This Week in Wood » Rants

Motivated or Frustrated

glennth — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 15:47:39 +0000

I haven’t been to my shop in a few weeks. To me (and probably most of us woodworkers), that’s just sad.

The problem, though, may be self inflicted.

Those of you who have read this blog on a regular basis know that I’m working on building 3 acoustic guitars. If you really remember a while back though, I just started building just a single guitar. I had some issues that I thought I couldn’t fix so I started 2 more believing that I learned a lot about building guitars.

I’m currently working on the binding and purfling and have once again had issues. These issues are smaller than that first issue but they are still frustrating and it has caused me to not want to go into my shop. Yes, there have been other factors for not going into my shop from normal life (yard work, helping kids, volunteering, …) but over the course of 2 weeks I can always find time to get to my shop.

I guess some of my frustration comes from jealousy or lack of self confidence. I’m the sort of woodworker that makes lots of mistakes in my learning process. I have been known to jump into something before it is fully thought out so the mistakes can sometimes be large. I do learn and my resulting projects have gotten better and better over the years. Of course, the internet has made other woodworker’s resulting projects and stories in the forefront. It’s hard to not get a little frustrated when i see new hobby luthiers build their second or third guitar and have it turn out like a long time professional luthier.

Two days ago, I forced myself to go out to my shop but I avoided my project to clean and re-organize a few spaces in my small shop.

I need to just get to it and finish the guitars. They will be what they will be. In truth, they will probably sound great. They may have some “quirky” appearance issues (yes, I’m being politically correct so i don’t hurt my own feelings) but that should be ok.

What do you do to work around motivational issues?

In the past, i have started over; given up; found a fix; stayed away and then got back to it; and sometimes combinations of all of these. Starting over and given up are harder to swallow with all the money and time I’ve put into this current project so i don’t think I’ll be going down this path.

OK, this week I’m going to do some work, even if it is small, on my guitars. If I can get the binding and purfling done, it will be on to the neck and fretboard.

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Motivated or Frustrated

How come…?

glennth — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 05:48:29 +0000

OK, I’m a strong guy.

I can wrench down any router bit so it is nearly impossible to get it out after it’s been used. So, how come I can do that but no matter how tight I make the hold downs for any fences on the router, they eventually slip and screw up my project? It is very frustrating.

I was working on a pair of doors that I’m making for my hand tools. It’s for a cabinet that hangs on the wall and holds hand planes, chisels, marking and measuring tools. The main cabinet is already built using hand cut dovetails on plywood with adjustable shelves. The doors had the same hand cut dovetails done and I was routing (I’m using more hand tools but not all are power free) a groove for a plywood back to the door. My first 2 sides went well but when I got to the third, the fence slipped and of course made a mess. I think I can salvage it though it’s appearance may not be great (it’ll be noticeable on the inside of the door).

I’ll write a post with the finished project after I recover and get these doors done and installed. After that, it’s about coming up with solutions to hang chisels in the door along with marking and measuring tools.

Back to Projects

glennth — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:29:09 +0000

It’s amazing how life gets in the way of hobbies. We had some landscape work done (yes, I guess I could do it but I really don’t like gardening) and there have been many other life projects such as wiring for ethernet for a couple of locations in my house. All of it seems to bump my woodworking to the back burner.

I think now it’s time to make some space for my projects. I will continue to gather items for my new sharpening station. I need the grinder (I’ve chosen and ordered a Tormek), a granite test slab for flatness reference, some wet/dry sand paper (mostly low grits for producing flatness in my stones), and I need to make a bench dog for holding the stones. Hopefully by the end next week, I’ll have everything together and can get everything sharpened (I imagine this initial sharpening will take a while – flatening the back and getting the from bevel done on all chisels and hand plane blades).

I also need to get back to my hand tool hanging cabinet. I’ve got the frame done and I need to cut the back and make some shelves and then hang it. I’ll be making a door or maybe 2 as I haven’t decided on the final design of those doors. The cabinet with shelves will be for the hand planes and the door(s) will be for chisels and marking tools.

I think that tomorrow I’ll make a run to Woodcraft for paper. Maybe I’ll have time to do some work on the cabinet tomorrow. The weekend is already pretty booked with family activities. My next opportunity is Tuesday. I also need to get a small amount of pine for the bench dogs (probably from a big box store just for ease though I may look at Woodcraft while I’m there).

I’m sure this is a common problem with woodworking (and probably for any hobby).