I thought ww'ing was supposed to be relaxing...

[Brandon Hanley]

I hear all the time how woodworking is so relaxing for people, yet it stresses me out? I always over think everything due to adhd and im pretty sure its ruining it for me. I literally look forward to my day off for a week planning to get out in the shop, only to stand there staring at a project trying to figure something out in my head until i get stressed out and lock up to go do something else.

Prime example:
I've been working on a variation of the work bench from Jay's custom creations plans for probably 2 years now. The first year went into making the top that I'm still not happy with, but wasted so much oak and walnut on it that I cant bring myself to start over. Its about 3ft x 7ft x 3in, but I'm pretty sure I went through enough oak and walnut that someone else could have made 5 full benches with. Then I spent another month and forest worth of oak and walnut making the legs. Not doing detail work just gluing them up and cutting the main tennon that will go through the top.

Its time to cut the mortise holes in the top but I've been stuck at that stage for over a year now. I keep going out staring at it planning how to cut them. Then buying tools or whatever I think ill need before going back out deciding i don't want to do it that way then getting stressed out and repeating the process over and over.

I'm pretty sure this is the worst possible hobby for me but I'm too invested to admit defeat and give up.

I started gathering tools probably 7 years ago with the goal of building a guitar. All those years pass and I never started a guitar yet. I keep telling myself that I need to finish the bench first.

So essentially I had a two story 24 x 24ft garage put up, equipped it with thousands of dollars worth of tools and stockpiled thousands of dollars worth of wood. So far in the 4 years since the building went up all I've done was mill a bunch of logs and make a few trinket boxes. My wife loves throwing that in my face lol. I gave her the first box made out of cherry with half blind dovetails when i first got my incra router table setup. Every time someone sees the box and asks about it she tells them its her $40k custom cherry trinket box. Then goes on to explain that I apparently spent $40k to build her that box since she has yet to see any other finished projects come out of my shop. Lol

In my defense I've been working 70+ hours a week so I dont have much time out there

Maybe tomorrow ill figure out how I want to cut those 4 mortises and get it moving? Lol I doubt it.

[Lee Schierer]

Some folks build a prototype out of construction grade lumber before they use good hardwood. That way they can work out joint designs and measurements without destroying finish wood.

YOu can also buy complete plans which will tell you what materials you need, the cutting order and complete dimensions for each piece.

Or learn 3D cad and start designing each piece.

[Jim Becker]

Lee hit an important point about something I'm doing more and more now: Prototyping to both figure things out and be sure my idea(s) will work before I commit to the expensive material. I spent several days this week doing just that for what's a small thing, but something that requires me to do stuff that I don't have previous experience in. Don't let the challenges ruin the activity for you...embrace them as an opportunity and wreck some cheap material figuring things out!

[Doug Garson]

Make a dozen or so wooden toys for Christmas toy drives, they don't have to be perfect just fun. In my humble opinion, perfection while a lofty goal, is not a reasonable expectation. Make stuff, flaws and all, make more stuff with fewer flaws, repeat, repeat. As woodworkers 90% of the defects we see in our projects are not visible to everyone else.

[Brian Tymchak]

Working 70 hrs a week?? Give yourself a pass about getting things done in the woodshop.

Every woodworker takes longer to accomplish tasks when they do it the first time. Learning takes time, and mistakes are made. As Jim and Lee mention, prototyping and practicing joinery is typical when doing things the first time. I buy MDF and cheap pine lumber to waste on experiments.

BTW, it took me 18 months to get my bench done, working on it 2-3 hrs each weekend. Sometimes I did nothing for a month. Life gets in the way. My timberframe lumber rack took about 20 months. It didn't get finished until I retired.

Hang in there. Make bite size chunks of progress while you gain experience. It gets easier, I promise.

[Bill McNiel]

Brandon,
I understand your predicament, stop it now! You are putting way too much pressure on yourself and taking all the enjoyment out of the process. I suggest you start with "simple" shop projects. Build shop toys (cabinets, jigs, etc.) this will assist you in developing skill sets for the projects you want to create. I have been making stuff for over 55 years (48 as a 'Professional") and still have a solid core door with a masonite surface as my main workbench, screw the fancy hardwood workbench and just create a flat work surface that you can work on.

Just do it! Make mistakes and learn! If it was easy I couldn't earn a living doing it. you live in the heart of woodworking land, there are multiple SMC members within minutes of you who would be honored to have you visit and/or mentor you.

You can contact me with any question you have at any time. BTW- Tell your wife she should be honored to have a "trinket" box that cost $40K to build. HAVE FUN, THAT'S WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT. BOTH HOBBIES AND OCCUPATION!

