailed with property taxes. If you do build a stand alone shop and add water, electricity, and a bit of insulation, it is considered habitable by the county,and is taxed at a certain rate. If it is attached in any way, even a just a door, it is considered a room addition and is taxed as real property.

So this brings us back to the weather. We usually have around 4 months a year when it is considered "Chamber of Commerce" weather. Nice days, beautiful nights, and plenty of mild sunshine. The rest of the months, not so much. And we are prone to long heat spells as well as long rainy spells. So where does a serious hobby guy work? Do you drag all your stuff out on the driveway when the weather is pleasant and work, knowing you will have a lot of time needed just to clean up and move the tools back in when you are finished? Where do you store your project?

And there is nothing like sweating so much on your project when it is past 100F that you leave sweat droplets on your project that stain the wood. Sweat and sawdust is in your eyes, you are miserable because your regular life is that of an office worker of some degree, and you feel punished. Truly, I am used to being that miserable with over 40 years of these conditions, but I don't like them. So a home guy with some real skills that can't tolerate the nasty weather changes is sunk before he starts. No one likes to be miserable at their hobby. I don't believe most think it is worth the time and effort to learn "next level" woodworking if they are only going to do it a few months a year.

Then there is finishing the projects. I dont' mind finishing and in some cases enjoy it depending on what I am doing. I don't know one single woodworker, full time or not, hobbyist or sincere DIY guy that likes finishing. Quite the contrary, they hate it.

So try to build your skills finishing when you want to apply lacquer and it is 100 degrees with 80% humidity. What do you do? Try applying poly when the target material is so hot (and the poly is so viscous) that it literally slides of a vertical surface. And a good whiff of thinner on a really hot day can kill your enthusiasm for a project very easily. On those days when I am spraying, I literally pour (no kidding) the sweat out of my mask.

There used to be a lot of guys on the rec that were several hundred miles north of here with great shops. Basement or otherwise, they described heated shops for the winter, a coffee pot, radio, and one guy had (liquid only) toilet in his little workshop. I could only imagine what it would be like to have a cold, crisp day and walk out to a shop with a mug of coffee in my hand and build a small fire in the furnace and piddle around with some project.

There was however, a large scroll saw, and carving community here. They may still be around. They didn't use power tools, but mallets and chisels, and there were plenty of chip carvers, too. I think that as with much of the woodworking community the scroll sawyers have pretty much gone away. I know there was a pretty good wood turning community as I was part of it. Based mostly on smaller lathes, they didn't swamp the garage, and like me many turned on their driveway during the nice weather.

All our furniture makers fail. There is one large old company that makes furniture, but one of his sons told me they make more money processing wood than they do with furniture sometimes. They have massive planers, sanders and table saws that will cut any dimension a wood worker could make.

One guy came really close to getting over the hump of making a go of his dream of being a full time custom furniture maker, and he found the key was giving lessons. This worked great until the really hot weather rolled around (he taught in his rented warehouse) and people cancelled out of their lessons.

The last comment would be that we Texans are an outdoor group. It never froze here last year, and it may not have the year before. So we can hunt, fresh water fish (all over since our lakes are stocked by the State), hike, salt water fish in the gulf, go to the beach. Texas has something like 3500 miles of beach! We have a beautiful island with white sands and blue water (Padre) where the weather is always nice and the margarita are served on the beach.

In San Antonio, we have Fiesta, which is an event that is second only to Rio De Janeiro's party and lasts for a full week. Rodeo here lasts a couple of weeks. All the communities around here have food festivals that celebrate their heritage that usually last at least three days. IN San Antonio proper, we have a large Six Flags, another park as large called Fiesta Texas, and the largest waterpark in the USA is located about 15 minutes outside San Antonio.

Austin and its music scene and festivals are just an hour and fifteen from here.

Since I do woodworking for a living, it isn't a treat for me anymore. So what happens when I join the San Antonio group? I can get up and drive to a beautiful park north of here and hike about 15 miles and play in the natural springs. Walk back to the car, go into the nearest town and have a great chicken fried steak or BBQ, then when finished go sit in a beer joint by the river and drink craft beer while plotting my next move.

Good weather and plenty of activities will make a guy restless. And then, while I was describing San Antonio and its surrounding communities there are even more opportunities for fun and mischief if one is willing to drive for just an hour.

I honestly think there is just too much to do. They younger guys are certainly not interested, but really neither are most older folks. Our metropolitan area is purported to include something like 3 million people at this point. The last time I checked in at the fine wood worker's club meeting? 8 people. When I was in the wood turning club it was the same way. When everyone was turning, we had meetings with as many as 25 folks, but soon after that, it shrank down to about 10 or so guys that went mostly for the camaraderie as only half the attendees brought anything they turned.

Robert