How many tool junkies are out there?

[Mark Woodmark]

Well, there's your problem! You're not actually supposed to use the tools - you're supposed to sit in the garage like the rest of us and imagine using them!

That explains why I cant keep them pretty

[Will Blick]

If any "normal" person read this thread, they would want to admit everyone to a psych ward :-)

At least many posters have a great sense of humor about their habit. I find the biggest cause of the tool obsession is two fold...

first, some tools are simply ultra desirable to posses, the obvious one is nice hand planes, annodized Woodpecker / Jessem products, any brass tool with cocobolo handle, etc. I equate this to gun collecting... but with ww, we justify the purchase as something we can actually use on a regular basis....

Secondly, many of us have jobs, Max's post eloquently described the drag of work sucking the life out of our ww'ing dreams. i.e, desire to do ww'ing, vs. actually doing ww'ing...the rigors of life are more demanding than most of us care to admit. Then toss in the aches n pains, family issues, and the amount of time actually doing ww'ing is often a tiny fraction of what many hobbiest initially thought when entering the hobby...

I too have fallen into some of these traps... my biggest problem is, when performing a ww task, and I don't have the perfect tool, I become frustrated and seek to fill that void... which is insane.

My other problem is, I spend so much time contantly re working the shop, sharpening tools, organizing, looking for stuff buried under other stuff, it seems it takes forever to actually start a project....and whats worse, to see it through to completion...nothing worse than having projects 70% done for many months or even a year till its complete.....arggggggg.....

ww is a lot like owning a boat as a hobby...the ratio of boat maint. vs. "boat in the water" is like 10:1. When I consider the amount of time I spend maintaining the shop, maintaining tools, procurement decisions, forum time, practicing, driving to the Borgs..... yeah, I would say 10:1 is about right... bottom line, ww is not for those of us with OCD. We should just accept tool collecting as the hobby and forget the projects... hee hee hee..

[Brian Penning]

I too have fallen into some of these traps... my biggest problem is, when performing a ww task, and I don't have the perfect tool, I become frustrated and seek to fill that void... which is insane.

Ummmm...what's insane about that?
That's how I often buy new tools....if I know there's a tool that will do the job safer, easier and faster then I get it.

I can think of many examples...8" jointer replaced a 6", right angle drill for access to small areas, Sawstop replaced a General, etc etc.

[Will Blick]

Brian, IMO, it can be a sickness... a never ending pursuit for the perfect tool for every task... before long, you have more tools than projects....

I guess this is when you considering opening a tool museum and stop ww'ing :-) You recoup your cost of tools by charing admission to your shop :-)

BTW, I am curious... many ww's love to work with great tools, but very few hobbiest ww's have the space or funds to own them. Has there ever been "woodshops for rent" .... A well equipped shop, that charges an hourly rate to use the shop. In the long run, I would think many ww's would be way ahead of the game..... access to the best of all tools, and only pay for the time you are actually ww'ing. Was this ww venture ever attempted ?

Heck, a shop with maybe 8 work benches, high end power tools and hand tools, premium dust collection, conditioned work space, etc. ...I could see an easy 150K - 250k for such a shop.

[Mark Elmer]

Hi all,

My name is Mark and I am a tool addict. (This is where you all say "Hi Mark")

I really love tools. I especially like to buy accessories for tools that I have. Sometimes I will find a good deal on a tool and buy it even though I have one already. For example I have three bandsaws, two scroll saws, two shop vacs, two drill presses.....

I am sick, sick, sick

[Van Huskey]

It is simple, if you don't have 4 or more tools to do any one job you don't have enough tools yet...

[Karl Card]

I reckon I fit in here too... My 8 inch jointer/planer that i had to have, wanted so bad sat for 6 months before I set it up and wired it.
My 60 gl air compresssor sat in the kitchen for 3 months then in the shop for 2 months and now gets used more than anything in my shop.
But my REAL problem comes with wood. I have wood stored, stacked, hiddden etc. I have a use for all of it, i just dont know what it is...
I had to finally do something painful this past weekend.... some of it went for a ride.... I had buckets upon buckets of 1/2 inch cut offs from pen blanks.... I looked at all these buckets of little itty bitty pieces of wood and thought to myself, what the **** is wrong with me.... 1 inch long is one thing but 1/2 inch is not staying around....