Just my thoughts - Bill

[Jim Matthews]

Most of the productive woodworkers logging billable hours like yours are insomniacs.

Have a browse of Neanderthal Haven. The approach there concentrates on the fun, quiet stuff.

Mill with machines on the weekends - saw, plane and join as an hour comes available.

Measure your wife for a coffin as your "next" project.

[Steve Demuth]

Brandon,

Woodworking is not inherently relaxing, any more than any other activity is. For any activity to be a stress reliever, you have to let the work itself be the end. Go to the shop to work with wood, not to make the best bench you can imagine, or a guitar you've been dreaming about. Make an agreement with yourself that the precision, fit and finish, and look that you are capable of achieving is the right precision and fit and finish for your project. If that's not yet what you would want it to be in the long run, make practice the purpose of your work.

Others here have pointed out some very useful ideas for how that can be. Make wooden toys. Make bluebird houses for a local Audubon project. Carve some green wood spoons, and if they turn out crooked and cracked, use them for kindling and make some more. Build more boxes. Don't be afraid to make stuff that doesn't matter too much, because the making itself is what matters. The point is to touch the wood, cut the wood, make sawdust and chips, and learn some hand skills and some "don't dos" and the feel of the tools. If you want to do this to relax, the point is to lose yourself in the process, not the thing you get at the other end. It can be that for quite a long while

I would also suggest, although I understand that your work schedule may make it impossible, that you look for classes for techniques you want to master, or maybe someone to work wood with. One of the beautiful things about classes is that they give you experienced people on on who to offload your performance anxiety for what you're doing. The instructors are there to teach, obviously, but more importantly for many people, they are there to absorb the negativity that comes from not getting stuff right - to literally be the one to say "not perfect, but good enough for where we're going, and hey, my friend, I've done worse myself."

I do relax by working in the shop - wood, metal, machine restoration, the whole lot. All of them work to relax me, not because of what I produce, but because the process of production gives my brain complete permission to be there, doing that, and having the doing be the point, and be enough.

[Jim Koepke]

The desire to achieve perfection is often the enemy of finding satisfaction with something that is good enough. (or something like that)

Or like the Nike ad says, "just do it."

Then make another trinket box for the wife. When you give it to her, mention that the first one is now only worth $20k.

jtk

[Thomas McCurnin]

+1 on Prototypes and extra parts. I had an anger management problem for a few years with stress and such, and woodworking really wasn't working for me. I'd be making a part on a near finished project and space out and cut the mortise on the wrong part, cut the leg too short, whatever, you get the general idea. I'd get super pissed off and the part would go flying down the driveway, and I was unapproachable for days, wanting to set fire to the table saw.

I actually went to counseling and in my day job, the counselor noted that I made copies of key documents or notebooks for safe keeping. Christ, that is what a photocopier is for. So after prodding, I realized that if I need four legs for a chair, I probably should make 6 or even 7, because chances are that I will screw one up and that way I'll have a spare. It isn't that difficult making extra parts if you have the stock.

I also made prototypes, practice pieces, set up pieces, whatever you want to call them, out of the exact same sized and milled wood, except I used poplar or alder to save some money.

Once I started that practice, I stopped getting angry about screwing up parts, stopped stressing about critical cuts (although I do those critical cuts in the morning after a cup of coffee when I'm fresh and relaxed and do not do them at night when I'm tired), and surprisingly, I end up with a nice project and often a bunch of extra parts. That evolved to making 2-3 copies of everything, so out of the three chairs, I'll pick the nicest one for me, probably screw up one completely, and have an extra for parts or a giveaway.

[Andrew Hughes]

Brandons post sound a lot like my summer gardens. One year I spend hundreds of dollars just for a few tomato plants.
After the squirrels and bugs took their cut my tomatoes were about 25 dollars each.
I know this doesn’t help with Brandon mental block. Nothing get me more frustrated then when one of my machines starts acting up. All my creative freedom will leave until I get sorted out.
Good Luck

[Scott Winners]

Good is the enemy of good enough.

I agree with a lot, well, all, of what has already been said.

I spent quite a bit of time getting my first bench built so I could get on with other stuff, and I don't regret one single moment now - there were several low points - but now that it is built I have a place to work on other stuff.

So your top is ready enough and your legs have the top tenons already cut. Are these through tenons or stopped tenons? Will you able to see end grain of the legs in the bench top?

What about stretchers? Are you going to have a rectangle of sticks near the ground holding each of the feet in alignment?

What I would do (did) at this point is put a pair of sawhorses down roughly where your bench is going to go, and then set your top on those saw horses. Now you have a workbench. It needs better legs, and doesn't have a vise mounted to it, but you now have a place to work on the legs. You might need some clamps to hold the top to the sawhorses, and it won't be the perfect working height, but you can work on it.

