Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features started out as mistakes.

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:08:06 -0700, FoggyTown
wrote:

Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features started out as mistakes.

Try woodcarving. It's a hobby than can keep you busy for hours on
end, and if you have a bandsaw, you can get started with a minimal
investment.

There are carving clubs in almost every town of any size and they are
usually very quick to bring new carvers into the fold.

HTH
Bill

FoggyTown wrote:
Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features started out as mistakes.


Do something else for a bit. Something totally different. The wood muse
will return in time.

--
©Russ

"Praise Jebus!" - H. J. Simpson

"FoggyTown" wrote in message

Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

Go fishing ... with a cane pole and a cork is even better. Try it, you'll go
back to your hobby with a new slant.

(Now, if I can just find the time to practice what I preach ...)

--
www.e-woodshop.net
Last update: 8/8/07
KarlC@ (the obvious)

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:08:06 -0700, FoggyTown
wrote:

Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

Do some more projects for the shop. There's always something that can
be organized better, and then you would have room for that new tool.

If you're really desperate, start looking through JOAT's posts for
ideas...


-Leuf

"FoggyTown" wrote in message
oups.com...
Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features started out as mistakes.


Extend your workshop, then buy a new shiny!

Mon, Sep 3, 2007, 5:38pm (EDT-1) (Leuf) doth
mumble:
snip If you're really desperate, start looking through JOAT's posts
for ideas.

Say what you will, I'm retired too, but 'I' don't have any problems
coming up with new projects. Of course, I 'do' have an imaginagion, and
I'm not afraid to use it..



JOAT
What is life without challenge and a constant stream of new
humiliations?
- Peter Egan

FoggyTown wrote in news:1188850086.031705.282160
@y42g2000hsy.googlegroups.com:

Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features started out as mistakes.



Here's some of my current projects:
- Rebuilding a set of deck stairs (almost done, just gotta install them)
- Building an end table (using T&G flooring for the top)
- Hanging a louvered door

You could see if a local Ntrak club needs a couple module bases and build
a set for them. (The club I was in would happily pay for the cost of
materials, I imagine most would.) http://www.ntrak.org has the
requirements, it's simply a 2'x4' piece of plywood with a 1x4 base.

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

"FoggyTown" wrote in message
oups.com...
Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

You just aren't trying. The things that mount in the side of my rowboat to
take oarlocks broke. Sure, I could buy plastic ones for $7 just like the
originals, but I made them out of mahogany tonight.

It was either that or replace the broken window cranks, or start on the wood
couch, or replace the wood molding in the kitchen, or... The mahogany
oarlock holders seemed like more fun.

Forgot to mention: Sharpening! Surely there's something in the shop
that's supposed to be sharp but aint. If not, I can send you some
chisels in dire need


-Leuf

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:08:06 -0700, FoggyTown
wrote:

Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.

My wife has a whole list for me.

I could send it to ya....


Mike O.

You're kidding right?

Boxes - you have to have things that need a box.

Chisel rack(s) and/or hand plane holders.

You have some small handsaws - back saw, dozuki
dovetail saw, tenon saw ...

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/W...lCabinet2.html

Make a bow saw - sculpt some of it if you want
to get creative.

All small projects that don't require much wood,
take some thought so not boring, can be done
with handtools, power tools or some combination.

How about having a go at a coopered door - ain't
hard at all. You don't have to make anything for
it to go on - it looks nice all by itself.

http://web.hypersurf.com/~charlie2/C...redDoors0.html

OR

Get a mini lathe - the JET VS will keep you busy
and you can turn prunings. You'll also develop
the ability to hear a running chainsaw from a
mile away.

charlie b

On Sep 4, 12:44 am, charlieb wrote:

SNIP


Get a mini lathe - the JET VS will keep you busy
and you can turn prunings. You'll also develop
the ability to hear a running chainsaw from a
mile away.

charlie b

Boy oh boy, is that the truth. I hadn't turned since early high
school, and being totally burned out on flat work I got a Jet mini to
test out back in '97. I turned for hours and hours at a time,
sometimes all weekend when I go that damn thing.