Recently i did get a performax 16/32 sander and I will say as soon as i got home with it, the following morning it went striaght to the shop and fired it up... oh how happy I was... but then now I have to setup my DC in the corner because that performax will need it badly... Now I know why women say "but it was on sale"... I am however thinking of building a shop outside and storing all my new wood in there. Logs, huge lots, pallets of it.... when I die I have to come back as a termite...lol

[Will Blick]

Oh yeah, while on the subject...

At least through the years, I have learned a valuable lesson to economize on tool purchases...

If I decide I want a tool, I now buy the best one I can afford, at the largest size possible, with quality I find acceptable... as the one thing that really pissed me off about my early tool buying habit was........

I buy a tool too small, or not enough power, or too low quality (HF hand power tools often fall in this category).... then, I always upgrade to the right tool... I now just buy the right tool the first time...if I can't justify the tool, I simply don't buy it... I know it sounds strange, but this has saved lots of money over the past few years....

I am not dillusional though, I still realize this is a sickness. :-)
(albeit a fun one)

As we all know, misery loves company, and Karls 60 gal air compressor sitting in the kitchen for 3 months sure made me feel better :-)

[John Fabre]

I did it, i'm selling my last dovetail jig. I had the Leigh D4, PRO, the new porter cable 77240 and now my Akeda, some of them not even used.

[Rick Fisher]

I have found that I have too many routers.. I really like two of them.. the others just sit, waiting..

I am also guilty of upgrading tools and having the older unit sit in a drawer.. lately I have been giving them away..

Example.. 12 years ago I bought a Makita 5" ROS.. Liked it, so I bought a Bosch twin handed ROS.. The Makita sat.. Then I got a Festool ETS.. and never used the Bosch again.. I gave the Makita away to a single mom who wanted to refinish some chairs.. (friend of wife).. Its been a year and I have not missed it.

[Dar Lounsbury]

I feel normal now.

I don't know about normal but I am glad to know I have a lot of company with this obsession. First name basis with the UPS driver and the mailman. With enough time, I use everything. Some things only once in a long time.

I prefer to not think of being overdone but as to being prepared for most everything. Like most people, I can quit anytime. At least as well as they will admit to.


Dar

[Ray Newman]

Know what you all mean. I have some Bridge City tools that I should sell. Some “commemorative tools“, some run-of-the-mill, and some are factory seconds/blemished. Just had to have them and couldn’t pass up a savings.

[Jerome Hanby]

Clamps (Besseys), do you all remember when HD was clearing them out years ago. I went to ten HD and bought all they had by the cases, I even bought the displays.

That sounds familiar. When they were clearing out the "pre-Revo" K bodies. Lowe's had a web page that would print you a $10 off a $25+ purchase. The drawback is you needed to supply a different street address and email for each coupon... So I now have 20+ gmail addresses and as far as Lowe's is concerned occupy every possible street address on my old street.

The 24" K bodies were just short of $25, the $50" K Bodies were a touch more than $30. I cleaned out two locations .

[Jerome Hanby]

I too have fallen into some of these traps... my biggest problem is, when performing a ww task, and I don't have the perfect tool, I become frustrated and seek to fill that void... which is insane.

Wow does that hit home. My wife is about ready to kill me because I got the stand for her new lathe (well it was new two years ago this Christmas) about 80% finished and became convinced that I needed to use lock miter joints for building the drawers. After countless hours tinkering and making sawdust in vein, I've finally got the right bit (a Freud Quadra), the right router, the right table, right fence, the right setup technique, and the right jigs to make a decent lock miter joint. Then we moved...

[Jerome Hanby]

BTW, I am curious... many ww's love to work with great tools, but very few hobbiest ww's have the space or funds to own them. Has there ever been "woodshops for rent" .... A well equipped shop, that charges an hourly rate to use the shop. In the long run, I would think many ww's would be way ahead of the game..... access to the best of all tools, and only pay for the time you are actually ww'ing. Was this ww venture ever attempted ?

Heck, a shop with maybe 8 work benches, high end power tools and hand tools, premium dust collection, conditioned work space, etc. ...I could see an easy 150K - 250k for such a shop.

I think insurance and liability issues kill off almost every plan for this type of business.