What's The Longest You've Been Separated From Woodworking?

[Bruce Wrenn]

Year and a half when my job took me on the road. Boy was I glad to be back home!

[Shawn Pixley]

I built and restored furniture in my teens and 20's for ~10 years. Then did nothing that would be called woodworking for 20 years or so (I don't consider building houses and remodeling woodworking obviously). Last year after my neck operation, I couldn't do anything for 8 weeks - very difficult.

Keep a stiff upper lip Julie.

[Charles Lent]

Julie,

Why don't you post your location (town and area - not exact location). Maybe there's someone on here who lives near there that would let you in their shop once in a while. It wouldn't be quite as good as having your own shop, but it might ease the cravings a bit.

When I moved here 32 years ago I did without a shop for 3 years and then built a 14 X 26 barn shaped shop building. During that shop-less time I learned how to use a Workmate, hand tools, and powered hand tools to do everything. It was very frustrating, but I made do and I built some pretty impressive projects for what little I had to work with. Progress was slow, mostly because the driveway was my work space. I had lumber under the bed, behind the sofa, etc. It was frustrating at times, but it kept the creative juices flowing and partially satisfied my need.

Charley

[Julie Moriarty]

Anytime you think you have it bad, you find others have (had) it worse and then you realize it's time to shut up and count your blessings. Thank you all for the enlightenment.

[Prashun Patel]

My brother in law always says if you get a bunch of people to gather round and throw all their problems out on the table, you'll likely wanna grab your own back.

[Charles Wiggins]

Almost 1½ years. When we moved from Asheville to Rutherford County we were paying both a mortgage and rent, so we had to rent cheap. It was a nice older house, but no basement or garage. The sad thing is that now I have a great shop but there always seems to be something else more pressing to do.

[Roy Harding]

16 months - I was on deployment with the Canadian Army. Although I DID manage to build some rudimentary shelves and such using scrap wood, a handsaw, a hammer, and some rusty old nails I scrounged from somewhere.

[Dan Rude]

I was down for 2 years recovering from GBS, even missing 2 years of my youngest son's life. Basically, woke up, ate went to work, came home took a knap, ate supper, then went to bed. Repeat. Now my shop is shrinking and it is not up and running yet. Have to finish the house remodeling. Still move slowly, and tire easily. Just have to stop the Wife from giving away my wood stash. She did allow me to get the SawStop 3hp Pro though. I go up and down now, going on 10 years. Family first keeps you going. Dan

[James Baker SD]

I had two spells of absence.

Most recent was the 5 years I was commuting 180 miles a day to work. Not much energy left over for the woodshop. Did manage enough time to keep the cast iron waxed so it did not rust on me.

First spell was the 2 years from "the accident", surgeries, physical therapy, and then another 6 months before I could even turn the table saw on to listen to its sound and yet another six months to get the courage to run a piece of wood through it. That was about 25 years ago.

[Moses Yoder]

I am not away from "woodworking" but no longer have a shop to work in. I do woodworking as a profession but really it is not woodworking. I am reading "The Impractical Cabinetmaker". This is probably permanent, has lasted 8 months now. I still buy tools but mainly I am focusing on my Coleman collection which can be done in a space about 48" wide and 24" deep. I still read the board, cannot stay away from it. I've tried.

[Roger Feeley]

I'm about to join the no-shop club. We are selling our house and moving in with our daughter and son-in-law while we build an in-law house on their property. The process will take about a year during which my big tools will be in storage.

Just a week ago, I coated all but one of my saw blades in stripcoat. I coated all my router bits the week before. This weekend, I bought that big Milwaukee tool chest that I will load up and that will be my tool 'suitcase' while we are building. I start the process tomorrow of figuring out what goes into storage and what goes into the chest. Of course, I will have visitation rights to the storage but I am limiting myself to that one chest and a few cabinets in their garage.

[Kent A Bathurst]

Well, I have been in Istanbul, Edinburgh, London, Budapest, Vienna...........but I think that Auckland is probably the longest I have been from my woodworking..........

[Julie Moriarty]

Well, I have been in Istanbul, Edinburgh, London, Budapest, Vienna...........but I think that Auckland is probably the longest I have been from my woodworking..........

Don't they have wood and tools in Auckland?

[Al Bush]

I'm going on about two months since I was last in a fully functioning workshop. All my tools are in storage and we're at least 6 weeks away from moving into a new house, if all goes well. I've been reading some FWW mags to get me through but all that's done is make me want to go out and buy a piece of wood and a small plane and keep planing until the piece is nothing but shavings.

Has anyone experienced this kind of withdrawal?

Sounds like an opportunity to try Marquetry. You can get by with a hand full of tools and some veneer. But be careful, I know some woodworkers who went down that rabbit hole, never to return to furnature making again.

[Mike Henderson]

Sounds like an opportunity to try Marquetry. You can get by with a hand full of tools and some veneer. But be careful, I know some woodworkers who went down that rabbit hole, never to return to furniture making again.

Many people use marquetry to decorate furniture. I know when I took up marquetry, it just added tools to my shop - I still needed all my furniture making tools in addition to the marquetry tools.

Mike