Have you ever - -

[lowell holmes]

Gotten up in the middle of the night to check and see if had screwed up something?

I'm building a rocking chair that will be used to rock my first great grand child.

I had to make three trips to the lumber yard to come up with an acceptable board for the crown and butt rails.
They become a focal point on the chair, so I always make it a point to have interesting grain and appearance there.
I came home with a piece of s2s cherry that is 2 1/2"x10"x96". I spent considerable time selecting the portion of the
board for the rails,and was able to get both rails from the same 20" portion of the board.

I spent the day yesterday cutting the two rails out, and was pleased with myself. I made a decision to use loose tenons
instead of hand cutting tenons.

About 3 o'clock in the morning, I woke up with the realization that I had not given my self enough space to attach my
Mortise Pal to the ends of the rails. I proceeded to twist and turn fretting over it and became despondent. I finally got up and went out to the shop
to see how it was. When I turned on the lights, I was relieved to see that There is no problem.

The mortises are cut now, but that's not the story of this post.

I'd be interested to see if anybody else has done this. Old age is for the pits, but it sure beats the alternative.

Oh, and the real reason for this post is to brag about my new great grand child.

[Matt Day]

Congrats on your first great grandchild! We just had out second child two months ago. I like the variety of people we have in SMC in all phases of their lives!

I don't think I've gone to the extent of getting out of bed to check, but I regularly think and plan out projects before bedtime and as I'm falling asleep. I mull it over and take notes on my phone.

[John TenEyck]

I've gotten out of bed many times to go check on one thing or another. Once it gets into my head there's no point of just laying there thinking about it; I might as well get up and go have a look. Most times it's turned out to be much ado about nothing, but a couple of times it was as bad as I feared - and that was the end of my sleep for the night.

I hope the chair turns out well and you create many pleasant moments sitting in it with the new great grand child.

John

[Jim Rimmer]

I don't remember getting up but have spent many sleepless hours worrying about something (woodwork related) that turned out to be OK.

[lowell holmes]

John, Thanks.

Actually, the chair will go to my Grandson's house.

I've built chairs for all 5 of my children, and now I have one going to my oldest grandchild's house.

I doubt if I will live long enough to put one in all of my grandchildren's houses. My youngest is 10 weeks old, and she is stealing the show.

[Myk Rian]

I doubt if I will live long enough to put one in all of my grandchildren's houses. My youngest is 10 weeks old, and she is stealing the show.

Just build a bunch of them now.
I got up twice when I was building my tool chest. Things were OK both times.

[Larry Fox]

I do it all the time and not just with my shop projects. Part of being me is that I am constantly mulling things over in my head and I subscribe to the same school of thought as John and he summed it well as:

"Once it gets into my head there's no point of just laying there thinking about it; I might as well get up and go have a look"

Its not a huge deal to me as I typically don't have any trouble at all getting back to sleep after I either verify that things are good or confirm that I am sacked and have parts to remake or something to clean up.

[Judson Green]

I've gotten up in the middle of the night to realize that I have screwed up a project and that project was 2 hours away. And it was concrete.

[Tom M King]

To remove hoses from freezeproof hydrants a couple of times, that I can remember.

[Peter Quinn]

Contrats on the new addition! Yes, I have woken up in the middle of the night from a dead sleep to realize I had screwed something up. How and why the subconscious does that is beyond me. Sometimes on a Friday night, and that something is at work, and it was the last thing I did before leaving for the weekend, and now my brain can spend 3 sleepless nights thinking of a solution. Last time it happened I realized I'd come up one inch two small in each direction on a square desk, only to arrive Monday at work after worrying all weekend and learn the stone counters and been mis measured, were also 1" too small, so everything looked perfectly normal. That almost never happens. Its not really a mistake until its spent the night in a dumpster, just a chance to improvise and show your versatility.....thats what one of my first mentors told me, I'm sticking to that theory!

[Frederick Skelly]

Congratulations on the Great Grandbaby! I love your rocker idea.

Yes, I did it two weeks ago and that wasnt the first (or last) time.
Fred