Dull few days in the shop

[Matt Evans]

Some things are just boring. You know you have to do them, but you don't really enjoy it much.

Like running 1500sqft of flooring out of your least favorite wood. . .

At least it'll be done, customer will be happy, and I'll get my shop space back.

[Jim Becker]

There are worse things...at least you have a customer willing to pay for that "boring flooring". :D While the current job I'm finishing up is considerably smaller than yours, I do understand where you're coming from since it's repetitive--simple objects--8"x16"x~1.75" photo panels for a photographer friend. Her regular suppliers don't carry that size. But despite the fact that it's not "fun" work, I'll be asking her for more of it, especially to use up some of the waste that comes from the original order's dimensions due to kerf width. ;)

[Matt Day]

I agree those days are dull, but pay the bills. I just made 50 “menu boards” which are basically 3/8” x 9 x 12 slabs of ash with a couple holes in them. Monotonous to say the least! Made me excited to finish and move on.

[Matt Evans]

There are worse things...at least you have a customer willing to pay for that "boring flooring". :D While the current job I'm finishing up is considerably smaller than yours, I do understand where you're coming from since it's repetitive--simple objects--8"x16"x~1.75" photo panels for a photographer friend. Her regular suppliers don't carry that size. But despite the fact that it's not "fun" work, I'll be asking her for more of it, especially to use up some of the waste that comes from the original order's dimensions due to kerf width. ;)

I hear you. My off-cuts pile is getting to be as large as my stockpile of lumber. . . I really need to do a run of small boxes, picture frames or something to use a lot of it up.


I agree those days are dull, but pay the bills. I just made 50 “menu boards” which are basically 3/8” x 9 x 12 slabs of ash with a couple holes in them. Monotonous to say the least! Made me excited to finish and move on.

Could almost be paraphrased as " Mahogany is the spice of life, but Red Oak brings home the groceries"

Almost all 2017 I worked with Ash on all but 2-3 jobs. Got really bored with it after 2 months of nothing but looking at stacks and stacks of some of the most nondescript wood you can get. The Red oak was a change, but not necessarily one I enjoyed. Whoever sawed it didn't really pay attention to thickness, so the lumber was in every thickness from 7/4 to 4/4, with about 1/3 of the boards tapering at least 1/4" over 9'. Lots of felling shake, and very stringy. During the planing process I think I spent close to 4 hours disassembling the dust collection to get at blockages caused by 12-16" long "strings" that would peel up.

2/3rds of it were brought as 18' long, 6" wide boards, to make 5" flooring, so to get a straight line I had to shorten all of them by at least half to give me enough width. If the flooring were narrower I'd not worry about a dead straight edge as much, but 5" wide flooring is a bear to bend.

[Ted Derryberry]

Mass production (even on a small scale) of repetitious work is where the money is. Sure it would be fun to work on a different project every day, but I'd go broke in a hurry. I have to do a lot of the same, or at least similar, stuff to pay the bills.

[Jim Becker]

I agree, Ted. Despite the tedious nature of repetitious work, it's also the most efficient way to do at least a portion of the work we might do for others and as you say, can generate some steady cash flow in-between more thrilling tasks or even intermixed with other more unique projects to fill time that would otherwise be lost to 'watching glue dry' or watching a CNC do it's thing. That's one reason I'm going to be gently pushing my photographer friend to let me do her panels even in sizes she can buy from a mass supplier. I will not make quite as much on a unit basis and she might pay just a little more overall (which she can charge to her customers) and we both make out in the end.