Welcome to 'wortheffort', my little woodworking experiment on the web. I firmly believe that helping people learn a skill, such as fine woodworking, will make life better for them, their acquaintances and the community in general. The thought has also crossed my mind that being able to earn a modest living doing so seems like a nice way to spend a life.

My career had been convincing High School miscreants that technology is actually based on very simple, easily understood principles and that understanding the basic concepts behind ideas can give a person real power. That classroom time showed me that being an expert isn't necessary to communicate foundation lessons. You don't have to know the process for determining the subatomic personality of quarks and it's interdependence with electrons to explain how computers have gotten faster and more reliable. That level of knowledge isn’t necessary when making a fool of myself spinning in a chair like an 8 year old explains the concept in more memorable manner.

The same is true with woodworking. Learning to cut a competent dovetail is not rocket science and there are numerous ways to accomplish any given task. So, I do my best to explain steps, procedures and concepts as simply and efficiently as possible.

While a High School technology teacher I also had a dream. Gut a school bus, install some benches and tools and spend school breaks traveling and teaching. Then came the teacher layoffs in Texas. After two unsuccessful hiring seasons (where my side hustle was working art market pop-up shops) I decided to cash in my retirement, withdraw savings and sell all possessions to fund a little brick and mortar woodworking school of my own. Thus “wortheffort woodworking” was born in San Marcos, TX. But without enough start up capital and no loan prospects after a few years that school was relegated to a storage unit. Some time later I gave it another go in Austin, TX and managed to stay afloat for about a year.

Throughout this time I used content creation for the woodworking audience as a tease for the brick and mortar school. Once the IRL school closed for good that content creation became my tool to scratch that teaching itch.

So today “wortheffort woodworking” is a tiny one man content producing machine with a focus on the craft of woodworking. Along the way I’ll use that work as a mechanism to teach traditional academic information, critical thinking and skill development. That is going to be the biggest difference you see with this site and others in the woodworking realm. Wortheffort is much more than a demonstration channel.

So follow along and see what we do via the moving pictures (YouTube), stills (Instagram) and type (blog and magazine work). I hope you’ll gain a little you can share with others as here it is “always ‘worth the effort’ to learn, create and share with others.”

contact Via Email

Mailing List:

The list for our newsletter is only for wortheffort’s use and will include unique content, announcements, news, and recommendations. I say this is monthly but… it’s kinda random.

social media

Facebook - Not using anymore for business.

YouTube - We produce three styles of videos: educational (classroom and standalone series), Art Market Projects and tips (WW'nTips-n-Tricks) along with an occasional live stream.

Twitter - I don’t use Twitter for content, I’m too long winded for that. It’s mainly for interaction with other woodworkers, content creators and such. It’s a good place to get a taste of what I find interesting.

Instagram - In the past I haven’t taken Instagram that seriously but for 2019 I’ll try to migrate much of my quick tip content onto the platform.