Personal rant...

Win some, lose some

Ellis Walentine

If an occasional rant helps clear the air for you, have at it. I must say that I've had a few times when I was pretty fed up with a project. The tough get going, they say, so I always managed somehow, and I expect you will, too.

The best thing now would be to get the finish on without incident and deliver the finished product with a smile. It's a really nice-looking piece, Alan, and you'll probably learn a lot from it, in hindsight. I think the customers will really appreciate it.

No charge for the sage advice.

Ellis

Re: Personal rant...

Mark Hennebury

I feel your pain; i too have had many a never-ending job, when you have put in way too much time already and the end isn't anywhere in sight.

Nose to grindstone, focus,, pick a piece, a part or an operation , this is the only piece that you see, the only part that exists, the only operation that you have to do, this is your universe. Do it, complete it, finish it, take sustenance from the victory, then look up and pick the next piece and repeat. Forget the past don't look at the far off future, do the piece in hand, rinse and repeat, before you know it you will be done.

Never ending jobs do in fact.

Have a break and a few beers go back all refreshed determined to do the next one right. It maybe lying to ourselves but it is the way we survive.

Re: Personal rant...

Hank Knight

I've had a couple of projects like that. They become giant ogres that hulk in your workshop and are inspiration for a thousand excuses to find something else to work on. My mother-in-law, bless her heart, had some advice that hit home for me and that I still try to follow today: When you get up in the morning, pick the worst task you have on your plate for the day and do it first. The sooner you seize your ogre by the throat and slay it, the sooner you'll feel better and look forward to the rest of your day, week month, whatever. It works for big ogres and little ones. Before I started following her advice 30 years ago, I had a project like yours. I still see it lurking in a corner of my workshop all these years later, unfinished, and I still feel guilty about giving cup on it.

All's Well that Ends

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I had this saying on a poster. I am tired from every large project I complete and glad to be rid of it, yet enthusiastic to start another.

I like the table. It does look big and heavy and I would be glad to get it done too.

Re: Personal rant...

Dick Coers

You can take a little solace in the fact that groceries for your family are not dependent on the work. But just an assumption since you called yourself "part time professional". When I ran my full time woodworking business, the project that went bad meant we lived on credit cards until the job was installed, and usually a dent in the profitability for the year. Hand crafting custom work is fraught with danger, both physical and mental. I still have dreams about my business, and I closed that over 20 years ago. Nightmares may be a better descriptor, most of the time! Maybe take a day or two off, power through the remainder of the work, and what ever you do, DON"T concentrate on the day it should be done.

Re: Personal rant...

Thomas Skaggs, Foothills of Mount Level

You got the woodworkin' blues my friend. (queue the harmonica)

It happens to all of us I imagine. Sometimes projects don't inspire us. But you are customer focused and I know you'll give them a quality piece. Let their excitement be your inspiration now.

T.

PS....Of course I could be wrong. Perhaps something else is fueling your dread? Perhaps the use of concrete blocks for the feet is messing with your mind? I just hope they are properly attached. IMHO they look pretty clunky. I used to use concrete blocks for furniture feet but I decided to become more refined. I now use bricks.

Thank You

David Yoho

That last bit about the cinder blocks had me rolling. What a hoot

Re: Personal rant...

David Yoho

I think many of us that build or have built for others have experienced what you report. I know I certainly did. As a part-time professional like yourself I would occasionally get burnt out to a point I actually hated going out to the shop to work. I felt a resentment toward the project, which for me was totally off base for something I loved doing so much. The burnt out feeling wasn't brought on by any single thing usually but I knew it made it harder to perform my best and that wasn't fair to the customer.

What worked for me was a time out. The only problem with that was when there were other projects in the queue with deadlines I'd promised. That's when I had to suck it up and work through it until I could take a short break to get my head right.

Hang in there. It gets better in time.

Plus...

Tony - Memphis

They are awfully tough to carve into ball and claw feet!

Big project doldrums

Tom dunlap

I'm a hobby woodworker but I can relate to finishing projects

As a commercial arborist we'd usually do 2-5 jobs a day. Occasionally a job would take 1-2 days. Even more rare we're 3+ day jobs. Usually condos doing cookie cutter pruning to acres of trees that were replicants of each other. Nothing creative. Mundane work that never seems to end

There would be an agitation on the crew after days on not completing the work. The feeling was so different from usual. After understanding the feeling firnme and my crew I started mixing up the work flow. Maybe even go do a removal to

Help clear our heads

Most jobs in the world never have an end. Work keeps coming down the conveyor belt. That develops a psyche that's different from doing piece work

Re: Personal rant...

Brian Holcombe

I like to look at a project in phases, and take a moment to mentally recalibrate at the end of each phase. It helps when the project is an endurance run rather than a sprint. It keeps me interested in the work as I continue to see the work as a series of completely different tasks. I gear up for and complete each task at a time.

For example; I've been building a QS white oak kitchen for quite some time now, clients are happy as can be as we've been doing it in stages of sections built then installed with time in between each section for other work. It's had some tough aspects to it but the job on the whole has been quite interesting to pursue.

The last stage has been a very large assembly of joined plywood (I joined it with mortise and tenon), it's very deep and in 18mm baltic birch ply. It's a hulking mass and just has been physically brutal on my light frame. I didn't enjoy making the boxes, but now that I'm on to the more detailed aspects of the work I very much enjoy it.

I've come to realize that in this line of work where every job is different, some days the bear will eat you (as they say), some days will be a slog, and some will be absolute successes. I have a process of dusting myself off, cleaning up the shop a bit, then proceeding toward a new aspect of the work creates a feeling of renewal that greatly helps towards keeping spirits high in my one man workshop.

I start each day by organizing my thoughts and I end each day with a cleaning of the shop and often enough sharpening of the tools. So, if nothing else I walk away from the shop without loose ends so that I can re-enter the shop the next day and begin again without carrying forward the previous day's issues.

Re: Personal rant...

Clint Searl

The final 10% of a project always takes twice as long.

Re: Personal rant...

chuck wintle

maybe time for a vacation from woodworking? and then only go back in 6-8 months time.