Or you could put the top on the sawhorses upside down and do your stopped mortises first.

I remember my first independent shift as a new grad RN. I was working 11P-7A. I had 60 beds, probably 55-58 of them occupied. The midnight med pass was about the death of me, but 2A and 4A weren't so bad. At 0500 I thought I was going to make it, until the computer popped up (@0501) all the meds I absolutely had to pass between 0500 and 0700. It was pages and pages and pages of stuff for people I had never met because they had been sleeping all night. It was one of those sink or swim moments you never forget. And I had "a moment." It didn't matter what medication I passed to who first, but I had better pass something now and keep passing stuff now or I would never get then all passed in time. That was almost 25 years ago. I clocked 65 hours this week and have made zero progress on any of my carpentry projects. I seem to have successfully avoided the pague for another week. Posting here is about as close to "woodworking" as I am going to get today.

Similarly, if you are still cutting joints, it doesn't matter which joint you cut next. You will not be able to put the whole thing together until all the joints are cut. Get your sawhorses out. I chose to just lay my slab on the horses and finish the legs and stretchers before doing the layout and cutting on the top. It doesn't matter really, but I figured if I screwed up the legs I could put the mortises in the top at places other then planned. You may choose to put your mortises in the top next. Just pick, and then -this really important- enjoy the process of doing the joinery. There is plusses and minuses both ways. The point is to get your (first) bench built, learn from it, enjoy the process of the doing, and do "better" (whatever that means) on the next project.

You will build more benches. What I like to do is layout all my markup for whatever phase and then come back tomorrow or next weekend and make sure my layout marks line up before cutting any joints. But that is my blindspot. I learned that by making very expensive fuel for my woodstove, but now I know it and work around it, work with it.

For workbench and up size M/T joints I do the layout, sleep on it, double check the marks on the wood line up correctly. From there I chisel to the line to cut the fibers at the surfaces and then drill baby drill. On the show sides I will often excavate the first 1/4" or so with a chisel before drilling. Drill some more, about half way through from one side, flip, about halfway through from the otherside. Are you sure you have drilled all you can? Victory is when you have a big enough through hole for your chips to fall away rather than clutter up the working face of your mortise. Once the chips off your chisel are falling through you are home free on that one. Enjoy the process.

FWIW my bench build is here, but there is a ton of workbench build threads here, look forward to seeing yours. https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?270765-Small-heavy-Workbench-inexpensive

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

I get what is meant by the planning. While I hate going by blueprints, etc. When I find an idea for making something new. I sketch it, make allowances for putting things together, finishing, etc, and then work through the steps on paper, so when I get to actually doing something, I get it done in the proper order. Then I gather materials and "make' The kicker, I do not do fancy joinery, etc. I just wood turn. However, when I run through a prototype with the steps on paper, and adjust where I need to I can do a production run of any number afterward, really fast. I make simple ornaments for Charity. It is down to the point that I can make them in about 4 minutes each, including painting. The planning of making an item, so simple, for efficiency of steps and not involving much changing lathe accessories took the longest part. Even came up with jigs and a specially modified tool to do the job. Each such "job" is kept in a notebook, so if I want to do it again in five years the steps are there in order., materials etc.

Which brings me to the analogy about travel. It isn't always about the destination, but sometimes the journey is the destination. Some times the part important to self isn't the finished project, but the process of getting there. For others it may be the enjoyment others derive from the finished item.

[Nathan Johnson]

What strategies have you employed in other aspects of your life to overcome/work around the ADHD you're blaming for your woodworking issues?

By the way, I like your wife's sense of humor. :)

[John K Jordan]

... When I find an idea for making something new. I sketch it,...

Same here. I rarely make something without at least a simple sketch, often a detailed sketch.

As for 70 hours a week at a job, that will end at some point either with retirement or the grave. I also work a lot of hours a week but I have a lot of variety - farm work, animal care, raising peacocks, working on buildings, woodturning in the shop, sawmilling and processing wood, clearing brush and moving dirt, mechanical work, welding, gardening, teaching.

As for the money, some people spend multiple thousands of dollars with only a fish or a golf score to show for it. One good excavator will cost more than 40k The only danger of spending on hobbies is spending without having the money. Or if the spouse doesn't get equal opportunity.

[Lisa Starr]

Just finish the bench, flaws and all, and start using it. In time you'll want a different bench, you'll have worked on other projects and honed your skills and methods. I'm not saying you should do sloppy work, just do it and make mistakes, that's how you learn. If it will function, it is good enough. When you let go of "perfection" and decide to enjoy the process of creating it will become relaxing.

