Psychology of a woodworker

Is there a difference? You bet. Craftsman and B&D are a whole lot more expensive! I started in on a big project calling for 14 sheets of baltic bich plywood. After about 4 sheets my trusty 3 year old B&D sander, for which I had paid the princely sum of about $25, gave up the ghost. Ran down to the local tool peddler and bought another one. Hmm, price had gone up to $30. After 7 or 8 more sheets this one began to smell like roasting coffee beans (good if it's coffee, bad if it's an electric motor) and quit. Back down to the tool peddler where the kind salesman took pity on me: "Kid, do yourself a favor. Plunk down the money for this Makita while it's on sale. I'll even knock another 10% off because I feel sorry for you. Guaranteed, I won't be seeing you back here again." Well, he was wrong. He has seen me back there plenty, but never for another sander! All told, the Makita cost me about $135 ($80 on sale plus $25 and $30 for the two dead B&Ds) plus untold hours of frustration and self-damnation for being a cheapskate. Buying decent tools is kind of like getting a vaccination: it stings a little at first but saves a lot of pain later.

Ian

There's some realistically good advice. I appreciate that. In my adult ed. class there are two very old Milwaukee hand drills with metal cases (outer body shells) still working, and an old Skil drill still working, and a burned out, quite non-working Black and Decker. My Old Skil drill is about 12 years old, in perfect condition but it hasn't been used much.

Alex

Yea, I know it's a troll, but it made me think, and gave me a wish to vent.

No. Dad was an alcoholic narcissist and didn't care about anybody else. As far as I'm concerned he didn't even exist. When I heard he had died, I looked around and the world was just the same. He did teach me, by example, how NOT to treat other people.

No. Everybody I know already thinks I'm a dork.

Wrong again, I'm a self taught software and electronic engineer. I spent 30 years designing, building, programming and running all kinds of computer hardware. I decided to teach myself woodworking after watching Norm for a while.

I disagree. I started woodworking using cheap tools and despite that I stuck with it. Cheap tools are harder to use, harder to keep tuned, and harder to get consistant results with. I find that using high caliber, high quality tools makes working with wood more satisfying and less frustrating. So I save my pennies and get the best.

The only tool I bought that I've never used is a dowling jig. Everything else is used. I wore out two routers .

I never published pictures or bragged about what tools I bought. To many know-it-all wise-ass critics out there. I researched and bought the tools I wanted to buy, and really appreciated the ones I received as gifts. Nobody ever asked for an inventory (except for my insurance agent). Sure I might own some of the best tools money can buy, but it was my money, I earned it and I use the heck out of all of them. They are not trophies, they are TOOLS.

You may not care, but the folks I give homemade items to sure seem to appreciate them. Nobody has ever given back or otherwise disposed of an item we made them that we know of. If I ever made anything that was useless, it was for the enjoyment of making it.

Your missing another point. We don't build the exact same desk, futon, etc as they have in the stores. We either build them better, with better construction or better materials, or build them to meet our personal needs exactly. All the furniture I built for this house was built to meet MY needs. There are a lot of store bought items here too.

I have a friend that was low on cash but wanted a new desk for her then boyfriend. She shopped and found she couldn't afford anything. We offered and built a 4 drawer desk from #2 pine and luan plywood and other leftovers. It took us two days for under $25. Five years later he's still using it. It was a fun project. Very entertaining. Another couple wanted a toybox. They worked in the shop with us to build and decorate it. Their kids appreciate it more than a store-bought box. Another young neighbor wanted a dresser, asked me to build him one. I offered to help him build his own. He accepted, and he and his dad used my shop to build exactly what he wanted. We all enjoyed that project.

In fact, there isn't a house on this block in which we haven't contributed some kind of woodworking.

A lot of time I'll take on a project to build something because I want to see if I can do it. When friends and neighbors ask me to do something, it is always because they couldn't find an off-the-shelf solution to their problems. It is a challenge to come up with a working solution. Then, I only ask to be reimbersed for materials, I never charge for labor. That's what keeps it a hobby.

Sometimes I even build something just to see if I can do it. I know somebody else can, (Norm!) but the trick is to see if I can do it. I also make my own plans. Only three times have I started a project with somebody else's plans. Even then there were serious tweaks involved.

You know what, I don't have to explain myself to you. Ignore what you just read (unless you got bored and quit reading already). I got to go put a coat of poly on my latest project.

Andy

I enjoyed reading your reply to this OP. and this:

"In fact, there isn't a house on this block in which we haven't contributed some kind of woodworking."

reminded me of one of my older woodworking buddies: he and a neighbor had been admiring a set of lawn chairs that another neighbor had purchased, decided they would both like lawn chairs like that. They were prone to helping each other and everyone else in the neighborhood with woodworking projects up to and including the occasional garage and playing practical jokes on each other, too.

The original pair took one of the much admired chairs one night, took it all apart, made a pattern, put the chair back together, put it back where it belonged, and then worked together to make several copies over several weekends. The chairs began appearing on lawns all over the neighborhood.

