I recently finished up one of my most challenging projects to-date - A solid wood, round end table. It involved steam bending solid ¾" oak for the sides, a lattice pattern on the top and traditional joinery methods throughout. I couldn't help but reflect on when and how my woodworking journey began.

Let's rewind back to July, 2017. I was laying on the couch watching one of my small dogs climb the doggy stairs onto the couch. He could jump on the couch just fine, but he preferred the stairs. I was tired of looking at this flimsy, fabric wrapped staircase. I tried to find better stairs, but couldn't find any that weren't super expensive. A thought came to my mind, "Why don't I just make my own doggy stairs out of wood?" This one thought started it all. I didn't have any woodworking experience and very little experience using power tools. 

The only power tools I had at the time was a Hitachi 10-inch Miter Saw and a Makita Drill . I went to a home improvement store, grabbed some cedar boards and some screws. Within the first 10 minutes of building the stairs, I stumbled upon my first woodworking mistake. My initial thought was to make a line on the board every 15" for each step - a line at 15", a line at 30", etc. I decided I could just measure all at once, then make all the cuts. Once I cut the four steps out, I discovered the steps were not all the same length! How could this be? I measured exactly what I wanted and checked it twice. Then it hit me, my measurements did not account for the thickness of the miter saw blade. The blade is ⅛" thick. Each cut removed ⅛" of material, so my next step was only 14 ⅞" long and the next step even shorter. A silly mistake, but a useful one. I need to measure, make a cut, measure again, make another cut. I made the length of each step 14" to fix the error, finished the stairs and felt a sense of accomplishment. I made what I set out to make, and it worked.

My First Lesson

"Woodworking is one third planning, one third execution, and one third figuring out how to change your plan to cover up that mistake that you just made during the execution." - Unknown

Soon after, I had the urge to make my own coffee table. The one I had was littered with scratches and bubbled areas. It was a cheap particle board table. Using only my miter saw and drill, I built a coffee table. I posted it on Facebook, and had someone willing to pay me to make another one just like it. I made a little money and posted that project on Facebook which resulted in more projects, and the cycle continued.

I realized I inadvertently created a woodworking business. I thought I might as well make it official. This is when MuseBuilt, LLC was formed. I reinvested the money I earned to start the LLC and to purchase a Dewalt 10" Table Saw with a 32.5" Rip Capacity . Because I was inexperienced and needed to gain credibility, I didn't charge that much. This brought reviews and more exposure. I'm still able to keep my prices reasonable, because I don't have the overhead that most woodworking companies do, and it's not my full-time job. 

What started out as just making a couple things for myself, snowballed into a side business and I haven't stopped since. I've been learning as I go, learning from mistakes and perfecting new techniques. If you're interested in woodworking, just start. The rest will work itself out.