[Randy Heinemann]

I'm sure that some of the others who replied said this also but . . . Woodworking is relaxing but trying hurry through design or milling lumber or building the project or especially finishing will only lead to errors and, in the end, frustration.

If you're working 70 hours a week, I can't imagine having the energy to even get into the shop. However, I would recommend breaking a project into easily manageable parts that can be accomplished in short periods of time. That way you can take the time periods you have and get one of these tasks mostly or completely done and be ready to move on to the next step. You will be surprised by the sense of accomplishment you get from being able to complete a task, no matter how small. It may take you longer to complete a project but it will be more satisfying when it's done and done more in line with what you would like it to be.

It took me awhile to learn this also, but, once I did, I got much more out of my time in the shop. Sometimes, I just go down there to organize things or sharpen chisels just so that the next time I need a tool I can find it and it's sharp.

Randy

[glenn bradley]

I haven't seen Brandon check back yet. I believe he has the 'analysis to paralysis' syndrome at an almost disabling level. I have bouts of this but, nothing that stretches things into years. I do enjoy having time to percolate on new designs BUT, at some point one begins changing things to no tangible or aesthetic benefit.

Make your plan, check it twice and EXECUTE! I would rather have to make something twice than never get around to it at all. Granted we all approach things differently. My background has left me with a very low tolerance for things NOT getting 100% completed.

This includes cleaning up after the task at hand, not after the whole job. I am always putting things away as I work. That way I know exactly where to find them and don't have to paw through a pile of stuff to look for my double-square :). I just finished spending nearly as long cleaning up as it took me to mount four casters on a machine base :D:D:D.

Thinking things over and making "field modifications" during your efforts is all well and good. Just don't let it grind you to an inexorable stop.

[Bruce King]

Brandon,
I had similar frustrations when I started. My first large project had delaminating mahogany plywood that I tried to glue back which was a waste of time. Nowadays the internet is a huge help. While watching YouTubes on your phone you can pause it and take a screen shot with your phone or take a picture of your PC screen so you have it for later. Also you should post pictures on here for advice on how to cut those mortices.

[andrew whicker]

"real artists produce" - a quote that I repeat whenever I'm starting to analysis paralysis myself.

[Ron Citerone]

Woodworking is relaxing if you do it when you are relaxed. If you are frustrated when you do it it can lead to more frustration......especially in the “learning stage” of new techniques. Tty not to beat yourself up......a lesson I need to learn. :eek::confused:

[Todd Trebuna]

Woodworking is a skill. Think of it this way, athletes have talent, but few athletes have the natural ability to be excellent, just picking up a bat or ball. Having said that, your potential improves, the more skill you build. The only way to do that is to build. In order to build, you have to release the fear of making mistakes and make them. You have to embrace the idea that finished is better than perfect and commit to finishing. Then commit to improving. In the beginning this will make you waste wood. If you've bought expensive wood, then it will be a good lesson to learn and you will mock up, draw, design and plan, so as no to waste more premium wood. But, in the end, you HAVE to get it done. Not getting it done, even imperfectly is keeping you from building something better. Just .02 from a 30 year hobbyist amateur.

[Ron Selzer]

A lot of good advice here. On third wife now, over eleven years with her. She is happy with what I build for her. She picks the boards for the fronts and doors, the rest is up to me. She likes knowing where I am at not drinking, running around etc. As long as she gets new furniture every so often all is good. First wife I was broke and built for others to buy tools. Second wife was impatient and wasn't long before nothing got built. Built some nice things with low end tools, wood stove got fed good and I built my skill set when with first wife. Now have way better and way more tools. However less willing to try new techniques now and way more critical of my self now.
So do what you can now,move on building your skill set. You will improve with each new project. Practice, practice and more practice will pay off. You a!so learn by repairing/fixing mistakes as you go.
Good luck
Ron

[Rob Damon]

This is the way I look at Woodworking after decades of building stuff.

Unless your last name is Maloof, Stickley, Greene, etc. there is a 99 % chance that in 100 years everything you make will end up in the landfill and the termites and ants aren't going to care about how well it was built or what type of design details you put into it or how much you sweat and pondered the build.

Yes, you may get your kids to take it when you are dead and maybe even your grand-kids, but after that it goes to a non-family member because it won't go with their current furniture style in their house and then when they are finished with it, it will go into the landfill. I can't think of a single piece of furniture that my grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents owned or built that is still around today.

Even folks that inherited furniture that was owned by a former President, will get sold so they can take a trip to Hawaii with the family.

What is important to me about a project, is not important to anyone else in the long run.