I finally took a year off last year and let the damn thing sit a
while. I have turned everything I could think of out of anything I
could get my hands on. Lamps, treenware, pens, mallets, Christmans
ornaments, jewelry, bowls, weedpots.... the list is endless. It is
fun to raid the firewood pile and turn something out of it.

Conceptually, woodturning to me is not woodworking in the normal
sense. It uses an entirely different set of skills and imagination.
No two turners (that have been turning for a while) turn anything the
same way with the same tools. That's the fun of it as there really
aren't any real hard, fast rules to observe.

Robert

On Sep 4, 2:29 am, "
wrote:
snip

That's the fun of it as there really
aren't any real hard, fast rules to observe.

....other than to make sure that bowl is on there real tight and not to
take too much of a bite at too high a speed.... or so I'm told.

On Sep 4, 12:26?am, (J T) wrote:
Mon, Sep 3, 2007, 5:38pm (EDT-1) (Leuf) doth
mumble:
snip If you're really desperate, start looking through JOAT's posts
for ideas.

Say what you will, I'm retired too, but 'I' don't have any problems
coming up with new projects. Of course, I 'do' have an imaginagion, and
I'm not afraid to use it..

JOAT

Yeah, yeah. We know. You're just so bloody marvellous!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features began as mistakes.

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:08:06 -0700, FoggyTown
wrote:

Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features started out as mistakes.


Not a problem here. The biggest surprise about retirement is that I
don't seem to have the time to do all the projects I want to do. So
many of them are going at once and the challenge becomes finishing
something.

Now let's see

1. finish the shop expansion
2. finish the china cab and side board
3. finish the bedroom furniture for bedroom two
4. finish the kitchen remodel.
5. repair the facia and soffit, paint the house.
6. finish the double bass repair (oh, finished that last week)
7. finish the lighted mailbox and driveway post (Oh, finished that
last week too, feels good to actually be finishing some things).
8.start the bateau fast skiff 14 or indian river skiff.
9. Start the hall tree
10. start the ......I'm sure by the time I get here there will be
something by this number.

However, you can take up some other hobbies.



Frank

On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 23:29:28 -0700, "
wrote:

On Sep 4, 12:44 am, charlieb wrote:

SNIP


Get a mini lathe - the JET VS will keep you busy
and you can turn prunings. You'll also develop
the ability to hear a running chainsaw from a
mile away.

charlie b

Boy oh boy, is that the truth. I hadn't turned since early high
school, and being totally burned out on flat work I got a Jet mini to
test out back in '97. I turned for hours and hours at a time,
sometimes all weekend when I go that damn thing.

I finally took a year off last year and let the damn thing sit a
while. I have turned everything I could think of out of anything I
could get my hands on. Lamps, treenware, pens, mallets, Christmans
ornaments, jewelry, bowls, weedpots.... the list is endless. It is
fun to raid the firewood pile and turn something out of it.

Conceptually, woodturning to me is not woodworking in the normal
sense. It uses an entirely different set of skills and imagination.
No two turners (that have been turning for a while) turn anything the
same way with the same tools. That's the fun of it as there really
aren't any real hard, fast rules to observe.

Robert


Lot to be said for that. Several good friends are turners. Their
mistakes are art. My mistakes are junk.

Frank

FoggyTown wrote:

| Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
| woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
| interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
| Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
| scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood
| Muse blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any
| more shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

OK. Not sure I have a cure, but you're welcome to follow the links on
the page below to look at some of the little side projects I've worked
on to see if any of them strikes a resonating note...

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/interest.html

Frank Boettcher wrote in
:

snippage
Conceptually, woodturning to me is not woodworking in the normal
sense. It uses an entirely different set of skills and imagination.
No two turners (that have been turning for a while) turn anything the
same way with the same tools. That's the fun of it as there really
aren't any real hard, fast rules to observe.

Robert


Lot to be said for that. Several good friends are turners. Their
mistakes are art. My mistakes are junk.

Frank

My mistakes are creative firewood. ;-)

Patriarch

On Sep 4, 3:20?pm, Frank Boettcher wrote:
On Mon, 03 Sep 2007 13:08:06 -0700, FoggyTown
wrote:

Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features started out as mistakes.

