Where have all the woodworkers gone?

[Jack Camillo]

Wow, I haven't been around in 2-3 years. I've been watching the site for a few days now, and either my memory is shot, or activity on this site has dropped incredibly. Have most of us died off? Economy? Looking forward to getting back into woodworking after wandering off to pursue other activities.

[Larry Frank]

Usually, I do other things in the summer but it is so hot, that my shop in the air conditioning is just fine.

[Victor Robinson]

I've been around for a few years and would agree that the forum doesn't move quite as quickly as it used to. Lots of competing forums that people divide their time amongst, perhaps.

[Jack Camillo]

That's true, it IS summer. Good point.

[Michael Peet]

I read the site every day, but post rarely. Also, I do very little woodworking in the summer because there's a lot to do outside

Mike

[Keith Outten]

Jack,

Welcome back!
I assure you things are still as busy as ever here, for instance check out the following stats on our file attachments for 2011:

File Attachment Archives Volume 3

Volume 3 covers all twelve months of 2011:
Boat Building 53 files
CNC Machines 403 files
Design Forum 206 files
Engravers Forum 1,870 files
General Woodworking 4,311 files
Metalworking Forum 108 files
Musical Instruments 328 files
Neanderthal Forum 3,325 files
Off-Topic Forum 351 files
Project Finishing 290 files
Sign Design Forum 42 files
Turners Forum 11,749 Files
Woodcarvers Forum 187 Files
Woodworking Projects Forum 2,447 files
Workshops Forum 1,275 files

Grand Total = 26,945 files
.

[Kathy Marshall]

Dang, 11k+ those turners are file posting fools! And I might just be one of the biggest!

[Kyle Iwamoto]

Yeah, those turners are pretty vocal. If that's the correct term for posting. We, er, they have almost half of the postings.....

[Keith Outten]

There is a bit of a slow down period during July and August each year but we are still averaging between ten to twenty million page views per month and 40 to 60 thousand visitors every day over the course of the year.

The Turners Forum is undoubtedly the most active here and the pictures of their projects are just incredible. I view every picture in every forum here once per year when I create the DVD's. The Turners Forum projects are something to see and it takes hours and hours just to thumb through the pictures. There is a huge number of very talented Turners here, woodworkers every one
.

[Don Selke]

I have been on this site for a very long time and miss some of the orriginal guys that used to post here. I often wonder what happened to them. Jim Becker for one is seldome on here but I think he has gotten a promotion at his place of employment. A lot of others have disappeared or have moved on. My favorate poster passed away and is greatly missed. Oh well, none of us are getting any younger I guess. I do a lot of reading here and post ocassionally. Living here in the desert southwest, I close down shop in the summer months due to the heat. It is very hard to cool my 3 car garage shop with temperatures above 110.

[William Burgess]

I can't get into woodworking in the garage when it is 100 degrees outside, plus gardening keeps me pretty busy. Winter time is my woodworking time.

[Van Huskey]

It took from 2003 to right at the end of 2008 to get 1,000,000 posts here, from the begininng of 2009- now we have another 867,000 posts.

One other thing to consider is as the number of posts grown there are more answers to questions that do not require a post.

[Jack Camillo]

Impressive statistics! Glad to be back and look forward to another woodworking season, admiring pictures and stories of members' works.

[Mike Cutler]

Everything goes in cycles, and a forum is no different.
I came over when Keith started this forum after the Badger Pond forums shut down. Sometimes I log on each day, sometimes maybe not for weeks at a time when I get busy.
I've got to imagine that folks get busy, or that their lives and interest take different directions. Sometimes people just need a little hiatus also.

As for the where are the woodworkers question;
There are plenty of them on the board with an immense amount of talent, and the generosity to share, and teach it to anyone willing to learn. Which was the premise from the start.

[Tom Walz]

Fishing, Little League, Vacations, Gardens, House painting, Kids and Grandkids, etc.

Demographically woodworkers are well educated, upper income with many and varied interests. (Probably also extremely good looking and beloved by kids and dogs.)

We see our tool sales change with the seasons.

Summer is largely sales to commercial customers.

In fall we will start selling more Woodpecker router lifts as people get ready for Christmas and get back into their shops.

In November and early December we get the really nice wives who want to make sure they get the perfect gift for their husbands. Our transaction costs go up because we spend more time on the phone with them but we really love doing it. (C'mon - Christmas, woodworking tools, a woman who loves her husband enough to take extra care with his gift. What’s not to love? Besides they are invariably nice ladies.) We make more money on big industrial orders but these are just plain fun.

January, February are industrial and ongoing hobbyist sales.

In spring sales pick up with construction and folks finishing projects before summer when they go fishing, etc.

This is definitely a broad overview. But, as an example, my son, grandsons and I are going to build two workbenches in his garage. One adult size and one kid size.

Tom