My first workbench was used by me for ten years and then passed on to my Brother. When he sold his house and he moved, he left it in his garage with the other built cabinets and shelves. I am pretty sure at this point it is in the landfill.
I got enjoyment from building and using it and he used it for many years. Was it perfect, no, but it was enjoyable to make.

So, I suggest you don't worry how long it takes to design and build or the mistakes that you make. Each new build will improve as you go along.

Also, just use normal woods until your skill level allows you to safely use more expensive woods. You won't spend as much and if it doesn't turn out they way you wanted it to, you can give it to a neighbor or family member but you will have gained the experience through building it.

Do you think drivers at the Indy 500 just woke up one day and took a 4 hour training course and just jumped right into driving there? They spend most of their lives, some starting as early a 4 years of age driving go karts, driving and practicing their entire lives. There is no reason to believe that you or anyone else is just going to start WW'g this weekend and start building Maloof Rocker and have it be 100% perfect.

So, just enjoy spending time in the shop to get away from the 70 hour work week.

[Steve Demuth]

Unless your last name is Maloof, Stickley, Greene, etc. there is a 99 % chance that in 100 years everything you make will end up in the landfill and the termites and ants aren't going to care about how well it was built or what type of design details you put into it or how much you sweat and pondered the build.

I agree for the most part. I'm not sure what the take-away should be, though.

Not a single line of code that I wrote in 20s or 30s is still running in any computer. At least half of what I've done since the year 2000 is already irrecoverable history. The vast majority of what I write will only be read by a few people, and only be relevant for for a year at most.

Yet I put a great deal of care into getting this stuff as right and fit as I can. For functional things in particular, I care about the engineering, even if it doesn't have to last for a century or more.

I feel the same about most of what I do for myself. Design things to the level of quality and strength and permanence that fits their purpose, but execute well. Care about the execution.

[Ron Selzer]

I agree for the most part. I'm not sure what the take-away should be, though.

Not a single line of code that I wrote in 20s or 30s is still running in any computer. At least half of what I've done since the year 2000 is already irrecoverable history. The vast majority of what I write will only be read by a few people, and only be relevant for for a year at most.

Yet I put a great deal of care into getting this stuff as right and fit as I can. For functional things in particular, I care about the engineering, even if it doesn't have to last for a century or more.

I feel the same about most of what I do for myself. Design things to the level of quality and strength and permanence that fits their purpose, but execute well. Care about the execution.

well written, definitely agree
ron

[Doug Garson]

I don't build stuff for posterity, I build stuff for that first minute when the person I built for sees it for the first time and the look on their face. Also for that minute years later when I see they are still using it. (Of course as soon as I leave it may go back in the attic but what the heck the moment was good while it lasted ;))

[Rick Potter]

My workbench story started with new doors being installed where I worked. One of the take offs was over 2" thick, solid core, and hardboard skins. It leaned against the wall at work for a couple weeks, then I tried to move it and found it was heavy and solid. I took it home.

I had some cheap sawhorses, and made an instant workbench. I even found the door handle hole to be useful for drilling holes in boards without damaging the door. A little while later, I got some 4x4 and 2x4 material and made a framework for my 'bench'.

Several years passed, with me using it that way, until I found some 6" wheels real cheap at a store going out of business and I installed them. Now I could wheel my bench out in the driveway, throw a tarp over it, and use it to spray paint stuff. Did a lot of that. I also made some 6x6" plywood donuts to keep the wheels from turning when not needed. Made the donut hole just the right size that the wheels drop in, and don't move. Very solid. Sprayed the whole frame white, when I painted some trim for the house.

A couple more years passed, and I built drawers out of scrap, and mounted them under the bench, along with a WW vise on one end. Time passed again, and I removed the bench top (door), and replaced it with two layers of 3/4" particle board with a birch trim around the edges, and a 1/4" thick white melamine work surface. That was almost 15years ago, and I really should replace that melamine surface someday.

This whole process started in 1980, and I have absolutely no reason to replace it. I know it is not a 'real' woodworkers bench, but it has worked well for me, and is still rock solid.

The moral of this story is "Just DO something". Your needs will change over the years anyway.

[Jim Koepke]

Practice, practice and more practice will pay off. You a!so learn by repairing/fixing mistakes as you go.

Part of enjoying woodworking is knowing most mistakes can be repaired or ignored. Most of the time others will not notice them. Mistakes are a part of life. How one deals with their mistakes can be the difference between happiness and misery.

One of my recent big mistakes was done to a half blind dovetailed drawer front. Someone mentioned using a forestner bit for removing waste. My aim was way off on which was waste and what wasn't:

444412

My first thought of course was to cut a new piece and start over. Then after a chuckle it occurred to me this side would be pointed to a wall and no one would see it. At worst if it was a piece on commission the front could be recut and the lesson learned of not trying to come up with quicker ways or speed through the work. If it is supposed to be enjoyable, don't rush.

