My seven-year-old thinks Quick-Grip clamps are cool toys; like mother, like daughter. Today she opened a clamp too far (I had removed the stop bar), separating it into pieces. Mild annoyance turned into frustration as I fumbled with pieces that refused to reassemble.
I finally succeeded in putting the clamp back together. I looked for my daughter, who was now measuring objects with my calipers. In a testy voice I said, “Lizzy, will you PLEASE stop playing with my toys–I mean TOOLS!”
Who am I kidding?
Replies
Who am I kidding?
No one on this forum! There's a reason why I don't show this site to DW.
Be seeing you...
DW,
Every time I look through toy cata...I mean tool catalogs, I drool. Every time I look through wood sites or go to exotic wood stores, I drool. When I am at the hardware store picking up some plants for my wife, I leave with $100 worth of tools and I have to go back later and pick up the plants I forgot. This woodworking is a sickness, a creative sickness and I don't see an end to it. Maybe your daughter is catching it also.
It's an expensive sikness. I blame my parents for not taking out the proper insurance for me when I was a child! Now *I* have to pay the cost of it!!
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Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
I've come to the conclusion that most all hobbies cost the same no matter what they are. At least woodworking you have something to show where you spent all the money, and your friends really think your cool. I've spent well over 10K on triathlons over the last four years.
Don
Exactly - I guess only bird watching comes at a low cost - the investment in a good pair of binoculars. Or if you've got good TV reception without having to pay for cable, maybe channel surfing is a close second.
Skiing is expensive but you get something out of that, too - broken limbs and pneumonia.
Golf is expensive but you get something out of that, too - grist for conversation at business luncheons.
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Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
TM
Ha..... I been fooling with this 30 this year. You'd think you could accumulate all the tools you need in that time. I've always cut dovetails by hand. Always sand by hand. Use my router table with a split fence I built to edge. Surface planing done the old fashion way.
Bought a mortiser 5 months ago. Got a belt-disc sander 3 weeks ago. Got a dove-tail jig 5 or 6 weeks ago. Got a spindle sander 8 months ago. I'm on vacation next week and going Mon. to look at a General jointer. Who knows what else I might see.
A sickness you say, I think it's goes beyond that. More of an incurable disease.
Take it from a junkie....he..he..
sarge..jt
SARGE: Just think if we didnt spend our money on toys,err I mean tools,we would only have lots more left that our wifes would want to use for silly stuff like home furnishings,nickknacks,and all that stuff they hang on the walls and place all over the rooms of the house<G>..
ToolDoc
Doc
You're absloutely right. And all those knick-knacks are terrible about catching dust. You don't have that problem with all our tools. At least that's my story and I'm sticking with it. ha..ha.. The really good news is my wife lets me get away with it..grin<>my kind of woman..
sarge..jt
> ....all those knick-knacks are terrible about catching dust.
Careful; next thing you know we'll be faced with design and installation of dust control systems for the house!
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Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
Dennis
She's already thought of that, so I brought a 6 HP shop-vac up and a roll of duct tape. Told her to set it up on the knick-knacks as I have it mounted direct to the junk-saw. The shop-vac had a Harley-Davidson decal on the side and maybe a spider or two. She pointed toward the stairs door that lead back downstairs to the shop..
Hasn't mentioned it since as that was the end of that conversation. The fast food burgers have been very good, ummmhhh-OK.... well, so they reek. Hey, I won the battle of wits.........are did I ? ?.......hummmmmmm
Back to the shop, got some cold fries left over. Grin<>
sarge..jt
> ....we would only have lots more [money] left that our wifes would want to use for silly stuff like...
Not to mention food and house payments.
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Dennis in Bellevue WA
[email protected]
This wood info site could turn into a support group real easy.
TM
I was thinking the exact same thing having a cup of coffee after I posted. Ha... WoodWorkers Anonymous...
Guess you're in charge of enforcing the 12 point rules as you thought of it. If you don't know what those 12 rules are, just make them up as we go. That works for me. ha..ha..
Have a good evening as I'm going hitting the sack as late EST
sarge..jt
Well, lets see if we can come up with The 12 Rules, I'll start with the first three:
1. Real Job Rule: When in your day-paying job and you get the urge to drop everything to go home to sand. Do yourself a favor and take a cold shower, if one is available, or splash your face with cold water and scream. "Burry your head in the snow" until the urge passes and you resume control. Do not go home and jeopardize your job!!
2. Noontime Urge Rule: After you have conquered the Real Job Rule and lunch approaches, it is acceptable to go home and wood work. Keep in mind that you only have one hour and you have to be back at work when your time is up. Do not linger around the shop doing "just one more thing". An alternative for those who have only 1/2 hour: bring some wood with you to your job to whittle on.
3. 5:30 Rule: When the whistle blows, take a deep breath and calmly walk to your car. Put some easy listening or ocean waves in you car stereo, ease the speed back, and cruise home. Do not rush out of your work at the speed of light and get into an accident, you'll be sorry for it when your arms are in a cast for 6 weeks.
Remember the slogan: Safe woodworking starts when you wake up in the morning.
O.K., I have to work now, my boss is looking at me funny.....