Not a problem here. The biggest surprise about retirement is that I
don't seem to have the time to do all the projects I want to do. So
many of them are going at once and the challenge becomes finishing
something.

Now let's see

1. finish the shop expansion
2. finish the china cab and side board
3. finish the bedroom furniture for bedroom two
4. finish the kitchen remodel.
5. repair the facia and soffit, paint the house.
6. finish the double bass repair (oh, finished that last week)
7. finish the lighted mailbox and driveway post (Oh, finished that
last week too, feels good to actually be finishing some things).
8.start the bateau fast skiff 14 or indian river skiff.
9. Start the hall tree
10. start the ......I'm sure by the time I get here there will be
something by this number.

However, you can take up some other hobbies.

Frank

I'd have been exhausted just making up that list! I should have
mentioned that I retired due to a heart attack and energy is a premium
commodity these days. Ergo, I save it for something that I feel is
something that will give me creative satisfaction . . . or something
like that.

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features began as mistakes.

On Sep 4, 3:32?pm, "Morris Dovey" wrote:
FoggyTown wrote:

| Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
| woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
| interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
| Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
| scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood
| Muse blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any
| more shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

OK. Not sure I have a cure, but you're welcome to follow the links on
the page below to look at some of the little side projects I've worked
on to see if any of them strikes a resonating note...

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USAhttp://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/interest.html

Your drawer/box clamp looks interesting. I'd like to work on the
design somewhat so that it provides pressure from four directions
instead of (unless I missed something) two. But if you have already
thought of that and dismissed it for some reason, I'll go with just
the two.

FiggyTiwn
Most of my projects' best features began as mistakes.

On Sep 3, 3:08 pm, FoggyTown wrote:
Wow. Retired life is a bitch when your only real hobby is
woodbutchering and you can't think of a new project that feels
interesting or is even uninteresting but necessary in the home.
Bummer. I suppose I could go and get some new thingjimmy (like a
scroll saw or mini lathe) and play around with it until the Wood Muse
blows in my ear again - but I don't have the room to add any more
shinies. I've already tidied up my shop. NEXT!!!!

FoggyTown
Most of my projects' best features started out as mistakes.

Like I tell my kids, boredom is a luxury! Load up your shop and bring
it here help rebuild SE MN. We'd be happy to have you!

FoggyTown wrote:

| Your drawer/box clamp looks interesting. I'd like to work on the
| design somewhat so that it provides pressure from four directions
| instead of (unless I missed something) two. But if you have already
| thought of that and dismissed it for some reason, I'll go with just
| the two.

NO! Four directions would definitely be an improvement for some
glue-ups. Go with your instinct. The reason I put the pictures there
was to provide a _starting_ point - *not* an _end_ point.

Please send/post photos!

--
Morris Dovey
DeSoto Solar
DeSoto, Iowa USA
http://www.iedu.com/DeSoto/

On Sep 4, 3:05 am, Robatoy wrote:
...other than to make sure that bowl is on there real tight and not to
take too much of a bite at too high a speed.... or so I'm told.

Oh yeah. Having cleaned my clock early on from a wily piece of
mesquite trying to makes its escape from the menacing bowl gouge, I
always wear a faceshield.

I was wearing goggles, and it hit on just over the top of my goggles
(the piece actually broke) just above my eyes. No stitches needed.

I have shot pieces of wood into the sheetrock of the garage, and had
many a piece fly off and bounce out into the driveway, and since they
are spinning around 2500+rpm, they spin and bounce across the street
and into the neighbors yard.

I punish all attempts to escape. When the escapee is recovered, he is
usually thrown in the box of wood for the smoker for a fiery death.

Robert

On Sep 4, 9:23 am, Frank Boettcher wrote:

Lot to be said for that. Several good friends are turners. Their mistakes are art. My mistakes are junk.

Frank

Awww, now Frank.... come on....

You never had a shelf turn out to be a cutting board in the end? You
never had a small chest wind up with a couple of less drawers, or
maybe the end result a little smaller because of a setting you
misfired when setting up your saw or jigs?