Much of my woodworking is improved by stopping and thinking about the work instead of trying to hurry up and get it done. Often after a short time in the shop.


My first workbench was used by me for ten years and then passed on to my Brother. When he sold his house and he moved, he left it in his garage with the other built cabinets and shelves. I am pretty sure at this point it is in the landfill.
I got enjoyment from building and using it and he used it for many years. Was it perfect, no, but it was enjoyable to make.

My father made a workbench in the 1950s. It was in his place of business for years. It came to me and was kept dry and safe yet unused. A friend was able to use it so it was in his garage for many years. When he sold his house last year the buyers were happy to have it.

For me the best part of the story is having the vise that used to be on it:

444411

From online sources the ball for the handle became a cylinder in 1936.

jtk

[John K Jordan]

Part of enjoying woodworking is knowing most mistakes can be repaired or ignored. Most of the time others will not notice them. Mistakes are a part of life. How one deals with their mistakes can be the difference between happiness and misery.
...

A bunch of decades ago I learned the lesson about dealing with mistakes and defects that don't affect function. I discovered that when making things for myself, once in use I never noticed or even thought of defects again. And unless glaring, no one else ever noticed. The stress of perfectionism is replaced by the joy of life

When making things for gifts or to show as examples (or to sell, which is almost never) I do want the craftsmanship to be exceptional, for example the form, smoothing and finish of woodturnings.

JKJ

[Bruce King]

My first two work benches started with huge crates that my marble and granite tiles came in back in 2001 when granite slabs were very expensive. I braced them inside then put two layers of plywood on top with a replaceable sheet of hardboard over that. They were very hard to slide on the concrete but still moveable. I had a huge buffet straddling them once. There was storage inside and the edges all overlapped for clamping things. I gave them away when I moved.

[Brandon Hanley]

Sorry for my lack of responses, my email notifications have apparently been going to spam or something I had no idea there were any replies let alone three pages of them. I am using my smartphone and I'm not sure I will be able to get the multi reply to work very well but I'm going to get started working on replies so there may be multiple posts in a row from me.

[Brandon Hanley]

Some folks build a prototype out of construction grade lumber before they use good hardwood. That way they can work out joint designs and measurements without destroying finish wood.

YOu can also buy complete plans which will tell you what materials you need, the cutting order and complete dimensions for each piece.

Or learn 3D cad and start designing each piece.

I definitely need to start using cheaper materials in the future but luckily I have an abundance of mice would right now because of an obsession I had with free and cheap logs and a chainsaw Mill a couple of summers ago. I've literally got a two-car carport, a 10 by 10 add on to the back of a shed, and a 8 ft by 24 foot wall full of maple cherry walnut and Ash slabs and for 55 gallon drums full of big cut off pieces. So although I wasted a ton of Walnut on this at least I wasn't paying by the board foot LOL


. Make stuff, flaws and all, make more stuff with fewer flaws, repeat, repeat. As woodworkers 90% of the defects we see in our projects are not visible to everyone else. i try but have tough time with this


Working 70 hrs a week?? Give yourself a pass about getting things done in the woodshop.



Yep no typo. I work nights driving a tractor-trailer averaging 14hr days 6 days a week and have a wife and 3 little girls waiting at home. I I hate feeling like I'm wasting time so I don't sleep much. That said due to lack of sleep I admit most of the time it feels like I'm operating at about half my mental capacity lol

[Brandon Hanley]

Brandon,
I understand your predicament, stop it now! You are putting way too much pressure on yourself and taking all the enjoyment out of the process. I suggest you start with "simple" shop projects. Build shop toys (cabinets, jigs, etc.) this will assist you in developing skill sets for the projects you want to create. I have been making stuff for over 55 years (48 as a 'Professional") and still have a solid core door with a masonite surface as my main workbench, screw the fancy hardwood workbench and just create a flat work surface that you can work on.

Just do it! Make mistakes and learn! If it was easy I couldn't earn a living doing it. you live in the heart of woodworking land, there are multiple SMC members within minutes of you who would be honored to have you visit and/or mentor you.

You can contact me with any question you have at any time. BTW- Tell your wife she should be honored to have a "trinket" box that cost $40K to build. HAVE FUN, THAT'S WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT. BOTH HOBBIES AND OCCUPATION!

Just my thoughts - Bill

Most of my time in the shop over the past couple of years has come down to me trying to Mill down Live Edge slabs, or just messing around trying to get the hang of hand planes. I've also been working on actually making it a functioning wood shop since it was delivered as a two-story garage built like a giant shed. So over the past couple of years me and a friend slowly did what was needed like insulating the walls putting up pegboard wiring up lights and Outlets Plumbing a giant dust collection setup and things like that.

