Welcome to "Getting Started"

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jeff

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Welcome to the Getting Started Forum!

This forum is an experiment. It's intended to help new penmakers get up to speed on the equipment, tools, supplies, methods, and processes generally considered necessary to begin enjoying the craft. It's also intended to be a collection point for basic information on many specialized processes. The vision is that eventually you'll see threads like "Getting Started with Segmenting" or "Getting Started with Casting", and of course the list of possible topics is long.

How we'll develop this content hasn't been determined. The goal is to collect the most useful information into an easily digestible format, and catalog it to make it all easy to find. If you have some ideas about a topic you'd like to cover, put your thoughts into a new thread, and let others add their two cents. There are lots of ways to do things, and collecting a variety of opinions helps to broaden the knowledge we can share. Eventually, we'll cull the best of the best into some type of article format.

If you're new to penmaking or a specific method or process and you have questions, ask away! You'll help us generate good information by telling us what questions need to be answered.

To get us started, @penicillin has provided us with his version of "Getting Started with Penturning" - Thanks, David!
 
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jeff

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Anyone who has information they'd like to share, but doesn't want to write and edit a long post can reach out to me or @Wayne and we'll help you get your ideas into a post or an article.
 

jeff

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Should this forum be added to the library menu?

A category "Penturners 101" currently exists there.
No reason why you can't add it. How we integrate this forum and the content it generates into our overall scheme is TBD.
 

jttheclockman

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Feb 22, 2005
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Just an opinion, as where this is a good idea for beginner turners into the pen turning world and the explanation of what maybe needed to get started I do not see a need to include forms of pen turning as starter threads. We have individual forums set up already for talking points on each subject such as casting, segmenting, thread tying and so on. People who get past the initial shock and awe of beginning the path down this rabbit hole will gravitate automatically to whatever new adventure they may choose and open a dialect within that forum. When you get into specifics about each form of blank making there are many methods that can be beginner methods and there are no right or wrong ways of getting there. You would need to break down individual aspects and methods for particular patterns or types of casting and that has been talked about many times over the years. There already is a bunch of articles written by member explaining methods used by them. Even the explanation given here about what is needed to get started can be debated. A lathe, a few chucks, and turning tools is it. David has a pretty thorough explanation and should be pinned somewhere so it can be linked on the front page. The links to vendors was started awhile ago and just never completed and made it to the library. That should be continued. Put a link within the message.

I see many new members come here and want specific questions answered right away. Fine to ask but be ready to open a dialog with the membership about your question and not just get pointed to a forum and the answers are all spelled out. When you do this a few things happen. The knowledge of others will surface, the getting acquainted will surface, the explanation of their own question can be explored in more depth. That is what we want to encourage here. I would think. I know we live in a NOW world these days but this is a hobby so slow down and smell the roses and get the feeling of wanting to be a member here. Participate. This forum depends on new members joining in and carrying on. You see so often here members passing away and we lose their voices here. Be a voice.

What I would like to see is a forum set up to discuss and possibly show photos or videos of how to navigate this entire forum. Simple things just like changing page colors to help with eye site, changing fonts and so on. There are so many quirks and shortcuts built in here that it can be intimidating. This would help newcomers to maybe even help themselves. Maybe set up a poll or a thread asking for suggestions as to what people would like seen explained. Each forum you participate in may have different ways to navigate around. Let people know what subforums are available. I know Wayne has done an excellent job with this library here that is so full of info and I believe it does not get used enough. Let people know it is here and how to use. Just maybe this will encourage new members to be engaging more.

Again just an opinion.
 
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JohnU

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Should this forum be added to the library menu?

A category "Penturners 101" currently exists there.
It's a nice compilation of info and very easily found but the only problem I see is it's mostly of nonmembers work while the IAP members info is in the forum under "members sites" which is not as easy found like the "101" link on the home page. These are our people who help make this site great with their helpful comments and posts. I feel we should highlight our members contributions and allow them to also be found in "penturners 101" since it leads one to believe it's The Introduction to pen making. JMHO
 
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