Do you have any idea how many small flower vases are turned into
Christmas ornaments on a lathe every day? Or how many bed post
finials are turned into mallets, or baseball bat blanks that are
turned into chopsticks? More than anyone would admit.

I don't believe an engineer would give up on a project that didn't
meet the original specs - I thought you guys called those things field
design modifications! ;^)

Robert

" wrote in
ups.com:

*snip*


I don't believe an engineer would give up on a project that didn't
meet the original specs - I thought you guys called those things field
design modifications! ;^)

Robert


A misteak becomes a design decision when you document it. :-)

Puckdropper
--
Wise is the man who attempts to answer his question before asking it.

To email me directly, send a message to puckdropper (at) fastmail.fm

Tue, Sep 4, 2007, 7:02am (EDT-3) (FoggyTown) doth
burble:
Yeah, yeah. We know. You're just so bloody marvellous!

LMAO You need to make some skyhooks for some kids, or sumpthin.



JOAT
What is life without challenge and a constant stream of new
humiliations?
- Peter Egan

On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 22:22:17 -0700, "
wrote:

On Sep 4, 9:23 am, Frank Boettcher wrote:

Lot to be said for that. Several good friends are turners. Their mistakes are art. My mistakes are junk.

Frank

Awww, now Frank.... come on....

You never had a shelf turn out to be a cutting board in the end? You
never had a small chest wind up with a couple of less drawers, or
maybe the end result a little smaller because of a setting you
misfired when setting up your saw or jigs?

Sure, but those are brand new projects. I intended for them to end up
that way :~).

Frank


Do you have any idea how many small flower vases are turned into
Christmas ornaments on a lathe every day? Or how many bed post
finials are turned into mallets, or baseball bat blanks that are
turned into chopsticks? More than anyone would admit.

I don't believe an engineer would give up on a project that didn't
meet the original specs - I thought you guys called those things field
design modifications! ;^)

Robert

On Sep 5, 6:59 am, Frank Boettcher wrote:

Sure, but those are brand new projects. I intended for them to end up
that way :~).

Frank

LOL! Absolutely.

"That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!":

Robert

On Sep 6, 1:05 am, charlieb wrote:

Snip-eroo

The less contact with the
wood the less apt it is for one of those nasty Spiral Cuts.

Hey.... I mastered those spiral cuts just about the first time I used
the skew. I can do them just about anytime without warning now. They
are the most reliable cut I make with the skew!

I can use the skew to plane, use it (end of the long point dropping in
at about 1:00) to cut beads, grooves and coves, but that's about it.
I use my Christmas ornament turning time to practice some with the
skew.

But we aren't friends, and I wish we were. I like the "cut smooth"
finish the skew leaves. Ahhh.... but control.... I just can't get
it. So I wind up going back to my custom ground spindle gouges and
even my stumpy little three point tool to do the things I should be
doing with the skew. It simply takes too much time for me to do
things with it.

And then of all the stupid things to do I watched one of Raffan's
videos on using the skew, and that sombitch uses the same skew to
rough out the bark off a log as he does to shave the end fibers on a
chuck held piece of hardwood. He can make shavings like I do with a
bowl gouge, or tiny little corkscrews like the ones that come off my
spiral cut coffee grinder.

On a good day I can detail with the skew, but I haven't ever had
anywhere near the confidence it takes to face off the end grain of a
6" diameter piece of hardwood.

Robert

BillinDetroit wrote:
Russ wrote:


Do something else for a bit. Something totally different. The wood
muse will return in time.


He could learn to play the bagpipes or saxophone, for instance. A few
days of that and the muse should return with a vengeance, never to depart!

Bill
At the very least, anyone living in the same house would start
encouraging him to get back out in the garage...

--
©Russ

"Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by
fearing to attempt."

wrote:

On a good day I can detail with the skew, but I haven't ever had
anywhere near the confidence it takes to face off the end grain of a
6" diameter piece of hardwood.

Robert


"Those who live by the skew, die by the skew ..."

Or something like that.

My first few cuts with a skew were anything but controlled ... but now
it is my favorite tool for most cuts.

When I was turning a spoon the other day I got a spiral cut on a
decorative finial end. No problem ... I hand-carved it deeper and
colored it in. ;-)

Bill