Preparations for our upcoming house work is in full swing and has left me very little time to work in the wood shop so instead I offer this photo of what I consider my first woodworking project.  I built stuff before this but that was all school projects or things that had full adult supervision.  I built this typing table when I was 14.  It was built from shop scraps and finished with stain and varnish.  I have always been surprised how well the finish has held up over the 40 years since I built it.

Why did I build it? Well that’s a long story I’ll tell one day but the short version is that I had taken a typing class in the 8th grade and my father bought me a used manual typewriter.   The height of my desk wasn’t right for typing so I measured a typing table at school I liked, went home and dug out some wood and a skill saw.  A few cuts, some glue, nails and can of varnish and I had a table that I used for about twenty years as a typing table.  These days it does duty as a hallway table.  It’s not exactly fine furniture but it’s mine and I built it.

My typing table

My typing table in the storage unit with all the boxes I moved behind it.

If you need me – I’ll be in the shop.