I actually have enough flat work space that I could work on other things. That isn't really the issue. I just can't bring myself to move on to other things because I feel like I will never finish the work bench if I do. It's been sitting on heavy duty saw horses it's whole life and I also have two of the Harbor Freight work benches fastened together upstairs if I need some bench space

[Brandon Hanley]

Most of the productive woodworkers logging billable hours like yours are insomniacs.

Have a browse of Neanderthal Haven. The approach there concentrates on the fun, quiet stuff.

Mill with machines on the weekends - saw, plane and join as an hour comes available.

Measure your wife for a coffin as your "next" project.

My shop is far enough back and insulated while I'm not off that I can run full stop all night long if I want to. Honestly though 90% of the time I'm just making shavings with a hand plane brainstorming how to do something, almost everything else that I need done ends up either being the table saw

[Brandon Hanley]

Brandon,

Woodworking is not inherently relaxing, any more than any other activity is. For any activity to be a stress reliever, you have to let the work itself be the end. Go to the shop to work with wood, not to make the best bench you can imagine, or a guitar you've been dreaming about. Make an agreement with yourself that the precision, fit and finish, and look that you are capable of achieving is the right precision and fit and finish for your project. If that's not yet what you would want it to be in the long run, make practice the purpose of your work.

Others here have pointed out some very useful ideas for how that can be. Make wooden toys. Make bluebird houses for a local Audubon project. Carve some green wood spoons, and if they turn out crooked and cracked, use them for kindling and make some more. Build more boxes. Don't be afraid to make stuff that doesn't matter too much, because the making itself is what matters. The point is to touch the wood, cut the wood, make sawdust and chips, and learn some hand skills and some "don't dos" and the feel of the tools. If you want to do this to relax, the point is to lose yourself in the process, not the thing you get at the other end. It can be that for quite a long while

I would also suggest, although I understand that your work schedule may make it impossible, that you look for classes for techniques you want to master, or maybe someone to work wood with. One of the beautiful things about classes is that they give you experienced people on on who to offload your performance anxiety for what you're doing. The instructors are there to teach, obviously, but more importantly for many people, they are there to absorb the negativity that comes from not getting stuff right - to literally be the one to say "not perfect, but good enough for where we're going, and hey, my friend, I've done worse myself."

I do relax by working in the shop - wood, metal, machine restoration, the whole lot. All of them work to relax me, not because of what I produce, but because the process of production gives my brain complete permission to be there, doing that, and having the doing be the point, and be enough.

Being okay with something being just good enough is the biggest struggle for me half the time I won't even start something if I can't wrap my head completely around it and have a plan for every step of the way before I even start but as things start to go wrong that plan branch is off in 12 different directions and before I know it I get overwhelmed and stop where I'm at and got stuck there. Luckily I have about 6 million other Hobbies bounce back and forth to. One of those was actually getting into welding a couple of years back when I built a giant steel log Arch onto to a old steel car hauler and spent two years driving around the state picking up free and cheap logs to Mill with a chainsaw Mill.

[Brandon Hanley]

So your top is ready enough and your legs have the top tenons already cut. Are these through tenons or stopped tenons? Will you able to see end grain of the legs in the bench top?

Yes that is where I'm at the plans on using from Jay's Custom Creations call for through tenon's and that was the plan. I've never heard of or considered stopped tenon's but you have me thinking now because people wouldn't be able to see I screwed up from the top LOL



What about stretchers? Are you going to have a rectangle of sticks near the ground holding each of the feet in alignment? yes the plans call for scratchers but I wasn't going to start laying them out until I got the legs laid out and nearly fit to the table



What I would do (did) at this point is put a pair of sawhorses down roughly where your bench is going to go, and then set your top on those saw horses. Now you have a workbench. It needs better legs, and doesn't have a vise mounted to it, but you now have a place to work on the legs. You might need some clamps to hold the top to the sawhorses, and it won't be the perfect working height, but you can work on it. it is currently on this all horses on top of a piece of plywood




Or you could put the top on the sawhorses upside down and do your stopped mortises first. this is been the point where I was stuck and just staring at a trying to figure out exactly how I wanted to lay out and cut the mortises



