Ron Stewart

I'm a retired software engineer, and woodworking is one of my main hobbies (along with photography, audio/music, and writing).

I've liked working with wood since I was in junior high school, but I didn't get serious about it until the early 2000s. I've been an audiophile forever, and around that time I got the urge to build my own speakers (even though I already owned good ones). That led me to get a router and circle jig (for the driver and port cutouts) and introduced me to veneering.

Most of my early projects were centered around audio (and video): A/V furniture (back then, building a "flexy rack" seemed like a rite of passage), speaker stands, a record storage unit, a turntable plinth, etc.

Over time, I started build furniture and other things to use around the house. Most of my projects are things we need and can't find or can find and think are too expensive. Almost every project is a one-off and learning experience. My projects tend toward the modern, minimal, and geometric.

It's funny... when I was working, woodworking was a refuge, a space where I was in control of what to work on, when and how to go about it, and what level of quality to target. Since I retired, woodworking has given me a way to maintain some of the skills I used at work--solving problems, designing solutions, documenting objects and processes, and offering suggestions to help others do the same.

In particular, writing was instrumental to my success at work. I think I spent more time writing documents than I did code. It's sort of in my DNA. (One of the greatest compliments I got when I retired was from one of the younger developers I had trained. He stopped me in the hallway, thanked me for my help, and told me he thought I'd make a great teacher.)

I think that's why I present my projects like I do. As I work on them, I have a secondary goal of explaining to some mythical person (a motivated beginner in my mind) how to build it too (and, just as importantly, why I made various decisions), so I take photos that illustrate the steps. Then, when the project is finished, I use those photos to guide my written descriptions.

I'm thankful for Craftisian (and the old LumberJocks) for giving me a platform to present my work to like-minded members, and to combine my interests in woodworking, photography, and writing. It's a pleasure to be here.