wrote:

Another milestone for me was my first decent set of hand-cut dovetails.
It took 6 tries, and they still don't look 'good' but at least I
didn't burn these. Oddly enough, to date I have not used a dovetail
joint in a project I've built.

Me neither. Dave in Fairfax tells me I should do about 100 test runs before
I try it for real, and I think he's right. I guess I'm just afraid I'd get
two of them perfect, or three of them perfect, and bungle the last one
horribly.

Some other milestones for me include first (good) M&T joint, first

First large project. I made it out of cheap 1x2s that I cut with a cheap
plastic miter box, and cheap plywood that I cut out with a cheap B&D
jigsaw, finished with cheap Minwhacks stain, and I think Red Devil poly. I
measured the space, drew it out on paper, figured and calculated and cut,
and made it, and damn if it didn't fit.

This:

http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5...lant-stand.jpg

(It doesn't quite fit here. It fits the original window it used to sit in
front of perfectly. The kind of neat thing about looking at this picture
now, a year or two later, is that all of those plants are still alive. I
finally found a collection of indestructible houseplants. I have killed
teeming masses of the poor unsuspecting *******s, but these hardy critters
can stand up to the worst kind of inept treatment ol' Silvan can dish out.)

First real lumber that wasn't from a BORG or recycled from something someone
threw away. Hand in hand with this, first walnut, first time I ever used
hand planes to make something out of semi-rough stock.

First halfway respectable table saw.

First shellac.

First time I did an entire project without using any sandpaper. (Planes and
scrapers.)

--
Michael McIntyre ---- Silvan
Linux fanatic, and certified Geek; registered Linux user #243621
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Rue/5407/
http://rosegarden.sourceforge.net/tutorial/