Hi, my name is Andy Henry and well, I’ve been wood turning on and off for over 30 years, I started out probably like a lot of people back then, with a single speed Black / Decker woodturning drill attachment, boy, those were the days, grab a piece of softwood, stick it on the Drill attachment and take chunks out of it (literally) with whatever tool you could find, (sharpened screwdriver, planer blade, carving chisel)  things sure have changed.

I am ‘upper middle age’ and I’m a pure amateur wood turner, I’ve never actually sold anything I have made for a profit, I have sold the odd one or two at ‘cost to make’ price but I mainly give them away,  I wood turn simply for pleasure, and basically I’m not expert enough to try and make a living at it, I am a Gas man by trade, and that is still how I earn my daily bread,  It is not a bad job as long as one can handle the sometimes bad hours, and customer abuse, it does sadden me that so many workers, be it my industry, Police, Fire Brigade, Ambulance or simply the local council, are subject to abuse and violence simply for trying to do their job.

 Anyway, What started me drawing a few years ago instead of woodturning, was Illness and Injury, and unfortunately for me, these limit my wood turning abilities today, but life goes on, fortunately they don’t stop me drawing :-)

I really enjoy drawing, and have enjoyed the Tech side of drawing ever since my school days, the only three things I was any good at in school were, Woodwork, Maths, and Tech Drawing, on the woodwork side,  I still bare the scars of school woodwork, the teacher was using a ‘stanley knife’ (a very sharp knife made by ‘Stanley tools’), and got me to hold the wood, he slipped and put a 1 inch long cut down my thumb. Health and safety and risk assessment in schools had not been invented back then., I suspect if that happened to someone nowadays the teacher would be disciplined and sued, but back then it was simply a case that accidents happen. (unless you're my employer in which case if I have an accident, it's my fault)

Since I first took up drawing I have  become hooked, and whilst TurboCAD (the program I use), isn’t a dedicated woodturning program, and may not be the easiest to learn,  it does give me the freedom to experiment with designs for turning, as well as other (for want of a better word) ‘normal’ Cad work, If you view some of my TurboCAD  gallery, you’ll see a variety of drawings, both fun and serious. I guess that is why I like the program, it’s so versatile, sure, there are easier programs for woodturning design, but TurboCAD gives me the best of both worlds.

As to my heritage, I’m a Lanky lad (Lancashire, UK), visit a Lanky web site  for a bit about our dialect, and also try the trouble_at_mill site, an illustration of our broad language is - I was on holiday (camping in Iceland) once and there were English, American and French speaking people on the tour, one night in a cafe, everyone was talking and a lovely french girl had to admit she couldn’t understand me because of my accent, don’t get me wrong I wasn’t offended in the slightest, I actually found it amusing, I guess that’s the thing with the UK, we are a tiny island, but have a wide variety of accents all speaking the same language.

Anyway that’s enough about me, Hope I did not bore you too much .......enjoy

Andy