When the mind is NOT involved ..

[steven c newman]

When you are working in the shop...you need to make sure the mind is engaged in the work going on. If you can't concentrate on the tasks being done, mistakes will happen. IF you are lucky, only the wood will suffer.....the goal is to leave the shop in the same condition that you went in...:o

Had such a problem this morning.....could not get the mind out of"neutral", and into the tasks being done. Noticed fingers getting too close to sharp objects :eek: lost track of which task was next....

So...I simply set down the tools onto the bench, turned off the light, and walked back out of the shop. Safer this way. There is always another time.;)

no "DNA" was spilled in today's shop time...stay safe, out there.:cool:

[steven c newman]

Case in point.. a bead was started
380352
Barely....had to adjust the fence closer to the edge....however
380353
Those two pencil marks? THIS is the side the bead is supposed to be on. Instead of on the edge.
Just little things like this, can add up to a bad day....

[John C Cox]

Absolutely 100% right. I now have a perennial ache in a finger on my left hand after I introduced a very sharp chisel to the bone in my finger... It was late at night.. I was sleepy.. Pushing to get that one last thing cleaned up before going to bed...

Well - I sure had a lot more to clean up after that... And bed was a lot farther away at that point...

[Frederick Skelly]

Good decision. Hope I can be so wise to heed your advice there.
Glad you are safe and intact.
Fred

[Phil Mueller]

It’s that split second after the fact that your mind races and thinks “what the heck did I just do?!” I put a a 1/4” chisel through the base of my thumb once clear to the bone. Fortunately, didn’t hit anything important, so it all functions just fine. But, yes, a lapse of thought/discipline can be quite harmful. It is often best at times to just walk away for a awhile.

[Patrick Chase]

Absolutely 100% right. I now have a perennial ache in a finger on my left hand after I introduced a very sharp chisel to the bone in my finger... It was late at night.. I was sleepy.. Pushing to get that one last thing cleaned up before going to bed...

Well - I sure had a lot more to clean up after that... And bed was a lot farther away at that point...

Been there, done that. Except I did it in the late afternoon and was alone with the kids, so I had to stabilize it, take care of them through dinner and bedtime, and then sneak off to the ER once my wife was back. I had to use a bunch of acetone on it to get rid of all of the CA resin so that the ER could stitch it. Not fun. Nice job stopping before anything bad happened, Steven.

[Bob Glenn]

Yup, it happened to me this afternoon. Was cutting dovetails. Had cut several and marked out a new set. Okay, leave the line, leave the line. No problem. Left the line, sawed and chiseled out the waste looking for a perfect fit right off the saw as usual. Whoa, loosey, goosey. What happened? Left the line alright, but on the wrong side!

I just turned out the lights and went outside and trimmed some bushes. The day before, I cut the same part three times before I got it right.

[Bill Carey]

Just came up from the shop, tired, and opened this thread. How fitting. All day working on parts, keeping track of what goes where, in the home stretch, getting ready to make the first glue up, LOML is telling me dinner is getting cold, and I'm finished gluing and had the brilliant thought that if I drove the glue back down the nozzle of the bottle with some compressed air, it would be nice and clean tomorrow. Well I'm driving that glue back into the bottle, feeling pretty smart, the nozzle is clean as a whistle, and I stop the flow of air, and here comes a Vesuvius of glue out of the bottle. All over my shirt, my face, tools, the piece I was working on, my bench, etc etc. No telling how much pressure I built up in that little glubot bottle of glue. And dinner was way cold by the time I got to it. LOML thought it was the funniest thing she had ever seen.

[David Eisenhauer]

Good one Bill. I too love it when I think I have a brilliant plan and life it's own self slaps me down. I was laughing with you, not at you. ​

[steven c newman]

When you can't seem to focus on the task at hand....getting upset because you can't find the tool/part/clamp that you had just laid down a minute ago....when you make a cut on the wrong side of a part.....or cut the wrong parts. When your mind,AND eyes , are not focused on the spinning saw blade...when you get mad, and get in too big of a hurry.....

Step back, drink that soda/coffee/water ( NO BOOZE!) and just...think. Relax.... Regain a calm feeling.... Take a good look around....mabye just take a short ( as needed) "Coffee Break". Once all that happens, then think about how to start working again....come up with a "better plan of action". Then try again.

You may find that Concentration beats Motivation everytime.

[michael langman]

This is a great topic to bring up Steven. I find myself taking more breaks then usual these days, and still happen to make mistakes along the way.
Getting older, and doing what came naturally in our younger years, can be very frustrating to say the least.

[Patrick Chase]

( NO BOOZE!)

Isn't the booze a mandatory part of "traditional" neanderthal woodworking? :-)

"a shot for the shellac, a shot for me, a shot for the shellac, two shots for me"...

[steven c newman]

NOT in MY shop....maybe AFTER shop time is finished for the day.

IF you wish to have it in YOUR shop...that is YOUR problem.

[Mark Rainey]

Good advice

[Jake Hillestad]

NOT in MY shop....maybe AFTER shop time is finished for the day.

IF you wish to have it in YOUR shop...that is YOUR problem.

Lighten Up Francis....

[Mike Baker 2]

Yup, it happened to me this afternoon. Was cutting dovetails. Had cut several and marked out a new set. Okay, leave the line, leave the line. No problem. Left the line, sawed and chiseled out the waste looking for a perfect fit right off the saw as usual. Whoa, loosey, goosey. What happened? Left the line alright, but on the wrong side!

I just turned out the lights and went outside and trimmed some bushes. The day before, I cut the same part three times before I got it right.

I just did this a few days ago. My first dovetail. I will come back and address it by flipping the board end for end, and cutting pins to fit that dovetail, and a new tail on the other end to fit the pins that were loose. Fortunately, I did not cut dovetails in both ends yet.
But yep, Been there. Also stabbed myself in the belly really good with a 1/8th chisel once. Not fun at all.

[steven c newman]

Not when there are a bunch of very sharp objects in use. About like driving a car while distracted....

I prefer to leave my shop in the same conditions as I went into it.....with no more holes than I was born with.

While I don't waste any time in the shop..I prefer not to get in so big of a hurry that mistakes can happen..or worse.

When I do get in a big hurry...
380581380582380584
Chisel missed the target, chisel popped out of the work, rip saw was going faster than I was...
These all could have been very bad.....

Distractions in the shop..hurt.

[Jerry Olexa]

Good advice, Steve...

[Jim Koepke]

Kind of a twist on an old saw about one's mouth,

Make sure the mind is in gear before engaging the chisel.

jtk

[Ted Phillips]

I frequently find that I'm working in the shop well past the point that I am fatigued. We've all been there - in the "groove" doing whatever task is at hand - and not paying attention to what our bodies are telling us. My wife came down Sunday evening. When I stopped to chat with her, I realized that I was extremely tired and past the point I should have hung up the apron. She recommended that I come upstairs for a cup of tea. I cleaned up and turned out the lights...

TedP

[Mike Baker 2]

I frequently find that I'm working in the shop well past the point that I am fatigued. We've all been there - in the "groove" doing whatever task is at hand - and not paying attention to what our bodies are telling us. My wife came down Sunday evening. When I stopped to chat with her, I realized that I was extremely tired and past the point I should have hung up the apron. She recommended that I come upstairs for a cup of tea. I cleaned up and turned out the lights...

TedP
This is what I hate. We can get so caught up in what we are doing we pay no attention to what our body is telling us. I can't count the number of times I've been rolling along on a project, and something interrupts and i realize my blood sugar has dropped dangerously low, and another few minutes I'd be laid out on the floor.
Need to remember to carry some candy.