Woodworking, math, and philosophy

A journal of a retired engineer

This is a new blog where I write out my thoughts on woodworking projects. I have another long dormant blog about building bicycle wheels entitled savetheneurons.blogspot.com. It still gets a few hits per day primarily on a piece analyzing the accuracy of spoke tension meters. There is a lot of deep math there on structural mechanics of the wheel and spokes and control theory as it applies to wheel truing. I started a new blog here on substack to separate that level of math and from woodworking that uses a bit of math but nothing quite so deep.

So who am I and what sort of woodworking do I do. Well., I am a retired nuclear engineer. On a good day in that career, I was deriving models of various nuclear plant components for a specific need, coding it, running the calculations, and reporting it. It was not the sort of thing that sets hearts racing at the career fair but it suited me.

Nowadays, I spend my days as a grandfather, live-in electrician, plumber, and cabinetmaker for my wife of nearly fifty years, and a curious person exploring how things work or can be made to work better.

As a woodworker, I am interested in all types of woodworking, the tools, methods, and history of anything woodworking. I have a small collection of woodworking books that are my main source of information. As a builder, the scope is narrower than my interests. I build practical things, mostly built-in cabinets, some furniture pieces and occasionally a gift or toy or project for a friend or child.

I also collect tools. I used to buy a tool I needed for a specific job and then kept it. Now, I buy what is interesting whether I need it or not. I keep Lie-Nielsen and Veritas in business I think.

In my retirement, I now have a nice shop. My earlier workshops were small, dusty affairs where half the work to do a task was to move things around to make room. I now have a spacious shop in a standalone building set in the woods. I have a nice set of stationary power tools, powered hand tools, and non-powered hand tools. I do not lack the right tool for most any woodworking task.

I work in the shop on days when my wife and I are not traveling. I walk to the shop about 10-11 am, work until 2 pm, walk back to the house for lunch, rest and catch up on the news until 3:30, then walk back to the shop and work until 6. I do not work hard or fast. I think a lot and figure stuff out. The described work schedule is on a temporary hold because my body cannot keep up. My right knee is inflamed and painful. That knee is my limiter. The knee problem stems from a serious broken leg years ago, another bad sprain more recently, and a lifetime of running and bicycling. One of the reasons for this blog is to have an excuse to sit and write instead of standing all day. If the knee recovers, the blog may lapse.

The current project is a staircase for the shop. It is subject of the next few posts.

If you happen upon this blog, do comment. I write it as a journal of my woodworking for myself of course but with a faint hope that I will connect with like-minded people. You may criticize, correct, or troll as you wish but don’t expect a reply. I will respond to all comments that I welcome. If you don’t get a response, take note.