The good, the bad and the ugly.

[Dale Thompson]

Hi folks,
I was just sitting here lurking and thinking about how all of you pros could help to educate me. I know. Educating me is a REAL challenge.

Anyway, I don't know if this is a poll or what but the question is:

WHAT IS THE OPERATION IN YOUR SHOP WHICH YOU DISLIKE THE MOST AND HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH IT?

Personally, I don't like sanding. However, it is necessary so I just take a pill and put some Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash through the headphones.

I don't like emptying my dust collector but that is because I put the collector in a corner where it is hard to get at the clamps. I write it off to short arms and totally ignore the existence of the big gut. Whatever, that's MY fault so I take another pill, put on a dust mask and pay for my stupidity.

What I REALLY hate is facing off my grinding wheels. The dust, whether it is gray, white, pink or blue seems to defy collection either from the DC or the shop vac. I'm not even sure that the dust mask I wear does much good. I have even thought of soaking the wheels in water for a couple of hours before facing. On second thought, though, I would probably get a concrete slurry which would be worse than the dust.

Repeat: WHAT IS THE OPERATION IN YOUR SHOP WHICH YOU DISLIKE THE MOST AND HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH IT?

OK. No comments about the fact that I have problems with EVERYTHING in my shop. I already KNOW that!!

Dale T.

[Lars Thomas]

This is easy - emptying the dust collector.

[Todd Burch]

1) replacing planer knives
2) cleaning the dust collector cartidge

in that order. Todd.

[Steve Powell]

Watching finish dry.

[David Rose]

I suspect my least liked task is floor cleaning. That will be minimized some when I finally get the new dust collector together. When something bugs me, I try to fix it if I can afford to. I am using scrapers more and more.

David

[Bob Lasley]

I think I dislike finishing the most. I don't mind the actual finishing, in fact, the more I learn about it, the more I enjoy it. What I don't like is having to shutdown the shop while I am finishing so I don't stir up dust. Some day, maybe, hopefully, I will have a seperate finishing room. Maybe in my next life!

Bob

[Mike Evertsen]

finishing,,,finishing,,,,finishing,,,,,it's not sanding it's choosing the color,,getting it to go on right,,,,in 23 years I havn't made anything yet that I liked the way the finish looks when I'm done,,,,

[Dennis Peacock]

1. Sanding
2. Finishing
3. Emptying the Collector
4. Changing knives on planer and jointer

All in that order.

[Dan Smith]

Well, I guess I am out of the "normal" range because I enjoy finishing, and all steps involved with it (even sanding). Currently the only part of my wood working that I don't enjoy is trying to find suitable stock for my projects. I need to try to find some smaller semi-local places, because so far the ones I have tried either don't have what I am looking for, or are too expensive. Jim B. if you read this, how about introducing me to the guy near Ringoes?


-dan

[Dick Parr]

Same as Dennis and in the same order!

[Eric Apple - Central IN]

OK the worse for me is:

1) sanding - I deal with this by scraping as much as I can and using a vac to eliminate all the dust as I sand. I seal with shellac before raising grain. It's still unrewarding
2) surface planing of rough cut lumber - I pay the sawmill for skip planing to handle this. The jointing isn't to bad.
3) cleaning spray equipment - I switched to WB systems and it's still not fun. But it's not the mess it was. It's actually pretty easy but still a dreded task.
4) making more then 4 of the same thing at the same or in a row. I just don't do it.
5) only having two hands for complicated glue ups and titebond. For this I grew three extra hands (I wish).

The most fun is finishing exclusive of sanding wood. I don't mind in between coat sanding, or level sanding before rub out.

Maybe I should get with Mike E. and have him build the stuff and I could apply the finish!

[Byron Trantham]

Emptying the DC
Moving tools around for another operation
Cutting 4x8 sheet goods
Watching the paint dry

[Jim Becker]

Jim B. if you read this, how about introducing me to the guy near Ringoes?

Fred and I will be at the Somerset show on Sunday. Otherwise, I'm sure we can work something out! He's a nice fellow.

As to my "least pleasurable" shop activity...waiting for it to warm up on a very cold day. Otherwise, I'll enjoy anything I do in there, even cleaning... But as my wife will surely tell you, I'm a strange fellow...

[Daniel Rabinovitz]

Pulling the table saw cart outside and then watching the black clouds come overhead and the rain begin to fall all over that nicely polished cast iron table.
Move everyting out of the way (in the garage) in order to get the table saw cart back into the garage.
Daniel

[Earl Reid]

Clean up
Finishing
Finding more space for stuff
Getting rid of tools i don't use
Clean up

Earl