Didn't take long for the original chair owner to put 2 + 2 together - that one of his chairs must have been swiped, pulled apart, copied, and replaced. "Which one did you copy?" he asked. "The one that doesn't fall apart next summer" was the reply. Naturally, the original pair took the other chair apart and put it back together again, too, it won't fall apart next year either.

That's what most woodworkers are like. Josie

Or, if you're into "advanced" "power(?)" tools - bone knives and stone axes. [Does anyone remember the original Star Trek?]

Renata

BTW, quite funny (the reply)!

I guess we're not so different from trolls, really. We dislike and point out that, which we hate about ourselves.

Humbly submitted, O'Deen

obww - I have a 40+ year old B&D jigsaw with an all-aluminum case. It's very lightweight, and suitable for lightweight work, such as cutting plywood and up to 1/2" softwoods. Very little vibration. I also have a B&D professional VS orbital jigsaw that is much heavier (and much newer, 1990). It was pricey, at around $130 (in 1990 dollars). It has always been a useful, dependable tool. Some of my other recent (5-10 years ago) B&D tools didn't fair as well.

I don't know that a common trait exists.I do remember reading in a woodworking magazine somewhere that the crippling fear of failure was the main cause of procrastination over starting projects and/or the inability to complete them. B.T.W., what is the best rock to use,in terms of weight,size,density,texture, for banging air dried hardwoods? Do I need different ones for softwoods? I can imagine a well equipped shop should have a whole rack of rocks. Would imported rocks be worth the extra cost, are foreign rocks made better? I hope they're not too expensive. Will bricks or cement blocks work? Are there any books, or videos or "schools" that can teach the basics?

Me use big rock.

My rock is bigger than your rock.

Is this what you're looking for??

You two should get together... and make some comparisons.

Alex

Wasn't that "attempting to make a mnemonic memory circuit out of stone knives and bear skins" in "City on the Edge of Forever" (geez--I can't believe that I know things like that--get an effing _life_ why don't I) or are you thinking of a different episode?

Point well taken. One of the consequences of this mentality is our obsession with the idea that every kid has to go to college. For those who want to go into a field where college is really required fine, but not every kid wants to persue those jobs. Meanwhile there are real shortages of talent in many craft and trade areas like woodworking. Custom shops are begging for young talented people. Some of the trade groups in this area are setting up apprentice programs where the students are paid good wages to take part in the program, just to get some people into the system. Any colleges payingyou to go there...unless you play football or basketball? After I retired from my first career I started teaching computer courses at a local college and I had this argument with other members of the faculty. They disagreed but their only real argument came down to better pay. I then asked them how much they would charge to tutor a student on Saturday and they quoted variouus amounts. I took the highest and challenged them to get a plumber to come out the following weekend for that hourly rate and there was a long silence. A person should be judged by his or her talent, not his or her field of work. The sad part is a lot of those kids who are pressured into going to college wind up with no degree and a big student loan debt the those who pushed them into going to college do not seem to want to help pay off.

Ken

"mel" wrote in message news:...

ktc notes:

True. I recall, too many years ago, arguing with a couple professors at college about job importance. They were bitching about a raise that put NYC garbage haulers at about 50% higher pay than a starting associate prof. This was in Albany, NY, but the principle stands: I finally just asked them that if they didn't show up for work for two weeks in the late spring, what harm was caused, versus the garbagemen not showing for two weeks.

This wasn't too long after the NYC garbage strikes, IIRC, when rats the size of my current dog were making free with things.

Charlie Self "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." Thomas Paine

Charlie, you've GOT to get a bigger dog.

Dick Durbin Tallahassee, FL

Although I went to college and graduate school, I wasn't so sure I wanted to be there, but I had the ability and work ethic and was a good "student" so I went. It was the thing to do. In reflection, I would have preferred to become an electrician, plumber or finish carpenter rather than a lawyer. I'm not complaining, mind you, as I do enjoy lawyering and its still fun, but I think I'd have gotten more long term satisfaction running a electrical or plumbing company.

It bothers me that the public/county vocational and technical schools (the alterantive to traditional high schools in my day) are slowly closing, one by one; I see the equipment auctions in the paper. Private trade schools exist, but are few and far between and not everyone has the tuition money. We need to turn around this tendency.

Mutt.

Dick Durbin states:

Nah. The oldest kid has a bigger dog, so we take ours over there every so often so she can treat that lunkhead like a big toy. She can't quite flop him around like her other toys, but she sure can puzzle him.

Charlie Self "When we are planning for posterity, we ought to remember that virtue is not hereditary." Thomas Paine

i have this discussion with my wife frequently. she teaches 7th & 8th grades. it's really the nea and school district bureaucracy, which apparently is goaled on how many kids get accepted to college. if that's the goal, it's no wonder that they don't have vo-tech anymore, since that is seen as failing for a school.

To listen to many of today's educators, we need computer labs, not shops.

Charles Spitzer wrote: