*** This is an update to my Bio as the first bio never made it in to the
archives. ***
As requested I am supplying a bio with my subscription to this server.
My name is Jeff Peterson. I live in Northern California in the
Sacramento area (Folsom to be specific). I am a newcomer to
woodworking for fun, although I have done light construction and
repair work with my father occasionally. Consequently, I have a few
handheld power tools (jigsaw, circ saw, router, etc.), enough hand
tools to do most basic things, tablesaw, drill press and a good
start on a set of planes.
This last is mostly due to my brother, Sam, who also subscribes to
this server; I have tried to find reasonable prices on used planes in
No CA, but it is difficult as even well-used planes are high-priced.
Instead, my brother has been able to find some good planes
for good prices in the midwest where he lives - and he sharpens them
for me before he sends them ! :-)
By day I have 2 jobs: I work part-time at Intel Corp in Folsom, CA as
an engineer in the Memory Components Division core reliability group,
and most of the time I work at University of CA - Davis doing research
in semiconductors and working on my doctorate in Electrical
Engineering (ETA 1998). I am also involved in our church, so
this only leaves me a little time left over for woodworking. Most
of the time I keep work and fun separate, but I did catch myself
wondering yesterday if I could cut a cove in a Silicon wafer by running it
at an angle through the wafer saw ... :-> Unfortunately, it runs at
35K RPM, and I might end up breaking something (most likely me).
My shop is in one side of my garage and I have wood storage in another
corner. My present project is to build my workbench to replace my
Workmate (still in one piece). The top is 3" tongue-in-grove hard maple taken
from a bowling alley floor my Dad and brother tore up. The base
will be pine or fir. I have been going through a copy of "The
Woorkbench Book", and I would recommend it highly for anyone building
a workbench or just interested. I will be using European style tool
vises and building a board jack to fit the bench.
It was a real challenge to get the above-mentioned workbench surface
home as I live in CA and the wood was in MO. We finally ended up
sliding it flat under the seats of our van on a trip to MO and carting
it home that way. We have transported assorted Galoot stuff using
the airlines as well: my wife couriered home 70Lbs of walnut for me,
and (you may want to cover your eyes here) a 5" jointer; I removed the
motor (huge old thing) from the jointer and carried that myself so we could
sneak by under the weight limit. At the beginning of this year my brother and
I bought a bit of rough-sawn walnut and oak from an Amish sawmill; I
figure I have another year while it dries to figure out how to get
some of it home....
I have a homepage at: http://www.ece.ucdavis.edu/~peterson/
which has a few topics on woodworking; you are welcome to browse
and give inputs if desired.
Well enough about me - lunch is over anyway. Regards, Jeff
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