Question Of The Week... ( 2016 Week 26 )

[ripjack13]

For those of you that have children, or grandchildren (or plan to have children), do you get them involved regularly with your woodworking projects?
And do you want them to continue with a woodworking career?










**Rules**
There is no minimum post requirement.
, woodticks and spinartists are welcome to post an answer.
And of course the and people from Minnesota too...

 

[Schroedc]

Yes, I do get my kids involved (10, 15, and 16) All of them have used the lathe. many hand tools, and completed projects on their own with a little guidance.

Keep it up as a career?

 

[Tony]

Mine (21) has never really shown an interest in spending time in the Shop. He built various things with me growing up, but never wanted to do anything more than help me I think. I still have hopes that he'll pick up the hobby, but not sure that will happen. Tony

 

[Karl_99]

My youngest, now 18, has been interested in pen making for a few years. He has learned basic shop safety and can safely use the band saw, drill press and lathe. He will stop in turn a pen or 2 and then may disappear for a month or 2. I don't push it and this way he returns to the shop because he is interested. He has learned skills that will last a life time.

 

[Kevin]

My son is interested but lives too far away. Two of my SIL's are interested but can hardly ever get out this way. My grands are still too young but not for long.

 

[Tclem]

Paxton builds houses out of pen blanks so I guess he has already started woodworking

 

[Nature Man]

One of my three sons would like to do woodworking, and he actually installs large wooden playsets throughout Northern California. He has no equipment beyond a Skillsaw; however, and no extra time/money in his life. His son and I turned a bowl a couple years ago on the lathe. They live 3 hours away, so we don't get together very often. Chuck

 

[Ray D]

My son, now 28, would turn small lathe projects when he was twelve or thirteen. He and his new wife borrowed my Jet mini lathe a while ago to make some Fathere day gifts. It was nice to see he still had some lathe skills.
Ray

 

[woodtickgreg]

My son never had an interest in doing anything with his hands, I tried to show him some things but he just had no interest. He would rather just say dad can you do this? Or now he has to pay people to do things because he doesn"t know how. The big difference between him and me is I am self taught, he had the opportunity to have a mentor teach him things but he had no interest. I even bought him his own tool box and tools for mechanical things. He tinkered with bmx bicycles for awhile but grew out of that. He is nothing like me.

 

[Sprung]

The oldest (3 1/2 years old) loves being in the shop with me. He's been spending time in the shop with me for some time now. Obviously he's not running power tools yet, but he's been a very good learner about staying safe, not touching things that are sharp or could hurt him, sitting or standing in a designated place when I'm using certain tools. (For example, I don't want him anywhere near the bandsaw when I'm using it, especially with an exposed belt and pulleys and the fact that he likes to brush the sawdust off the stand - don't want him trying to do that while it's running. He also prefers to step inside the house and wait, with the door closed, when I run the loud tools.) He likes stacking wood and being a big helper. If I'm doing something with nails or screws he really likes to hand them to me. Whenever I can actually get my garage shop finally up and running in a usable state I'm planning to cut pieces for some small projects that we can build together. He loves playing with my screwdrivers in the shop - and I've had to go behind him and put a couple things back together that had loose screws that he removed. Yesterday I was sitting at my bench in the lathe area in the basement working on something. He was sitting on the bench right by me, playing with a couple screw drivers and some pen blanks, and we had a good time - he was asking me a lot of questions about what I was doing any about anything in the area that caught his eye; eventually he went to the box of scraps, dumped them out, and started stacking them. Surprisingly this time he actually picked them all up afterwards without even being asked. I can see him taking a definite interest in this as a hobby and as an opportunity to teach him a lot of useful skills that are not being passed on to many today.

The 3 1/2 month old is a little young yet, but he'll be in the shop with me too before I know it and I hope he'll show the same kind of interest in it as his brother has.

I grew up in the shop with dad. I always enjoyed it and I know he enjoyed having me out there. I learned a lot from him out there - both from the aspect of building/fixing things and from conversations about life in general. I really hope to have the same experiences with my boys.

 

[kweinert]

No, not really. Neither of the girls really showed an interest - but I didn't really do much woodworking when they were young and at home.

I remarried late and one stepson has shown a real interest in duck calls and other small turnings. He helps out a lot at sales, does some turning when he has time. We bought him a small lathe and he's getting the old bandsaw after the move. Both of Sandi's sons have outdoor jobs and have brought back interesting looking wood for me (like radially stained BKP and FBE.)

So, not a lot of interest, but there's some.

 

[David Hill]

Like @woodtickgreg , my son likes to do some things but only if it involves a computer or iphone. Hoping that he'll eventually realize how "empty" those things are before I can't show him what he's missing out on.
My daughters would learn in a heartbeat if distance and work were nonissues. One SIL does have my old HF lathe--so maybe a start there.
No career opportunites here-- at least until I retire from Medicine.