quiet woodworking

[Doug]

I have a new 3 month old daughter and when I find an hour or so here and there I like to do some woodworking. I am still pretty new to the game but really enjoy it. What I need is a new technique which is quiet so as not to disturb the baby and the wife. Normally I work with power tools, so I thought about working with hand tools. Saws are OK but banging on a chisel is out. I am thinking about woodturning. Any tips on getting started? Any tips for alternative quiet woodworking? Thanks. Doug

[B a r r y]

Try using your chisels to pare the wood. Hand planes are quiet. Hammering chisels is over rated.

Paring isn't easy? Work on your sharpening technique, which is also a quiet activity.

Barry

[J T]

Mon, Jan 17, 2005, 5:25am (EST-3) [e-mail] (Doug) claims: What I need is a new technique which is quiet so as not to disturb the baby and the wife. Normally I work with power tools, so I thought about working with hand tools. Saws are OK but banging on a chisel is out.

Major mistake.

You tiptoe around the kid, then every little noise is gonna wake her up. Granted, you don't want to crank up a really loud tool when she is asleep, but "normal tools", don't worry about, including banging on chisels. May wake the kid up the first time or so, but in no time she'll be sleeping thru it all.

We were finishing the inside of your home just after the second son was born. Drywall, hammering, all that. Finished the back bedroom off first, including carpet. Lay the kid on the floor, wait a couple of minutes, then go out and start pounding. No prob. You obviously wouldn't want to pound on somehting right next the kid's ear, but don't worry about being overly quiet. We learned with the first kid, any little noise would wake him up. Not fun.

JOAT Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.

- =A0Dale Carnegie

[GARY WALKER]

Scroll sawing.... chip carving (could even do this in the house)

[Guess who]

This is another troll.

Babies sleep through thunderstorms. Stop tip-toeing. They get used to noise faster than you do. Besides, you don't keep the baby in the workshop.

Take up knitting instead, but be sure to wrap the needles in something soft [another large discussion on what is best to use] so that the clicking doesn't keep the baby awake.

[Edwin Pawlowski]

If you do woodworking now, the baby will get used to the sound and not wake up. Ask the people that live in high traffic areas and most will tell you they never hear a sound. I lived for a few years at a very busy intersection with a trolley on the street and big trucks going over the trolley tracks.

If you are making that much noise banging on a chisel, you are doing something very wrong.

[Jeff P.]

You can do anything you want. This is why they make hearing protection. Either you wear it so you can't hear the baby crying or your wife screaming or put a set on the little one so she can't hear you. Geez, this was an easy one!

[VRadin]

Not sure if this is a troll or not- but on the off-chance it's legit...

Too right. The little darlings can sleep thru anything if you let them. You probably don't want to run the really loud shrill stuff in the same room or directly under the crib, not for the wake-up factor but it's as bad for baby ears as it is for YOUR ears.

My son's first sitter is a sculptor- ceramics, wood, metal... They spent countless hours in the shop- noise from work, other kids, dogs, city street sounds... my son learned the valuable lesson of being able to sleep thru anything at anytime.

Now if you're just looking for an excuse to get a lathe... that's another story. I'm not sure there isn't a special level of hell reserved for silly tool-purchase excuses.

[Andy Dingley]

Quietest I know is green woodworking (shave horse, drawknife, spokeshave). This has its noisy bits when you're splitting logs, but most of it is almost silent. Needs some space though and makes a mess of shavings everywhere - it's a good one for outdoors. if you have a lathe it can involve some simple woodturning. It's also cheap and can make useful furniture with little effort.

[Andy Dingley]

Sure, _they_ do.

But if the sprog is finally asleep, then _you_ want some peace and quiet too.

[RampRat]

We have done the same thing. My wife and I watch our dvds with my home theater after the kids go to bed. They sleep right through it. Problem is now my daughter can't sleep without some kinda noise. She asks us to "turn the volume up" every night cause otherwise it's too quiet. Trojan Horse!

[mac davis]

just a word of advise from LONG experience: Work at a level that your wife doesn't mind... get the baby used to normal noise..

believe it or not, the lil princess will NOT mind the sound of your saw or jointer and will do better with household noise later because you ran that saw..

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[TeamCasa]

Sage advise

Dave

Major mistake.

You tiptoe around the kid, then every little noise is gonna wake her up. Granted, you don't want to crank up a really loud tool when she is asleep, but "normal tools", don't worry about, including banging on chisels. May wake the kid up the first time or so, but in no time she'll be sleeping thru it all.

We were finishing the inside of your home just after the second son was born. Drywall, hammering, all that. Finished the back bedroom off first, including carpet. Lay the kid on the floor, wait a couple of minutes, then go out and start pounding. No prob. You obviously wouldn't want to pound on somehting right next the kid's ear, but don't worry about being overly quiet. We learned with the first kid, any little noise would wake him up. Not fun.

JOAT Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get.

- Dale Carnegie

[Nate Perkins]

"Doug" wrote in news:1105968354.938216.178440 @z14g2000cwz.googlegroups.com:

I have a 6 year old son and a 3 year old daughter. I took up woodworking when my daughter was about 6-9 months old.

I use machines for all the stock prep, but hand tools for most of the joinery. My first workbench was lousy 3/4" MDF -- reverberated like a drum when I pounded on it. Since, I built a stout beech workbench and now the sound of chisels doesn't carry upstairs appreciably. At night I do joinery, scraping, assembly, and finishing.

My favorite projects are the things I've built for and with my kids.

[Doug Brown]

[Upscale]

And now that you're older, I bet the thought of using the vacuum cleaner still puts you to sleep. :)

[Doug Winterburn]

When my son was 2 or 3 years old - about 25 years ago - I used to put him on my lap while mowing the acre on a noisy Craftsman riding mower. He'd fall asleep after about 3 minutes.

- Doug

[Buddy Matlosz]

We were finishing the inside of your home just after the second son was born......

See that, Doug? JOAT was working on your house and you didn't even know it. The baby won't hear a thing.

B.

[mac davis]

that kind of sucks...

*groan*

mac

Please remove splinters before emailing

[J T]

Mon, Jan 17, 2005, 11:43am (EST-3) [e-mail] (TeamCasa) says: Sage advise

Yeah, learned the hard way. Woulda been a LOT easier if someone had said, before the first kid was born. The first kid is for practice, get it right with the second.

JOAT Charity ain't giving people what you wants to give, it's giving people what they need to get.

- Albert