Hello all - Newbie Alert!

[Woodypk]

Hi All,

I'd just like to introduce myself and say hello.

I thought it would be right to register here after reading a few threads I'd picked up from searches from Google so here I am....

As for a little bit of a background from me - I'm a hobbyist/trying-to-turn-pro woodworker currently waiting for my DCM (don't come Monday) from work.

In the not too distant past, the company I work for announced that It will be closing it's doors on us at some time towards the end of next year and we will all be out of a job (approx 500 employees at the time of the announcement) and so I decided I would try and turn my passion of woodworking into a full time job and leave my Engineering job behind.

They've set aside a training budget for everyone and although I have no idea what I'd like to train on, I do feel like this is a decent opportunity to finally be my own boss - something I've known I've wanted to do for a LOOOOONG time.

This gives me another year (and a bit) while I'm still employed to try and make it on my own, get some training in whatever I feel will be value added to my woodworking career (if I can ever decide what training I'd like to do...) and realise my goal of becoming me own boss.

The business I'm wanting to break into is designing and creating furniture and textiles primarily aimed at the toddler/children's market. It's a joint venture with the (to be) wife where she does the soft furnishings and I take care of the woodworking.

I've already starting designing and creating some stuff - the materials I use are almost exclusively hardwoods - Oak and Ash being the primary two materials but I do use others along with smaller amounts of Birch Plywood.

I've got the feeling that when we can finally afford a CNC, it will open new doors for us and help us grow as a business and allow our ideas to become more creative.

I'm not totally sold on the idea of buying an off she shelf machine such as one from the likes of the Ooznest, Shapoko or one of the Inventables X-Carve machines that the Youtube woodworkers of the US seem to rave about. And on the other hand, I'm not sure spending the time to learn how to build one myself would be the best use of my time and/or money. All of this is subject to change though, should you (hopefully) friendly bunch end up steering me one way or the other.

Anyway, this post has probably gone on for long enough. I'll end the rambling here... Thanks for reading if you got this far.

All the best,
Tom