Making time for the hobby

[Richard Hutchings]

I hear you Scott. I still spend the majority of my time in front of a screen because I still work. My job allows me to keep tabs on the forum while I work. It's the only thing that keeps me sane waiting for that mystical retirement day. Only 19 months give or take, to go. Crossing my fingers that my health will stay for another 10 years after, hey that's a band, shhhhh.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Think about doing projects that give back and enrich life. Freedom Pens is a great example. My friend who claims to be "burnt out on general woodworking" loves building boats, he is also excited about sailing. Richard Hutchings list of hobbies is a great example of interactive creativity. It is fun to make things. It is fun to have fun using or playing with things things you have made. A quiet, skilled, carver gave our son a wooden spoon to add to his camping rig. Getting that spoon out never fails to bring smiles all around. I Read "The Traditional Bowers's Bible" and hope to keep trying to make a long bow. Staying positive should not feel like work, sometimes it dose.

The Traditional Bowers's Bible vol 1 ISBN

1721670076, 9781721670079

[Luke Dupont]

Think about doing projects that give back and enrich life. Freedom Pens is a great example. My friend who claims to be "burnt out on general woodworking" loves building boats, he is also excited about sailing. Richard Hutchings list of hobbies is a great example of interactive creativity. It is fun to make things. It is fun to have fun using or playing with things things you have made. A quiet, skilled, carver gave our son a wooden spoon to add to his camping rig. Getting that spoon out never fails to bring smiles all around. I Read "The Traditional Bowers's Bible" and hope to keep trying to make a long bow. Staying positive should not feel like work, sometimes it dose.

The Traditional Bowers's Bible vol 1 ISBN

1721670076, 9781721670079

This is me.

I got into woodworking because I wanted to build specific things that enrich my life.

Bows and arrows, training weapons for my Martial Arts practice, instruments, camping / bushcraft gear, and all kinds of very specific things, many which I still enjoy decades later (and some of which I did an amazingly good job on despite having no knowledge or proper tools or workholding devices, if I may say so myself! I was making things with wood and hand tools long before I had any idea what I was doing ).

I love things that function and have life to them. That's why I never built much in the way of furniture I guess. Traditional bows or instruments are great fun and should definitely be a good way to bring some fun back in.

Another great way is to do some projects (bows might fit into this category, as would any carving) which require less accuracy and fuss. It can be a huge joy to just shape things with a hatchet and a knife, or a draw knife, and let everything take shape organically. I really, really love working on such things.

[Jack Frederick]

I retired at 70 and it took a while to understand that I no longer had to answer the bell. I have done so. Not a small thing when you have worked for 60 yrs. I’m not a psychologist but upcoming big changes are worth a bit of thought. Hind sight is marvelous I’m rolling up to 74 and while I can still put in a day, that day is shorter. Conditioning is important to protect the energy you do have. I’m surprised taht I’ve been doing yoga (Yoga with Adriene on YT) with my wife for a bit over 1.5 yrs. Dropping 20+# I am back to my college weight. That isn’t a real cause for rejoicing as the distribution of the weight is far different than 50 yrs ago, but as you age, muscle mass declines and your strength is in flexibility and range of motion. Conditioning protects your head too. Interest in a hobby will wax and wane. It drives me nuts when I don’t get out to the shop. When I’m nuts enough I get out there. Sometimes I will only sweep or re-arrange, but I get closer to the work. There is a balance out there somewhere. I’m still looking for it. Let me know if you find it. Good luck on the guitar. I can’t wait to see and hear it.

[Scott Clausen]

I am 60 and eyeing and looking forward to retirement. I am also eyeing a 1100 point dip in the Dow so owning my own company the date is a moving target. Due to SSA and other factors I am thinking 65 to 68 is a soft target. I started woodworking because I needed something to "do" when that day arrives because daytime (and frankly nigh time) TV sucks. I look forward to having time to "putter" all day.

