5 woodworking resolutions you can keep
Happy New Year!
As we enter 2014, here are a few tips for you to consider implementing in your workshop. None of these will cost you a cent and may help you to focus on woodworking rather than its trappings.
1. AVOID BUYING TOOLS
Don’t buy a tool because you want it, but only if you absolutely need it. Even then, try find creative solutions using tools you already own first.
2. LEND YOUR TOOLS TO PEOPLE WHO ASK
Be a Good Guy Woodworker. Ditch the arrogant, “don’t even look at them” mentality. Friendships and goodwill are more valuable than objects.
Be a Good Guy Woodworker. Ditch the arrogant, “don’t even look at them” mentality. Friendships and goodwill are more valuable than objects.
3. SCRAP THE SCRAPS
Spend one hour – just one day this year – throwing away scrap lumber. Especially those tiny cut-offs. Be honest with yourself: if there are scraps you haven’t touched in a year, you probably won’t use them.
Spend one hour – just one day this year – throwing away scrap lumber. Especially those tiny cut-offs. Be honest with yourself: if there are scraps you haven’t touched in a year, you probably won’t use them.
4. CREATE, DON’T COLLECT
If you have tools that serve only to gather dust, sell them or give them away. Avoid emotional attachments to tools which can lead to hoarding and stifle productivity. Decluttering your shop will declutter your mind.
If you have tools that serve only to gather dust, sell them or give them away. Avoid emotional attachments to tools which can lead to hoarding and stifle productivity. Decluttering your shop will declutter your mind.
5. DESIGN YOUR OWN
If you’ve only built projects from plans, try to create something on your own. It doesn’t have to be fancy or complicated, maybe a new style of bookcase or storage container. You will learn and discover techniques and build your skills faster.
January 1, 2014 @ 9:55 am
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January 1, 2014 @ 9:56 am
Steve,
You don’t expect me to clean out my box of scraps labeled, “Too Small to be Used,” do you?
January 1, 2014 @ 10:02 am
Great goals! I just did a tool purge myself. I used my blog to advertise and find my unused tools a new home. I’ve also been working on Shannon Rogers (the Hand Tool School) to possible set up a tool swap site for everyone who wants get rid of unused tools. I hope its an idea that others can use.
sheworkswood.com
January 1, 2014 @ 11:43 am
Good goals but I won’t throw my shopvac away although it collects a lot of dust (goal 4)LOL
January 1, 2014 @ 12:58 pm
That joke just sucked… 🙂
January 2, 2014 @ 12:02 am
My shopvac ‘sucks’ quite well but it can also blow…
January 1, 2014 @ 11:59 am
Steve, I think this is the first time I felt that I totally disagreed with you, on nearly every point.
OK, I don’t buy tools unless I need them, I can’t afford to, however I have found to my cost that lending tools can be a very costly exercise, I would lend to ‘friends’, who either never returned them, or returned them knowing they had damaged the tool but said nothing. Now I will only lend to people I know will treat the tool in the same way I would.
Scraps always come in at some point, to make wedges, use as supports, or act as kindling for a fire, never just throw them away.
Duplicated tools may sit on a shelf for years, but you can be sure the moment you get rid of them, your other will pack up on you, OK if it is a tool for a side of woodwork you will never attempt that is different, for some reason wood-turning is something I never got the hang of, so if I came into possession of tools relating to that, I would get rid of them, but otherwise they can continue to sit there.
When starting out, I built from plans, but would personalise the item, in this way, you learn how to do something correctly, but at the same time, make it your own. Later I have found that I will look at plans to get ideas, then make my own version. Unfortunately however long we have been woodworking, some of us do not have the imaginative mind that many others have. I get my satisfaction, from a job well done, whether it was inspired by someone else or not, is not important…to me!!
Sorry if I am out of tune with everyone else, but these are my thoughts after 35 years of pottering in the workshop.
January 2, 2014 @ 12:31 am
Go to your room!
January 1, 2014 @ 12:01 pm
I’ve started using my backyard fire pit as my scrap receptacle. small pieces i’m not going to use get tossed in there and when it’s full i roast some s’mores:-) I’m also thinking of a way to make “presto” logs out of my sawdust. I’m not a recycling nut but for some reason I don’t like to waste wood.
January 1, 2014 @ 12:17 pm
Al igual que Phil Venta, no estoy muy de acuerdo con prestar herramientas, la experiencia en mi caso no a sido buena, incluso he perdido amigos por prestar herramientas, de comprar herramientas porque te gusto, si yo muchas veces he comprado herramientas que no he utilizado nuca. Finalmente de acumular trozos pequeños, ufff, tengo muchos recorte, siempre digo que voy a botar o utilizar en el asador, pero finalmente solo clasifico por tamaños y tipos y suelo botar menos del 1% del total.
