Dimensioning wood is ruining woodworking for me
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- This topic has 19 replies, 15 voices, and was last updated 5 years, 7 months ago by Andrew Sinclair.
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30 August 2018 at 9:24 am #550763
Just a not to say I really appreciate the helpful and constructive replies here.
Good points about how often exact dimensions (thicknesses) are not required. And I’m looking to get a wooden Jackplane soon based on John’s comments.
I realise another ripsaw with coarser teeth may help … but I’ve got 6 handsaws already so it wouldnt be good for marital harmony 😉
30 August 2018 at 11:58 am #550765Your not alone Andrew!
All my projects to date have been from salvaged timber (picked from dumpsters mainly). Dimensioning ALWAYS takes the longest. I had also found it quite frustrating.
After thinking long about it I realised the frustration was mostly because I was setting myself arbitrary and unrealistic goals. I wanted to finish a table in a week but after 5 days I had not even started the layout. Expectations differing to reality.I do have a scrub plane and can vouch for that.
Also adjusting projects to the size of your stock helps. I find timber and then find the project.Take your time! Enjoy the fact you’ve really and absolutely made something from scratch.
I find a supreme satisfaction that Ive literally taken landfill and turned it into a useful potentially beautiful object without the aid of machines.Maybe one day you and I will have a bandsaw, jointer and thicknesser. Hell! Maybe even a bench bigger then 3’x1′ in the laundry… but not for now, thats ok.
Keep at it!18 September 2018 at 4:22 am #551686I’m with you. I spent waaayyy too much time dimensioning the wood for my bench. It was my first real project except for a couple of Japanese saw horses.
Speaking of those saw horses. I was using 4×4 fir. I was using a Japanese handsaw and it took my hours to rip those things. Like you, I was like why am I doing this? This is not fun at all. Then I bought a 4.5 ppi western saw and I could literally rip the same lumber in 10-15 minutes.
I’m glad I didn’t give up. First of all the bench build is a really big project. Both in time, complexity and the size of the material. It gets way easier than that. Plus now I know a little better what I’m doing and it just goes faster. Much faster.
Plus, I use a lumber yard and have them size the wood form me. It’s never exact, but starting with a planes surface makes things way easier.
Hang in there.
18 September 2018 at 4:25 am #551687Oh, one more thing. I lightened up a little on my expectations in regards to tolerances. When I built that bench, if I laid my square on the face of a board and saw a speck of light, I would just keep going. It was unnecessary (but a good learning experience). I turned a 2 x 12 into a toothpick trying flatten that sucker. Hahaha.
18 September 2018 at 10:53 pm #551779Thanks for those thoughtful replies Jac and Seth. You both talk about expectations: on reflection that’s absolutely been my issue.
I was actually very happy planing away my rough stock peacefully in the garage at the start. I think more recently frustrations arose from:
(1) watching too many videos of Paul where he works so fast and effortlessly (!).
(2) talking to people about my new woodworking interest and them asking what I’ve built.
(3) feeling that the end was in sight after assembling the leg mortises but still needing a lot of stock prep on aprons.It seems the antidote to all this is to enjoy the journey and to remember it’s a learning and growing process, not just about a finished workbench!
Another element that added to my time taken is the number of tools I’ve refurbished on the way (to name some: 3 planes, 4 tenon saws, 4 handsaws, 2 marking gauges, 6 inserts for alu sash clamps, 6 chisels).
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