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Thread: Pros and Cons of building with plans

  1. #31
    Quote Originally Posted by Jack Llewyllson View Post
    Personally, I enjoy ritual and find that it gives me peace -- starting with the ritual of making morning coffee, and bringing some to my sweetie. ~ Even something as simple as feeding the dog is a richer experience when I pause to look into her fuzzy face and and appreciate how much she's anticipating her chow. ~ OTOH, I don't make a living with my woodworking
    I think you've pretty much summed up the ultimate joys, and frustrations, of life. Yet perhaps intermingled routine, and ritual. Routines are things like we all put our underwear on before our pants (our outerwear). You always wipe your butt after you poop. Thats a routine. A ritual is something you do, without consideration for its efficiency, inefficiency, practicality, profit, or loss, because "NOT" completing that action causes you neurotic collapse. That is the simple determination of ritual. I love dogs and loved my dogs, makind their morning meal (or the every plate I make for dog to this day after dinner) even when the dog is dead,.. thats a ritual. Realizing the dog lived its life and has now passed, an no longer making that dogs bowl of food or leftovers speaks to a routine. Horrifically miserable thought but the same applies with a 300x fold of misery for making ones "sweetie" a cup of coffee. Thats a routine. Hellatious thought of the day that person is gone and you do it anyway, your in ritual.

    We all have routine. I even seek to stomp out routine. Ordering the same thing at a given restaurant every single time and never trying something different? Routine? Ritual? Who knows.... the point is change, and being dynamic, is imperative to life and even moreso imperative to business. Its even imperative to hobby in being able to capitalize on new practices and innovation. The people who just do things as they always have can be happy. But they usually have to be happy in the dust. (they actually never are because they always weave convenient advances into their routine/ritual where it works)

    My point was building something that fails repeatedly (workmanship, cost, production timeline) due to ritualistic neurocise is fine if your world can tolerate it. Most, in some capacity, cant... hence the show "hoarders".
    Last edited by Mark Bolton; 10-13-2020 at 4:19 PM.

  2. #32
    Quote Originally Posted by Mark Bolton View Post
    I think you've pretty much summed up the ultimate joys, and frustrations, of life. Yet perhaps intermingled routine, and ritual. Routines are things like we all put our underwear on before our pants (our outerwear).
    Not everybody does that. I like to change it up sometimes.

  3. #33
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Mt Pleasant SC
    Posts
    721
    Not for everyone and certainly not for all woodworking projects.
    I have a patent too

    The post is about using other plans, not your own.

  4. #34
    Quote Originally Posted by Eric Arnsdorff View Post
    Making something without a plan is a very typical skill.
    That is also known as ‘agile development’, and many people consider it to be highly desirable. Don’t put it down!

  5. #35
    Quote Originally Posted by Eric Arnsdorff View Post
    I agree! You’re better than everyone else because you built something with no plan!
    I use sticks (a.k.a. objects.) Yes, that makes me better. :^)

  6. #36
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    Alberta
    Posts
    2,162
    It is just there in my head...Sometimes if one of my employees starts asking to many questions about what we are doing I do a quick and dirty sketch. Usually front,top and right side views. Only show overall dimensions. This goes back to my framing days and habits where a plan just shows where the doors are and you figure out everything else. I just need the bare outline, the details of how to get there are the fun part.

  7. #37
    Join Date
    Mar 2014
    Location
    Houston, TX
    Posts
    437
    Nothing wrong with building as you go, but do keep in mind it may need to be disassembled one day. I let a buddy work in my shop one day and build a shelf. Then one day I decided to remove it from the wall and the only way to do that was to disassemble the entire shelf to access the screws holding it to the wall which were screwed at a 45 degree angle. Smh.

  8. #38
    Quote Originally Posted by Travis Conner View Post
    Nothing wrong with building as you go, but do keep in mind it may need to be disassembled one day. I let a buddy work in my shop one day and build a shelf. Then one day I decided to remove it from the wall and the only way to do that was to disassemble the entire shelf to access the screws holding it to the wall which were screwed at a 45 degree angle. Smh.
    Sounds like your buddy used to work for GM. ;^)

  9. #39
    I've only built two things with plans from others; both happened to be chairs. Norm's Adirondack chair and Jory Brigham's Hank Chair. For my own furniture, I tend to just wing it after making a few sketches with rough dimensions or looking at pictures with my wife (or whoever the end "customer is"). Without agreeing on the measurements beforehand, then things are going to go badly when your vision doesn't match someone else's.

    For large projects like a kitchen or built-ins, I always have a plan. Special ordering the plywood, and having a clear step-by-step cutlist help ensure that minimal material is wasted due to calculation mistakes on the fly.

  10. #40
    Join Date
    Feb 2010
    Location
    Mt Pleasant SC
    Posts
    721
    Do you like Norm’s time estimates?
    I built a trestle table similar to the one he said 3 days project time.
    I can’t even build it in 6 days now. Full timers can build faster and younger ones can work hard a solid 8 to 12 hours a day. I take a 15 minute break every hour

  11. #41
    I don’t have the discipline to make my own plans. I have bought detailed plans for complicated builds like a rocking chair or guitar. These things have non intuitive measurements or steps.

    If I build the second time, I rarely use a plan, preferring instead to confidently customize.

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