As an amateur woodworker my time in the shop can be limited at times. Realistically I’m lucky if I can get 5 hours on a regular week, most of it later in the evening after my kids go to sleep. Some weeks (as it’s been lately) I’ve got less than 2. Keep projects moving forward becomes a real chore.
On my latest project I was stalled out on getting some drawer guides installed. I finally just broke down and used some brads… not something I was aiming for. But at least the project is moving ahead. Originally I had two good weeks of work, I estimated I’d be done in another two weeks… now it’s two month later.
I don’t think I’m alone on this. Does anybody have any tips to keeping the momentum going on their projects?
Replies
Stop spending so much time here on Knots.
Chris @ www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
(soon to be www.flairwoodworks.com)
- Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
Try doing it for a living. Ha Rickk
Buster,
Keep projects moving forward becomes a real chore.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm, that doesn't strike me as the way this hobby is supposed to go methinks. Mebbe the wife is putting a little pressure on to get that dang thang done? Where have I head that before??????????????? :-)
Perhaps ye could just go out and buy whatever it is is that yer makin? Yeah I know, I'm a big help right?
:-)
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
I can relate. My current project has been in process around 5 months and it's not done yet. Some weeks I get no time at all, some weekends I can spend 12-16 hours out in the shop.
I've gotten comfortable taking it as it goes and trying not to let the need to move the project along stress me out. I get enough of that on my day job!
At certain points you can't just go out and spend an hour or two on the project because you don't want to rush a complicated glue up or you have to use some special material/technique (cooking up glue, slicing and dicing veneer, etc.) But that doesn't mean that I don't want my hour or two of shop time so I go out and work on something else - another, smaller project; practice a new technique; sharpen; finally make a box or shelf to put something away in, etc.
On of the advantages of doing this casually is that we don't have deadlines. We get to experiment with design and technique changes midstream and we get the time to work at getting things right.
Savor the shop time and try not to stress over the pace of the project.
Frank
Break it up. See each little piece of a project as a project in itself. Then, you have a perpetual sense of accomplishment. It may sound silly, but it works for me. Say you were making a medicine cabinet. One evening, you aim to choose the stock and rough mill it. The next time you get an hour, you four square the stock you will be working with next. Then you layout your dovetails and cut two corners. the next night, two more. The next night - you glue up. Etc. Etc.
One foot in front of the other.
Thanks guys. I think I'm just expressing overall dissatifaction with the direction my project has taken. There is just something wrong with the design, and time has been so tight that I've had trouble getting things moving. I was expecting this to be a quick project... but it's still there!
I think what I need is a woodworking holiday! I'll send my wife up to her fathers with the kids and spend soem time in the shop!
**
I've always broken down my project into tasks. Even when I had lots of time. The problem is what Frankfive was refering to. Sometimes even the small tasks take more time than I have. Sometimes I'm working so late that I'm either too tired to safely do some task or make too much noise...
I avoid starting to many other projects... I try to avoid having too many on the go...
Buster,
I was expecting this to be a quick project
Love it! That's a classic. Yeah hon, it'll only take me a few hours......... 10 days later I'm still working on...........
Believe me you're not alone on this aspect of woodworking. I'd like to hear someone say they actually got a project done on time!
I like and take the Samson approach, one step in front of the other. It's those dang trip and fall(s) that git me.
:-)
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
I was expecting this to be a quick project
Love it! That's a classic. Yeah hon, it'll only take me a few hours......... 10 days later I'm still working on...........
Quick... I suppose, 'Quick by my standards.' The expectation was fairly realistic at the time, given a week in I had the structural parts dry fit... Then it was just a matter of getting the panels made...
You know you're not helping! (Ha Ha)
Actually the quickest project I ever worked on... is still not done. A quick box to hold camping supplies I was making for a friend, got it all put together just had to finish it. She wanted me to paint it some weird colour, of course impossible to find. So it delayed a week... then my boys were born 8 weeks early... the friend ended up buying a container for her first trip... and here we are two years later!
Ok, but that had waaaaayyy to much potential for some fun.
