What do you find the most frustrating…
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| Posted in General Discussion on
What do you find the most frustrating part of woodworking?
- Finding wood of suitable quality for my projects
- Finding high-quality tools that I can afford
- Keeping my shop machines tuned and aligned
- Cutting dovetails or other joinery
- Sanding and scraping
- Dealing with glue squeeze-out
- Applying finish
- Rubbing out a finish
- Other (post in Knots)
You will not be able to change your vote.
Replies
Glue-up!!!
Distractions! Right now my tablesaw which is in the center of my garage shop has two bows (archery) and accessories spread out on it. Elk and deer season is in two months so it's time to get out scouting and always time to practice. The garage, er shop is the "staging area" for all of my other vices so it always seems to get cluttered and any flat spot is fair game. Then there's work. I need to win the Power Ball!!
MJ
All of the above!
Customers! I'd much rather build what I want, not what they want.
Beat it to fit / Paint it to match
You got it! Retail wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the customers!Chris @ http://www.flairwoodwork.spaces.live.com
- Success is not the key to happines. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. - Albert Schweitzer
I agree 100%. I've always said: "I don't want to build furnitures for others. I will build it and then sale it. Sorry Madame, no order !"
Serge- Learn from yesterday, work today, and enjoy success tomorrow -
http://www.atelierdubricoleur.org
Nothing. Honestly. I enjoy the whole process and don't get frustrated. I consider the process to be an exercise in problem solving. I've never thown a tool or lost my cool in my basement shop. Compared to my real job which can be a real pain in the a.., woodworking is a walk in the park. When I'm having a problem with some aspect of a project, I walk away. Then the old brain kicks in and various solutions occur to me. I have trashed nearly completed projects because I didn't like something about them and never thought twice about it. It is a contant learning process. pmm
Hi David,
These dang polls you keep conductin! :-)
Just kidding, I really think they're great.
My biggest frustration is that I can't find enough time in the woodshop. But I hope that will change very soon.
Regards,
Bob @ Kidderville Acres
A Woodworkers mind should be the sharpest tool in the shop!
Finding customers willing to commission work that is challenging and profitable.
Unfortunately, the ones who want the good stuff don't have the money, and the ones who have the money don't have taste for anything but more money, and can't be separated from it.
Other: Finding the tool, pencil, whatever that I absentmindedly set on some horizontal surface enroute to doing something or fetching another tool. Or perhaps the telephone rang and I answered it only to find it was yet another sales, political, or charitable organization solicitation so on my way to answer it I set down the piece of whatever and then couldn't find it again to save my hide...... this is assuming that i found the remote telephone in the first place.
I think things could only be messier in my shop if I worked in zero gravity.
getting time to do everything I want to !!!!!!!
Space, money.
No matter how much I have of either, I am able to use it, and find uses for more, were it available.
Real trucks dont have sparkplugs
Trying to stay on top of the shop clean up work.
I am constantly losing things in the mess!
Brian
Finding time between my wife and the kids. Earning a living, worrying about the bills and trying not to chop my limbs off accidentally whilst practicing the trade.
Chaim
Make your own mistakes not someone elses, this is a good way to be original !
I seem to have the most difficulty in the initial design phases of a project.
Picking a piece to make, thinking through the construction details, re-designing in light of construction details I find tedious. Once work begins I'm happy as a clam.
I am surprised you don't list my most frustrating problem. It is mistakes.
I have posted on this on more than one occasion, but It is simply amazing that Taunton has not realized that the Knots topic heading which is black on whatever that brown/maroon mix could be called is still being used.
When I want to browse the forum, I have to lean forward and squinch my eyes to see the topic heading. The only thing worse would have to be black on black. :-(
sharpening with water stones: pulling out the stones and the water and working through the grits. The solution, which I haven't yet put together, would be a permanent sharpening station. I don't like the little toolbox sharpening products, but need to set aside a small bench with all the necessary items set up...
It is definitely sharpening tools and finding enough time to do all I would like to do. I have enough project in mind to keep me busy for the next year. So as a part time hobby, I have for years to come.
Too small a shop!
I find it frustrating to not only find the right wood, but also in reading the wood to put each piece in the right place.
As posted in General, I enjoy the polls as it get peeps talking and I can see where maybe I might need to concentrate.
Good comments all.
Most frustrating to me is cutting close to a line, planing to bring the cut exactly to the line, and then discovering I am precisely one inch off.
Randy
Decideing which scraps to keep.
What do you find the most frustrating part of woodworking?
I'd say about everything you listed and then some!
Finding time to spend in the shop. If I could find enough time, I would gladly put up with all of the other frustrations.
The cleaning up afterward.
Other, as in glue-ups and interruptions, resulting in things like "where's that *@%% combo square now."
What was help me im my shop is to make sure I put every thing away when I,m done and to make sure I sweep up after my self so as my wife will not be on me about the dust getting upstairs.
The biggest thing was a few yrs. ago I could not find my pencils and would spend alot of time looking for them .I solved that by buying a case of pencils.
I voted for finding quality wood, but dealing with my small shop in a one-car garage is very high on the list, especially because I have to share the same space with my woodworking what will eventually become an airplane.
After reading some of the other posts I think I have to take the liberty of rephrasing the question and replace "frustrating" with "challenging" because none of *my* challenges are really frustrating…
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