[MetallicCloud]

Woodworking - It started when someone on my work slack posted an image of an arcade machine they had made. I thought "I want one of those". So I borrowed a circular saw and made one. Then I was hooked. Now I'm doing lots of home improvements, such as building a coffee bar and converting an unused area into a pantry. I'm currently building some shop furniture, then I'll be converting an unused cupboard near our entry way into a mud room.

The two downsides are: * It's easy to want to buy all the shiniest tools, which are expensive * I don't want to buy furniture anymore, I want to make it. But there just aren't enough hours in the day.

[shaftway]

> I don't want to buy furniture anymore, I want to make it.

Why would you spend $400 on a piece of furniture when you could make it yourself for $800?

I too have been bitten by this bug.

[shaftway]

Actually, if you want to get out of this cycle, turning is a good subset of the hobby. A good small turning setup will cost around $1500 brand new (for the lathe, carbide tools, vices, drill bits, etc.). After that the wood tends to be cheap because you can use other people's offcuts or waste material.

Pens in particular are easy to learn, make gifts that people ooh and aah over, and don't take a ton of time. Materials for a pen range from $10 (for a cheap kit) to $35 (for a top of the line kit plus a fancy blank). Once you've made a few you should be spending an hour to an hour and a half per pen. If something goes wrong mid-project you lose the wood and the tubes, and replacement tubes are cheap, so you don't have to re-buy the whole kit.

Once you master that there are a variety of projects that will ramp up the skill step by step. And there are tons of classes around that'll help you gain those skills.

[aidos]

For me too. Though it’s more DIY in general (plumbing, electrics, decorating etc too).

Built myself a shed from scratch earlier in the summer as a warm up for building a garden office.

Currently have the roof off the porch (somewhat regrettably given the state the summer in the uk) because the ivy got to it before we purchased the house and it was rotting away. Having to learn a new set of skills around tiling hip rafters. Thank the Lord for YouTube!

It’s amazing the number of tools you end up needing as you go along. Though a circular saw and an impact driver will take you a long way.

[lostlogin]

A bit that makes it attractive to me, if I pay someone and the job is done in a way I don’t like, I end up fixing it anyway and am out of pocket.

Do it myself and any issues are easier to live with as they are my fault.

[aidos]

Totally. I’ve reworked a lot of the plumbing and electrics I paid pros for because I wasn’t happy with the results.

I make a lot of mistakes, but as you say, you can make your peace with them.

[etrautmann]

yeah this is the same for me. I've slowly built most of our furniture and it's really hard to pay moneydollars for the crappy stuff (even high end) sold anywhere. I can't stand veneered products from Herman Miller for $2k that would be fun to build, but I don't have enough time to build them.