Anyway, I have lots of unfinished projects as I'm sure others do. It's interesting in that I just visited a fellow woodworker and we talked a bit about the same thing. He said that he likes having several projects going at the same time and also that he looks for variety in the challenges in each one.
There are times when you just need to walk away from it, let your brain think about something else. There was an article a while back, methinks by Gary Rogowski (sp?) about this very thing. Also I think sometimes we get so into it that we don't see the forest thru the trees, pun intended.
I've solved many woodworking problems whilst mowing the lawn, riding in the boat, plowing the driveway, etc. Can't count the times when someone would walk up and say, "Why don't you do thus and so."
Well slap me upside the heed, why didn't I think of that?
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Actually, that article was by me, but Gary (and others) are quoted and/or referenced. Just in case some wants to find it. It is called 7 habits of highly effective woodworkers.
This is my personal signature.
The point that struck me the most in the article was in essence, sometimes ya just gotta step away from it. Maybe because that's what works for me. But, when I do step back I gotta completely wipe the project out of my mind, that's not easy for me to do.
There is one place I can do that and that's up at the summer camp. It's so damn peaceful there. Doesn't matte rwhat the weather is either, it's so great just being there.
Effective woodworker - what is that?
I suppose one who does woodworking for a living might think that means a whole bunch of different things than a hobbiest might think. A hobbiest generally doesn't have to get it done.
Is an effective woodworker efficient? To me that depends on what I'm doing. If it's home repairs then yeah I try to work efficiently. In that scenario time is money to me. If I'm making a piece of furniture I don't have to get it done on such and such a date or in a certain amount of time.
In so far as home repairs, furniture making or remodeling go, I still sometimes have to step away from time to time. I also think that can apply to professionals and hobbiests.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Buster,
You know you're not helping! (Ha Ha)
OK, got my serious hat on today.
Just thought about someting the other day and thought I'd run it past ye. For the longest time I stewed about an apron pattern for a piece I/' making. It's going to be an in the style of Queen Anne. That dang apron was driving me knuts; not a long drive for me, mebbe just a short walk.........
You know I think I kinda used that as an excuse to myself so I wouldn't feel guilty about my progress on the piece. When I first started it I was a$$ ove tea kettle to get it made and then stalled out on the apron. Well this past week I got the ends put together and they came out really great so now it back to a$$ over the tea kettle mode again. I'm psyched! Made the top this AM and it's back to it this afternoon.
Funny thing is that I had a pattern for the apron that the CFO and I really like. Wasn't exactly under me nose, sorta like over me heed. Got it from an old window valance over the sink. Geeeeesh.
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
It gets easier as you get older. At some point, everything is downhill, which gives momentum a gravity boost. ;-)
On more complex projects, I've started to make notes about the steps involved, and ideas I have along the way. That way, when I get back to the project, I don't forget to do something critical while it's still possible.
Being forced into retirement with everyday a shop day, I can attribute three things to staying on a roll:
First.. my wife is retired and won't allow me upstairs in the house except to watch Dancing With the Stars as she knows I have a fetish for leg warmers. Meals are placed at the top of the stairs.
Second... I actually enjoy the challenge of hanging cabinet doors.. sizing drawers.. making various components blend into one.. etc.. For me.. it beats h*ll out of twittering (or whatever you call it).. talking on a cell phone.. blogging.. surfing the net.. etc.
Third and most important... I learned a long time ago that nothing is going to get done unless someone gets up off their *ss and does it.
With that said.. life is simple for me and things just keep rolling off the one-man assembly line. ha.. ha..
Sarge..
Sarge,
OK, I'll buy the second and third one but cut me some slack about the first one man. Yeah sure you git yer plate left at the top of the stairs. HA, HA, HA!
You actually think I believe that!? Yeah sure, ye got a grille downstairs, fridge stocked for an invasion and ye kin bivouac in the backyard too eh? Prolly a pup tent stashed under the TS too huh?
OK,, put down the 45 man, I'm just joshin ye. You know that.
