Woodworking
Somewhere around 2008, I got tired of either (i) paying lots of money for decent bookcases or (ii) paying not very much money for crappy bookcases. I figured it must be possible to build the things for a lot less. I had a few basic powertools, so got a book or two and started to learn. My first effort wasn't very impressive, but it worked, and I've still got it in my study today.
Over time, I became more proficient, and a bit bolder. The big challenge, with bookcases, was always cutting decent dados for the shelves (i.e., slots in the side pieces into which the shelves fit). Early efforts involved using a router with pieces of 1x2 to guide it. Later, I got an old Craftsman radial arm saw and a dado stack. That worked much better, but the saw itself wasn't precise enough, and radial saws are inherently dangerous, really. A couple years ago, therefore, I built a so-called dado sled for my table saw. That works like magic. So I've built quite a few bookcases over the last couple years.
Along these same lines, around 2014, our beloved cat Joe died, so I thought I'd try my hand at making a small box for his ashes. (We had had a friend build a lovely stained glass reliquary for the ashes of another cat, Bob.) It had always been a bit of a family joke that Joe (a very large cat) was descended from the Big Cats, so it was obvious that his box had to be made from tigerwood. There was a very good lumber store in Stoughton MA, the next town over from where we lived, so I got some of that there and set about making the box. It took a couple tries to get it right, but now that's where Joe lives (and you can see it on the Boxes page).
The dado sled has really made this kind of work much easier, too, and I've recently started making small chests of drawers. That kind of stuff, and a few other projects, can be found on another page. I've also merged this hobby with my audio hobby by building cases for DIY audio projects and stands for the audio equipment itself. That can be found on the DIY audio page.