About

About Me

Hi, my name is Nathan.  I’m a guy who enjoys making things, whether with wood, fabric, metal, or electrons.

I think my renewed interest in making things has come from an overload in the digital side of my life and a realization of the transience of that work: as a programmer, sometimes it feels like everything I work on can be erased by a blip in the power grid.  So I head for the shop or clear out some space on the floor or dining room table and start making something with my hands.

I’m lucky in that I came from a very DIY family.  We built things and fixed things ourselves, so that always just seemed normal. I was taught how and encouraged to use the power tools, and I learned to sew at around ten years old (and promptly forgot it for the 24 years following).  Now, I’m teaching myself electronics.  After that, hopefully metalworking.

Not knowing how to do something isn’t an excuse to not do it, it’s a reason to learn.  Treat that condition as the beginning of a journey, not as a dead end.

About This Site

I didn’t think the grandparents wanted the family blog filled up with random constructions and hacks when they just came to see baby pics, so I started this site at the end of 2009 to serve as a place to share my projects. Some of the projects might have a “how-to” component, but not all will.