How many plates can you spin at once?

[Mike Schwing]

Argh! I'm frustrated by a decision I made to not begin or work on any other projects till I finish the current one - a Queen Anne tea table I bought as a kit on sale from Bartley Collection. My plan is to finish it and sell it for a profit. I don't know why I even bought the thing, I'm not proud of working on a kit but the finish of it will be gorgeous none the same. Figure I'll sell it and use the proceeds to buy a new lathe since I don't have a "Kevin Gersty deal" anywhere. ;)

I need to work on some new cutting board ideas I have for the Incra Woodworking contest. I've got to build some Shaker oval boxes for Christmas gifts, I've got to finish a Shaker Pedestal table I began some time ago....I've got to, I've got to, I've got to....

But I still think its prudent to finish this one task before working on others. Why? I have no idea! What makes it more difficult is I'm finishing it by hand only - scraping, planing, shaping, sanding..no power tools...

At other times I've had 3 or 4 things going at once. Not sure its any easier with just this one.

[Jim Becker]

It's not how many plates that are spinning that counts, it's how you look at their size. If you have one "primarily" spinner up there on the stick, there is still a lot of time inbetween things that you can float some smaller plates. (I often use the lathe for that as well as for primary projects of it's own)

If you are anything like me (eek!), it's nearly impossible to do just one project at a time! My concentration just doesn't work that way.