I remember my first independent shift as a new grad RN. I was working 11P-7A. I had 60 beds, probably 55-58 of them occupied. The midnight med pass was about the death of me, but 2A and 4A weren't so bad. At 0500 I thought I was going to make it, until the computer popped up (@0501) all the meds I absolutely had to pass between 0500 and 0700. It was pages and pages and pages of stuff for people I had never met because they had been sleeping all night. It was one of those sink or swim moments you never forget. And I had "a moment." It didn't matter what medication I passed to who first, but I had better pass something now and keep passing stuff now or I would never get then all passed in time. That was almost 25 years ago. I clocked 65 hours this week and have made zero progress on any of my carpentry projects. I seem to have successfully avoided the pague for another week. Posting here is about as close to "woodworking" as I am going to get today. my wife is an LPN so I totally understand that life. Between the two of our jobs I'm surprised we actually have as much time as we do together but luckily we've always been able to make our schedules lineup



Similarly, if you are still cutting joints, it doesn't matter which joint you cut next. You will not be able to put the whole thing together until all the joints are cut. right now the only joint cut are the legs but if I do switch to stopped tenon's I'm going to have to glue those back and recut them or I would have to give up a couple inches of height



You will build more benches. What I like to do is layout all my markup for whatever phase and then come back tomorrow or next weekend and make sure my layout marks line up before cutting any joints. But that is my blindspot. I learned that by making very expensive fuel for my woodstove, but now I know it and work around it, work with it.
I've been trying to do that but my problem is when I first lay it out it seems right when I come back I start picking it apart



For workbench and up size M/T joints I do the layout, sleep on it, double check the marks on the wood line up correctly. From there I chisel to the line to cut the fibers at the surfaces and then drill baby drill. On the show sides I will often excavate the first 1/4" or so with a chisel before drilling. Drill some more, about half way through from one side, flip, about halfway through from the otherside. this is the part I've been losing sleep over because of not wanting to make sloppy joints I haven't been able to decide how I wanted to go about cutting them although originally I started out planning to do it all with a chisel. Over the months since I've been stuck at this point I considered everything from making a template to use an electric router, using a jigsaw, cutting three sides then putting another board around each side of the table to encase the fourth side of each leg, and a million other ideas with the latest one being that I needed to invest money in a router plane since every time I come up with a new idea I decide I need more supplies and throw more money at it. LOL



Are you sure you have drilled all you can? Victory is when you have a big enough through hole for your chips to fall away rather than clutter up the working face of your mortise. Once the chips off your chisel are falling through you are home free on that one. Enjoy the process.
haven't made it that far at this point I've drawn layout lines about five times and after I get done at pee seems like I find something it isn't Square but can't figure out what it is



FWIW my bench build is here, but there is a ton of workbench build threads here, look forward to seeing yours. https://sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?270765-Small-heavy-Workbench-inexpensive I'll have to check that out. I've been thinking about doing a thread showing my progress and hoping someone would walk me through the rest thinking it may cry for me to keep working on it sooner

I'm out of time for now I want to come back to reply to more when I get a chance

[Brandon Hanley]

Sometimes, I just go down there to organize things or sharpen chisels just so that the next time I need a tool I can find it and it's sharp.

Randy i do this quite a bit


I haven't seen Brandon check back yet. I believe he has the 'analysis to paralysis' syndrome at an almost disabling level.
That's exactly what it is.

[Bruce King]

I think you need this
https://www.grizzly.com/products/grizzly-benchtop-hollow-chisel-mortiser/t10816?gclid=Cj0KCQiAzZL-BRDnARIsAPCJs71C6jhscpXbloScErZTtsoqeGakzemySjp86Y NIvho3Aw1np7f8np4aAhrkEALw_wcB

[Brandon Hanley]

What strategies have you employed in other aspects of your life to overcome/work around the ADHD you're blaming for your woodworking issues?

By the way, I like your wife's sense of humor. :)

Walking away for a while is all I can do and I have trouble even doing that sometimes

[Brandon Hanley]

Just finish the bench, flaws and all, and start using it. In time you'll want a different bench, you'll have worked on other projects and honed your skills and methods. I'm not saying you should do sloppy work, just do it and make mistakes, that's how you learn. If it will function, it is good enough. When you let go of "perfection" and decide to enjoy the process of creating it will become relaxing.
this is the mindset I'm trying to get into

[Brandon Hanley]

This whole process started in 1980, as soon as i read that line I couldnt help but chuckle and think to myself that it feels like this project has been dragging on since 1980 lol

[Jim Becker]

Walking away for a while is all I can do and I have trouble even doing that sometimes

There is none among us who has not had to take a break from any avocation; sometimes it's a day or two and sometimes it's longer. My own motivation has been a bit low laterly for a number of reasons and I can think of periods of time when I didn't do much at all in the shop over the years. So it's OK to clear your head without abandoning the avocation. If after a longer period of time you don't feel the itch, then so be it. But we all have cycles in our heads that we need to listen to to be healthy.