Here's a great bit that was provided by John O'Connell back in January, during a long self-help, twelve-step thread regarding those who can't give up the sauce... er, the wood. It's part of a very long thread that can be found here:
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-knots/messages/?msg=8654.1
Enjoy:
Scrap-o-holics Anonymous - The Twelve Steps 1. We admitted we were powerless over off-cuts -- that our shops had become unmanageable.2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.3. Made a decision to turn our chunks, shorts and narrows over to the care of God (the creator of all wood) as we understood him (Christ was a carpenter, he understands).4. Made a searching and fearless inventory of our piles, stacks and rafters. 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to the Knots discussion board the exact nature of our wrongs and how long it had been since we had seen the top of our second table saw.6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character as well as all Krenov and Nakashima dogma from our libraries.7. Humbly asked Him to remove our short trimmings and pen blanks we’ve saved when we don’t even own a mini-lathe or have any real intention of ever owning one.8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. (Even to the barefoot children of impoverished wood dealers that have gone unshod in the snow because of our greed.)9. Made direct amends to our shop mates wherever possible, except when to do so would piss them off and lead to immediate combustion of our most favored chunks of Wenge square-peg stock. 10. Continued to take woodbin inventory and when we were wrong promptly discarded the offending shorts.11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of what to keep and how to store it so we can still function within our shops and in society as a whole.12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other dumpster-diving scrap-o-holics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
DavidLook, I made a hat -- Where there never was a hat!
WOW!!! This is too funny. Hey, ...by taking it lightly, am I also cought in the denial?
Denying what? :-)
DLook, I made a hat -- Where there never was a hat!
ha ha ha ha. ha...................ha. ha
ha
??
Don’t forget about the fulltime people. What do we do when we don’t have a real job to go to? We need even more help.
Jeff in so cal
Floman,
After working for 8, 10, or 12 hours in the shop you may need some high torque, 3hp, 220 Zen Meditation: close your eyes, relax, and listen to the wood chips flying in the air -- (be sure all your machines are turned off before you close your eyes).
TM
Looks like you started a chain-reaction here. There are more sicko-s out there than I originally thought. Was thinking about inviting everyone to my shop for the meetings.
Was going to supply food, but not sure if I can afford to feed that many. Guess everyone will have to bring some fast food. No problem if it gets cold on the way to the meeting. I got the micro-wave under-neath the new mortiser cabinet and the little shop frig under-neath the junk-saw cabinet. Looks like we got it under control. he..he
Everyone bring napkins...aahhh, never mind---got plenty of shop rags. That'll work just as well.
sarge..jt
SARGE: You are such a Great Host,I move that we keep meeting at your place all the time.. Please dont forget to take up a collection for the Beer..LOL
ToolDoc
I still have several groovy kayaks hanging around (literally) from a previous life which I sometimes revert to when feeling energetic. Now I have a rapidly growing inventory of very practical, very useful planes, chisels, saws etc etc, which I often tell my wife I use constantly.
She wants a horse. She will lose every time because I never have to feed my kayaks... or my tools.
Well maybe just cash to stop them from getting lonely.
Just one more plane, really..........
Phil Twiss
Phil, did you make the kayaks yourself?
No unfortunately.
One is a Dagger Outburst plastic playboat, one is a carbon, Kevlar expoxy downriver racer and the other is a kevlar double marathon kayak.
I don't have the technology to vacuum bag yet, but I'm working on it, I really "NEED" it as I think it would be a useful toy......sorry tool for laminating etc.
Cheers
Phil
Doc
Thanks Doc.. You just bring the fast food. I'll buy the beer!!
To bed, late EST.. Have a good evening nite shift man. You're at the controls while the rest of us sleep. Keep it between the lines.
sarge..jt
Sarge,
There should be enough wood chips around there to add flavor to the b.b.q. don't need much -- who needs food when we can eat the bark, branches, and leafs off the trees prior to miling them. How far are you from Montana? If you are on the east coast, I could pack a few things and be over for the first meeting; all I need is my table saw, band saw, planer, chisels.....
TM
A long way from Montana. I'm in Atlanta. I do love Montana, Wyoming and Idaho though. Been there a bunch.
Drop by any time as the welcome mat is always out. I'm on vacation this week and a ton to do in the shop. I'm up on coffee at 2:08 EST and headed back to the shop for more of the sawdust therapy.
Have a good evening..
sarge..jt
For everyone's future reference, the proper word is TOYLs, pronounced toy-l.
A planer, tablesaw, hand plane, or chisel, as well as many others are toyls, not tools.
####plumbing snake, now that's a ______ tool.
Regards
Theirs a toyl show not more than 2 miles from my shop on the 8th. What am I going to do? I might need help? I’ve even got money in my pocket!
I tried the Zen thing. It didn’t work. I even closed my eyes. HELP!!!
I know I will just spend a little! It will be ok. wont it?
Jeff in so cal
so cal ... 2 miles from your shop ...
I'll help ! it's only a 16 hour flight. can I crash at your place ?
ian
ian
Sure! Come on over. You can help with my bamboo tread job.
You can stay with my toyls at the shop, if you need to. Even have a shower.
Jeff in so cal
He who dies with the most toys....wins.
Philip
I just moved my shop. You never know how much s--t you have until you have to move it. My shop is absurd. I know professional cabinet makers who don't have such a set up.I did it all a little at a time. Quite a pile.
Woodwork simply so others may simply wood work?
I don't think so.
Frank
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