That second one though I gotta say AMEN to all of it. Too bad they can't let ye make the letters bigger in here. :-)
Regards,Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
The little portable fridge is stashed in the TS cabinet as I can't see wasting the dead space. The cooking grill is parked in the driveway. I raise the hood on my pick-up and cook on the exhaust manifold which is a talent I obtained in the military using the exhaust manifold on M 60 tanks when they they supported us. Petro is less expensive than propane these days.
And I don't do camping with a tent as I have done more than my share of camping out with nothing more than a thin pancho liner. That is not the most pleasant experience in Monsoon Season in mountainous regions where you have to tie yourself to a rope and a tree to keep from sliding down the hill in the mud. Once you get outside of a night perimeter... you become fair game as it's difficult to distinquish who's who?
So... the work-bench doubles nicely for sleeping and it's under a roof. The intentional shelf under-neath it adds the dimension of a bunk bed when parents-in-law come visit as I go to Holiday Inn to avoid them. A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. ha.. ha... ha..ha..ha..
Regards from the solitude of shop life as it should be lived...
Sarge..
Originally I had two good weeks of work, I estimated I'd be done in another two weeks... now it's two month later.
I don't think I'm alone on this. Does anybody have any tips to keeping the momentum going on their projects?
Getting behind is something everybody experiences in the woodworking world: amateur and pro. In most cases, hobby woodworkers are doing something for the first time or they are creating as they go. This takes time and it slows things down. When I am doing something for the first time, I am slow at making final cuts. When I have done it before, I rock and roll.
Its easy to look at another woodworker and be dazzled by the speed and efficiency with the way they work. Lately, I can make a chair very quickly and experience very little anxiety. I should after 100 of these things. After lots of surprises and dissappointments, I keep lots of spare spindles and bent parts on the wall. If something goes badly, I just grab another and jump into motion. Done. In that same spirit, I keep boxes full of turned leg parts to avoid the big stop and re-do blues. You move along very quickly. In the end... you feel good about "getting it done" but.. you look to make something different.
I know a few guys out there are happy to make one thing and make it very well. They don't get bored or frustrated with making the same thing again and again. I don't fall in that camp.
Lots of builders here on knots want new challenges and lots of different projects to keep them learning new things. This takes time and it has surprises along the way. That's just part of the deal.
Recommendation: Next project- draw out the entire project and put your measurements for every aspect on paper(full size if possible). Review the plans and go to work. When you put the plan on the bench and you are confident with its details, you move along more efficiently than when you work on the fly. Try it out. Its a good exercise. Kinda like playing music with the metranome(tick-tock)- it gets you back on a steady beat.
Good Luck
dan
Good
Dan thanks for the suggestion regarding drawing up plans. It's probably one of the biggest issues I had with this project, little changes as I went along. The next few projects are more construction than fine woodwork, so I'll have some time to work on plans for my next piece of furniture.
I like to do whatever I feel like doing on any particular night. Once I joint and plane all of the rough lumber for the project, I rough cut all the pieces according to my plan. Then I will work on whatever piece I feel like working. Maybe I'll rip the drawer pieces tonight and tomorrow I'll cut the face frame pieces. The next night I'll do some glue-ups. What ever I feel like and have the time for. In the end, it all comes together. Then I get to sand and finish. That's when I usually start the next project until I feel like sanding and whatever... It's a hobby, not a career.
Honestly? When I feel I'm in a slump, I buy a new tool. I learned this painting watercolors. I'd buy myself a new paintbrush and I'd become inspired.
I have a turning job I've been putting off. This past weekend I bought myself a much needed roughing gouge and proceeded to make new handles for ALL my lathe tools. Okay, I still haven't started my turning job, but I am excited about it.
Adam
Adam,
Are you serious? Another tool? Okay I admit it. About half way through the project Lie Nielsen came to town and I purchased a 5 1/2... I love it like a third child.Actually this year has seen a steady flow of hand tools into the shop. Maybe its a sickness, but here I am complaining about not getting things done... and I'm buying tools to do things slower... (In some cases...)Actually the smoothing was a really enjoyable session in the shop.
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