Like Phil Sale, I’m not agree with providing tools, experience in my case not been good, I’ve even lost friends by providing tools, buy tools because you like me, if I have often purchased tools that I have not used neck. Finally accumulate small pieces phew, I have many cuts, I always say I’m going to throw on the grill or use, but eventually only classify by size and type and ground bounce less than 1% of the total.
January 1, 2014 @ 1:19 pm
I didn’t get past #1. This weekend is my birthday and the woodworking show. The wife is taking me and HER wallet. Can we say new tools. Yes with a gleam in my eye!
January 1, 2014 @ 2:08 pm
1. AVOID BUYING TOOLS : My advice about buying tool is this : Avoid buying the most expensive tools available on the market. For example : Ryobi 18V cordless drill for 99$ or the DeWalt 18V cordless drill at 219$
2. LEND YOUR TOOLS TO PEOPLE WHO ASK : And when you need your tools, others have them and they can’t be reached so it’s impossible to get them back. And the WCS : you can’t get them back in working order. So no !!
3. SCRAP THE SCRAPS : It’s already the case, nothing new here.
4. CREATE, DON’T COLLECT : Personally, I don’t have any tools collecting dust. In fact all of them collecting dust right as I write here because I work on my project almost of the time outside and here in Canada, today it’s -29.2 Fahrenheit outside.
5. DESIGN YOUR OWN : This depend on your level at wood working. Trying to learn how to properly operate your tools while you also figuring out how to debug a project of your own design can become a real nightmare. When you have some experience with your tools, go for it, ladies and gentleman, GO FOR IT !!!
Best regards
January 1, 2014 @ 2:34 pm
Guillaume, I agree 100% with point 1. when I started out with woodwork I was always taught by Professional Chippies, to go for a reliable cheap tool rather than one where you pay for the Brand, even if it does not last as long, which is often not the case, 4 cheap versions are a better bet than 1 expensive one.
January 1, 2014 @ 5:27 pm
I don’t lend my “good” tools anymore. I volunteer for Habitat for Humanity two days a week and got tired of lending good tools and then getting them back in rough shape. I have bought inexpensive tools from Harbor Freight and lend those out. If they’re broken I’m not out of a lot of money. BTW the Harbor Freight tools have been holding up quite well.
January 1, 2014 @ 7:15 pm
I have to agree with most of the replies here about lending tools. I make a living with my tools and can’t really afford to have them go on “permanent loan” or come back in bad shape. I have two tools that I seldom use out now. One is a porta-band I haven’t seen in over a year. There’s times I could have used it around the shop but made do with something else because it wasn’t here. I could go get it but the guy who has it knows better than to keep something this long and I’m letting him sweat it until he makes the effort to bring it back. The other is a framing nailer that’s only been out a few weeks. We’ll see about that one.
My resolution for this year is to finally build that pantorouter. I’ve about decided I’m going to do it without any plans just to prove I can. After it’s done I’ll send Mattias some pictures and the money for the plans so I can see how close I got.
January 2, 2014 @ 12:47 am
If it works, you got close.
January 2, 2014 @ 7:52 am
My resolutions are pretty small…
1. Make a list of projects I’ve begun and actually finish them.
2. Make time to complete one project a month, even if its only a doorstop.
3. Finally organize the garage to fit a car in there AND have a functional shop area. The car will be covered in dust.
4. Find a way to get heat into the garage in order to make it functional in the winter.
January 2, 2014 @ 9:23 am
My best friend ever thought nothing of borrowing tools, or anything else really. He would borrow … say … my pad sander. Later bring it back, hand it to me, and say, “It broke.” He said it like he accused it of failing him. Later, for his birthday or for Christmas, I would buy both of us the same model pad sander and give him his. Now, I have a very nice collection of functioning tools that are identical to the ones he has in his “broken tool pile.” Somehow, it seems harder to borrow a tool that I have already given him. I remember four tools I have had to replace this way. The math is hard to do, but four tools over 30 years equals one and a third tools per decade. Friendship has no price? It costs me one pad sander and 1/3 of a circular saw every ten years.
January 2, 2014 @ 9:47 am
Number 3 is nearing completion. Just returned from the landfill. Thanks for the push to “unclutteredness.”
January 2, 2014 @ 11:13 am
I would just like to say,
No. 1: i do agree (but its not going to happen ;-))
No 2: if people break your tools think about lending your skills to. Teach your friends how to use the tools, build stuf together. More fun and your tools will last longer.
No.3: i agree if you haven’t used a tiny peace of MDF or particle board just light a fire with it.
No 4.: giving things away that you don’t use is one of the best things you can do. Having some one else enjoy a tool you had no use for is a great gift to that perso and to yourself
No. 5: it goes without saying.
January 2, 2014 @ 11:48 am
I definatly agree to your version of No 2