To the OP, three things that work for me are 1) find a small project like a box to make, 2) make something for the shop to fix a need 3) My favorite, pick a project that is beyond your ability to do. It may not be a work of art but it will challenge you, grow your mind & skill set. Always good for me.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I retired at 70 and it took a while to understand that I no longer had to answer the bell. I have done so. Not a small thing when you have worked for 60 yrs. IÂ’m not a psychologist but upcoming big changes are worth a bit of thought. Hind sight is marvelous IÂ’m rolling up to 74 and while I can still put in a day, that day is shorter. Conditioning is important to protect the energy you do have. IÂ’m surprised taht IÂ’ve been doing yoga (Yoga with Adriene on YT) with my wife for a bit over 1.5 yrs. Dropping 20+# I am back to my college weight. That isnÂ’t a real cause for rejoicing as the distribution of the weight is far different than 50 yrs ago, but as you age, muscle mass declines and your strength is in flexibility and range of motion. Conditioning protects your head too. Interest in a hobby will wax and wane. It drives me nuts when I donÂ’t get out to the shop. When IÂ’m nuts enough I get out there. Sometimes I will only sweep or re-arrange, but I get closer to the work. There is a balance out there somewhere. IÂ’m still looking for it. Let me know if you find it. Good luck on the guitar. I canÂ’t wait to see and hear it.

My Father In law has a term for this physical condition. It is called Furniture Disorder
(when your chest falls unto your drawers)

[Richard Hutchings]

Yeah, unless your hobby is body building. It's certainly not mine :-)

[Tom Bender]

If the guitar is a roadblock it might be time for a campfire, allowing you to move on.

[Richard Hutchings]

I've considered it.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Richard, There ought to a law with no bail burn a guitar and you go to jail. If you have the chops for an F-5 mandolin you can make a guitar happen. I tried to do a guitar building apprenticeship. Studying the book Guitar-building Tradition and Technology would have been time better spent.

• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0811806404

[Richard Hutchings]

I scraped through the side trying to level after the fact. You can actually see the end of a brace.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Binding usually covers the ends of the braces. do you have any images?

[Richard Coers]

That's a pretty bleak outlook Richard. While there's a lot of truth in what you said, I'm not ready to succumb to it.

I sat on the couch this morning and enjoyed a cup of coffee, sans TV, and then headed down to the shop. It was a great feeling to just overcome the laziness for this one morning. I picked up where I left off on my saw til project. As I was considering options for wood choices and joinery, I thought, damn, if I wasn't into traditional hand tools, I could bang this entire thing out in about an hour with a good plan an power tools and pocket holes. What's the fun in that! So I continue to torture myself with handplanes and chisels and saws because without a challenge, why bother.

I want to make a scratch stock tool and add a little flare to this thing, just because. That will be a new challenge.

It is bleak Richard, and it has an affect on everyone. I've seen quite a few stories on young athletes committing suicide. It's really horrible to see that in anyone, but for young people it is a tragedy! My funk came with my Mother dying from complications of Alzheimer's. Watching the person I loved the most forgetting my name and then every single memory she ever had, knocked the sap right out of me for 3 1/2 years now. I haven't made a single thing, but changed my hobby to riding Ebikes. I put on about 2,700 miles a year. I even started selling off my stash of figured maple turning blanks. But I'm getting closer to cutting wood again.

[Richard Coers]

You guys have it easy. At least you have some hope of retiring still.

I'm 34. As the meme goes, "My retirement plan is total Societal Collapse."

My planning for retirement has become as much about prepping as financial planning, as any positive prospect of the latter is, quite honestly, not very realistic at the moment.

Lately, I've pretty much decided to enjoy Woodworking for as long as possible while the World rushes headlong into ruin. I have to do something to stay sane with all of the madness. Woodworking is a good escape where I can just focus on making something nice. That's as good a reason as any to get out into the shop... errr, step to the other side of my apartment room office.

Martial Arts and Bushcraft are great pursuits for this sort of escapism as well. Perhaps a little more challenging with age though.

I've always been a very ambitious person with a ton of hobbies and interests and bounce between them though. I'm not a "Woodworker." Woodworking is just one of my passions, along side many others. I'll focus on one for 2-3 years, get bored/burnt out, focus on another for 2-3 years, and then go back to the old one, rotating between them, occasionally adding something new, but always returning to a few core passions. Depth and breadth. I think this is the case for many people, and there's nothing wrong with it. If you're burnt out from woodworking, take a break and do something else you've been wanting to, and come back to woodworking when you have the inspiration to do something that you absolutely have to do. Or maybe mix things up and combine woodworking and electronics, or wood and metal, or wood and leather, etc.

Hope of retiring? I've been retired 8 years now and even have that unheard of thing called a traditional pension. I'm very grateful!

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Richard Coers, Traditional pension means you did your time. A dedicated career is worthy of reward! Congratulations! My good friend, recently retired from 40+ years at our local hospital, is having is so much fun in his shop I can't even get him to brag on the web. I am going to sneak in some images of his work, if I can get his permission.
Gratitude works wonders.